"May Grey, Pacific Grove", 12x9, oil on panel, California coastal landscape by Maryanne Jacobsen

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"May Grey, Pacific Grove", 12x9, oil on panel

I tend to avoid painting scenes that do not have strong light patterns in them because they are a little depressing for someone like me that has seasonal affective disorder. On overcast days, the light key is very different from sunny days, with much less contrast and a narrow value range. It also has a tendency to be a light key in which the shadows are warm and the light source is cool.

The photo below depicts a fairly typical May morning  in Pacific Grove, California, in which there is a thick foggy mist in the early morning hours, with gradual clearing throughout the morning- usually turning to bright and beautiful clear sunny skies by mid-day.

Many areas of California and particularly the mid-coast region has what is called a micro-climate, which often features a weather phenomenon known as "June Gloom or May Grey", presenting overcast or foggy skies in the morning at the coast, but sunny skies by noon during the late spring and early summer months. I took this photo around 11:30ish in early May, just as the skies were clearing and the sun was trying to break through.

Although I tend to not enjoy painting a scene like this, I forced myself to do it, because I need the practice! Living in Florida presents fewer opportunities to paint this type of light temperature and so I felt it would be a good study for me.

We also do not have rocks and cliffs and cypress tress and iceplants like this in Florida, so overall, this painting was a challenge for me. I think for my next painting, I'll settle back into my comfort zone!

If you are interested in purchasing this study, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! To see more of my work, please visit my website at Maryanne Jacobsen, Fine Art.

"Dancing Queens and a Pear", 12x12, oil on board, roses, pink roses, dancing queen roses, pear, glass bottles, impressionism

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"Dancing Queens and a Pear", 12x12, oil on board
Note: This painting was juried into the American Impressionist Society's 2013 annual show!

I wanted to take advantage of those three lovely roses that I painted earlier in the week to create one more painting before they were gone. I arranged them with a pear and glass bottles that worked with the color scheme I had in my mind, which was an analogous theme using mostly cools of red, blue and green.

I used a palette knife in the pear and roses and a brush in other areas and so the painting has areas of thick impasto as well as thinner paint.

You can click the image in order to see the impasto better.

"Pas de Trois", 8x8 , oil on board, rose study, pink roses, three roses, roses in glass vase

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"Pas de Trois", 8x8 , oil on board

Set up a few roses in my kitchen and this was the result. See my set-up below.

For those not familiar with the French term, pas de trois usually refers to a dance in ballet between three people. (or roses, lol!)  Typically a Pas de trois in ballet consists of 6 parts.

Yes, this painting did indeed consist of 6 separate parts!

1. Paint in your north lit studio for an hour
2. Realize you can't see a danged thing in your north lit studio including your painting
3. Wipe the whole danged thing out
4. Start over in the kitchen where you are happy to discover that you're not actually blind
5. Find your mojo after another hour of frustration and continue painting for another hour
6. Sign the finished painting and sigh!

Lots of thick paint in this one!