Saturday, September 30, 2017

"Provencial Poppies", 22x28, oil on wrapped canvas, poppies, Provence, flower symbology, Maryanne Jacobsen art, red, red flowers, original oil paintings, wall art

"Provencial Poppies", 22x28 on gallery-wrapped canvas-$900 with free shipping

This painting depicts a poppy field at sunset, right before these beauties close up and tuck themselves in for the night. Poppies symbolize restful sleep and recovery, and have played an important role in religion, mythology,  and even politics. 

If you would like to learn more about these deeply symbolic flowers, I found this enchanting website called Flower Meaning. Check it out!

You can purchase this painting for my website or only $900 (regularly $2400), and receive free shipping within the United States. Sign up for my quarterly Newsletter and receive 15% off any available painting. Just go here to sign up.

To purchase this painting, follow this link.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

"Everyday People", 11x14, oil on linen panel, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Degas, Impressionists, people in museums, Maryanne Jacobsen Art, ballet, Little Ballerina, Harley Davidson, Misty Copeland


"Everyday People", 11x14, oil on linen panel

This is my favorite room in The Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It's a favorite because of some of the beautiful Impressionist landscapes in that room by Renoir, Monet and others. But mostly it's my favorite room because of The Little Ballerina, Aged 14, by Eduard Degas. I often get annoyed with Degas's paintings of dancers because I feel that he mis-represents their bodies and feet. But with the little dancer, he totally epitomized the perfect form for a ballet dancer to have.

As a former ballet company director, I would become very excited when I would find young dancers  with forms like this. It meant that they would be able to dance professionally if they wanted to. So many girls work so hard to become wonderful dancers, only to find out that their body types are not appreciated in the professional world. Misty Copeland is an exception, and I admire her tremendously for her professional journey.

I snapped this photo one day and decided to paint it this week. I loved the juxtaposition of the old world paintings against the modern people admiring them. Harley Davidson sweatshirts, casual attire, cell phones- what would the Impressionists have thought?

Anyhow, if you are interested in this painting, just send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com
 Thanks for reading my blog.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

"Home Scream Home", 12x12, oil, surrealism, owls, The Scream, Eduard Munch, fantasy art, homeless, snowstorm, weird art, paintings with a message, hurricanes, drama

"Home Scream Home", 12x12, oil (framed as shown) Click on the painting for a better view.

Sometimes you just have to paint something ridiculous. I painted the above with the intentions of putting it into an upcoming show with a surreal theme. In the end, I totally forgot to enter it thanks to a hurricane!

My thoughts when painting it were probably focused on injustice in general, with good people losing their homes due to catastrophic problems- illness, rising healthcare costs, job loss, etc. And with our homeless population increasing at an alarming rate in this country, it's as though everything is somehow turned upside down. The things we used to take for granted as Americans, job security, affordable healthcare for all, and home ownership, are now a thing of the past which cannot be depended upon.

I used the iconic figure in Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream" to depict an outsider, locked out of his own home during a snowstorm, staring in horror at the fact that a family of wise old owls had taken over his residence.

While birds taking over our homes is certainly not a possibility in our current world, there are currently  plenty of catastrophic events occurring on a daily basis to make one wonder how secure our feeble securities truly are. Hurricanes have recently made many thousands of people homeless here in the United States and Caribbean  Islands. There have been earthquakes of the magnitude of 7 and 8 in recent days in Mexico, horrific monsoons in Bangladesh, and wildfires through the north eastern quadrant of the US as well as in Portugal.  In an unpredictable world, it's easy to throw one's hands up in the air like Chicken Little and scream that "The Sky is Falling Down!"

I recently went through my own scream moment. Holed up in a dark shuttered home during Hurricane Irma with winds howling outside and no way of knowing how it was all going to turn out, this claustrophobic individual that happens to be me just wanted to go to the door, open it up, and scream back in horror at Nature's rant. In the end, I realized it was all out of my control and I was at the mercy of a Higher Power. I had two choices- I could either surrender to terror or to trust. I chose the latter, and retreated into a small room to pray and read Scripture.

There is no doubt that storms will erupt throughout our lives, but storms can also have a silver lining as well. In looking for the silver lining, I realized that my faith has grown stronger as a result of this storm, which will hopefully build upon the next storms in my life.

Sorry  if this post offends anyone. I think I just needed to state in writing the things that were going through my head when I painted this silly painting.

If you have any interest in owning a weird painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com. Thanks for visiting my blog!



Monday, September 18, 2017

"Pinnacle Point", 16x28, oil on board, Maryanne Jacobsen art, cypress tree, Point Lobos State Preserve, Carmel art, windblown, palette knife art, award-winning paintings


"Pinnacle Point", 16x28, oil on board


This beautiful old cypress tree stands atop Pinnacle Point, at Pinnacle Cove, a hiking trail at Point Lobos State Preserve in Carmel, California. The tree is a testament to endurance-its wild wind-blown beauty gracing the top of the granite rocks that overlook a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. Painting it brought me back to the first time I hiked that path, my heart catching in my throat as I approached the top of the steps. Truly, Pinnacle Point is a place where I left my heart one day, and I hope that  this east coast girl will have the chance to return again some day.

This painting won Third Place at the Venice Art Center's "Branchin' Out" exhibit.

Please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, if you are interested in this painting.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

"Bougainvillea Riot", 11x14, oil on panel, Mission San Juan Capistrano, Palette knife painting, colorist art, Maryanne Jacobsen art, The Mission Walker, Edie Littlefield Sundby, Hurricane Irma, Historic California Mission Trail, impressionist art



"Bougainvillea Riot", 11x14, oil on panel

Well we weathered Hurricane Irma without losing much, except our energy and a little patience.

One thing that the storm made me realize, as we boarded up the house and made plans to evacuate was this- I have too many paintings in my house!

I figured that they wouldn't last if they were on the walls and a 150 mph wind gust tore off our roof. They also wouldn't have faired well during a storm surge, especially since we are so close to the Gulf of Mexico. So I had a really hard time trying to figure out what to do with the many paintings that I have in my home. In the end, I vowed to offer some of my older works for sale through my blog after the storm passed.

This is a painting that I did quite a few years ago, in the days when I only used a palette knife. Many collectors prefer my older work to some of my newer stuff, so here's a chance to own one of my older works  that may have missed the cut in terms of shows or galleries.

This is a painting of the courtyard at the incredibly beautiful Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. I have done paintings of this mission many, many times, and the truth is that I never offered this particular painting to the public before because I think I forgot that I had it! Anyway, the storm helped me find it again, lol.

I have been reading "The Mission Walker", by Edie Littlefield Sundby. It is an amazing testament of faith and endurance that this woman, given only three months to live due to gallbladder cancer, refused to accept her diagnosis and went on to not only recover, but to walk the entire 800 mile Historic California Mission Trail! I have always loved the California Missions and have visited half a dozen of them while in California, but this book and this brave woman's story have re-affirmed my own confidence in the peace and serenity that these beautiful places imbibe into the spirits of those who partake of their beauty.

So I am now determined to paint a few more paintings of the missions, and hopefully do justice to their beauty along the way.

Thanks for your prayers during Hurricane Irma. It was a wild ride, but we are stronger in faith and happier to be alive now!

If you are interested in this painting, just send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

Monday, September 04, 2017

"Weeping Willow Farm", oil, 22x30 on wrapped canvas, farms, colorist art, impressionism, Maryanne Jacobsen art, weeping willow, Pennsylvania landscapes

"Weeping Willow Farm", oil, 22x30 on wrapped canvas

I painted this a few years back, on a day that I was feeling nostalgic about my old home back in Chester Springs, Pa. The area is beautiful, dotted with rolling hills, horse farms and little springhouses atop babbling brooks. This farm was not far from my own homestead and I often went past it on my daily walks.

I depicted it in late summer, with a field of nasturtium in the foreground, and the willow tree just beginning to shed some leaves in preparation for the colder months.

If you are interested in this painting, please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, and thanks for visiting my blog!