Windswept,12x16, oil, Experimenting with paint, Rockport Massachusetts homes, Old Garden Path, beautiful homes of Cape Ann, perennial gardens, paintings on copper, Maryanne Jacobsen art , Impressionisnm

Windswept, 12x16, oil on copper

This is a favorite house to see in summertime, whenever I am visiting Rockport, Massachusetts. The gardens are lush with perennials- Black-eyed Susans, purple coneflowers and Russian sage. The flowers grow tall and proud on this little hillside, where the house, appropriately named "Windswept" proudly looks out across the lawn to the sea beyond.

This is my second time painting this house. I painted it over a year ago with a restricted palette of about 4 colors (I don't remember which ones) and here was the result:

"Summer Garden, Rockport, 11x14, oil on linen

And here is the house itself on the Old Garden Path in Rockport in June, with peonies and irises blooming:

There are things that I like about both of the paintings, so if I were to choose one that I like better, it would be hard. I like the loose, impressionist feel of Windswept , and the harmony that was created by using a limited palette. In "Summer Garden, Rockport", I like that there are little places where the copper peeks through, (hard to see in a photograph) especially in the stone walkway, giving it the burnished orange tone that you can see in some of the walls and rocks in the typical Rockport garden. As a matter of fact, you can see little bits of that orange in the image of the rock wall in the photo above!

So perhaps I should do a third painting of this house, using copper , but limiting my palette and trying to keep it looser and more impressionistic. In other words, kill the detail.

What do you think? Which do you prefer? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If you are interested in purchasing either of these paintings, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.