"Along St. Matthews Rd.", 11x14, paintings of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, old barns, country roads, Maryanne JAcobsen art, fall in Chester county, Chester County art, Pennsylvania landscapes

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"Along St. Matthews Rd.", 11x14

Just realized that there are still paintings from my painting trip up north in October of last year that I haven't posted yet.

This one is one of them. St. Matthews Rd. is near and dear to my heart as my kids used to sled on the hills along there when we lived just off the road, the annual Thanksgiving Charleston Hunt of the hounds would go through there in the fall, and the good Doctor Rosato (who lived on the road) and his lovely wife would ride through there on their gorgeous antique sleighs during holidays, ringing sleigh bells and delighting all the kids along the way.

It's a very scenic and winding  country road and this red roofed barn is a favorite structure of mine.

Haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with family stuff, but will try to catch up a little over the next couple weeks.

Stay tuned!

"Along Flowing Springs Road",14x11, oil, plein air, paintings of country scenes, Chester Springs art, Pennsylvania art, Chester County art, MAryanne Jacobsen original paintings

"Along Flowing Springs Road",14x11, oil

I just returned from a painting trip to Pennsylvania where I had the opportunity to paint a plethora of lovely autumn landscapes. We stayed in a lovely cottage in the little town of Chester Springs, where I lived and raised my family before moving to Florida.

I did a lot of plein air painting while I was there, as the weather cooperated and the autumn scenery was magnificent.

One of the scenes I decided to paint was looking right up the road from our little cottage at a barn at the top of the winding road.

I thought  that standing in the driveway was a perfect vantage point to capture the nice curve of the road, while being sheltered from any possible country road traffic. Little did I realize that I was standing under a hickory tree that had weapons of its own to throw at this hapless plein air painter!

If you've never seen the nuts of a hickory tree, I can tell you that they are mammoth! Before even getting started on the painting, I took a tumble on the gravel as my foot turned over from one of these nuts that were the size of baseballs. Not to be deterred, I set up under the tree anyway. But that was not the end of the tree's revenge on me.  It kept spewing nuts on my head as I tried to paint the scene!

After a couple welts, I decided I was not going to be target practice for the tree anymore. So I gave up, packed up all my gear and headed back into the cottage.

Happily, I could still see the scene  from the kitchen window, and so I finished the painting indoors.

If anyone had told me that hickory trees could be a hazard to a plein air painter, I would have laughed!

Not any more. I do think plein air painting could be listed as one of the top ten  most hazardous activites that people can do!

Thanks for reading and please feel free to contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com of you would like purchase info on this painting.

"Red Maple at Vixen Hill Farm", 9x12, oil on board, impressionism, red maple tree, colorist art, Pennsylvania art, Chester County art, Chester Springs

"Red Maple at Vixen Hill Farm", 9x12, oil on board

I have been loving the weather in Pennsylvania this week and using it as an opportunity to get back into painting outdoors, (en plein air).

Painting everyday on location gives an artist the opportunity to really hone their skill sets. The light changes constantly and one must be on their toes in order to turn out a decent plain air painting.

In this painting, I was attracted to the long dark shadows on the ground and the beautiful light on the red maple in the early morning hours.

I did a quick thumbnail sketch to zone in on the darks and lights in the scene, before attempting to transfer my concept to canvas. 

The lights atop the maple were a beautiful reddish orange color in the morning light and served as  the focal point for the composition. Here's the photo that I took before beginning the painting...

In the end, the only problem were the gnats that started attacking the painting as I finished it up after about an hour and a half. I plucked them out gingerly. Here's the finished painting:

I painted this one with a palette knife exclusively. I hope you enjoyed  seeing my concept from start to finish.

To see more of my paintings, please visit my website at Maryanne Jacobsen Fine Art.

"Bell Tower, Westtown School", 8x10, plein air, fall paintings, Westtown School, brick buildings bell tower, Chester County art

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"Bell Tower, Westtown School", 8x10, plein air

This was painted on the grounds of the Westtown School in Westtown, Pa., near West Chester during Plein Air Brandywine Valley.

Ironically, this was painted on the very same day that I nearly froze while painting the early morning moon over the meadow at Christ Church in Wilmington. In the afternoon, the temperatures rose quite a bit and there was glorious sunshine- so much so that I had to keep stripping off the layers of clothing I had on!

Westtown has a gorgeous campus and is very familiar to me, since my three sons all went to middle school there, and my eldest graduated high school as well. Westtown is based on Quaker traditions, and it provides a very fine, well-rounded education for children from Pre-K through high school. My son boarded for the last two years and overall it was a fine preparation for college. It was fun to return there and paint on the campus. The painting I did was of the wood working building next to the old smoke stack. I chose that building because I love the little bell tower atop the roof. The school also has a lake where many of my artist friends painted on the day of the paint-out. I wish I had had more than just one afternoon there. It was great to see all the old brick buildings again amidst the gorgeous Chester County foliage!

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

"The Dream House", 20x16, oil on linen

"The Dream House", 20x16, oil on linen

Many people entertain hopes of someday living in their dreamhouse, but I suspect that few people actually get to live their dreams. I feel fortunate that I actually did buy my dream house, and got to live in it for 13 years!

I sold real estate on the Pennsylvania Main Line a while back. No matter how many huge, fancy and impressive homes I saw during that time, I never wanted any other house but my beautiful farmhouse on Houndstooth Lane in Chester Springs.



The house was fabulous. It was a reproduction of an old farmhouse with three fireplaces (one, a walk-in), stone and log facade, cedar roof and magnificent wood floors and old world mouldings throughout. The best part were the views from every window, which were absolutely breathtaking no matter what season. There was a huge pond and horse farm behind us, and I often went out on the balcony of our second floor bedroom and just gazed out over the rolling hills of Chester Springs for what sometimes turned into hours. Sometimes I went down to the pond and wrote poetry. Usually I just fed the fish in our koi pond and read a book or had a glass of wine. It was a great house, but Chester Springs was a gem as well. Here is an aerial view of the house:



Located in historic Chester County, Chester Springs is best noted for historic Yellow Springs, which was the village just down the road from my house. Wealthy Philadelphians would ride their horse and carriages to Yellow Springs in the summer in the late 1800's, to bathe in the rich mineral waters of the springs in the village. The area is rich in mineral waters, including many ponds as well as Pine and Pickering Creeks, which flow through Chester Springs. Washington's army was housed in a home in the village there that acted as a hospital during the Revolutionary War and is now a restaurant. (Or at least it was when I lived there!) There is also an art school there and the road is aptly named Art School Road!

The surrounding area was magnificent, with many old gentlemen's farms perched on dozens of glorious acres with flowing springs, golden ponds and rolling hills untouched by development. Here is a photo from Red Hamer's book, "The Four Seasons of Chester County". The photo depicts the estate known as Pine Creek Mills, which dates back to 1750 and includes many buildings and a grist mill. It was also once the home of noted illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post, Joseph M. Clement. Pine Creek Mills is right down the road from where I lived in Horseshoe Farm off of the historic Horseshoe Trail, and the scene below is just one of many inviting scenes that I would love to paint en plein air someday. I added the view of Pine Creek and the stone foot bridge to my dream house painting because it depicts the area so well!



Although I miss Houndstooth, I am still glad that we moved to Florida 7 years ago, because it finally gave me an opportunity to do something I had always wanted to do, which was to paint!

Hopefully if I go back, the house and neighborhood have not changed too much, and I am happy that I still have the memories of that lovely place, and was able to actually live in my dream house for many years!