"Hazy Beach Day", 6x6, oil on board, Maryanne Jacobsen, beach paintings, hazy day, little girls at the beach, red bucket, sand, waves, surf, impressionism

"Hazy Beach Day", 6x6, oil on board

I've been studying the paintings of the 19th century impressionists and the beautiful way in which they handled water and clouds. Water, like clouds, is something that is hard to paint from life, for the simple reason that both clouds and water are moving constantly.

The best we can do as artists is to try to paint the movement of water with some degree of passion and emotion, otherwise, the water has no movement and appears lifeless. The best we can do when painting clouds, is to try to portray their ethereal qualities with a light hand, as clouds have no borders. As Don Quixote said in Man of La Mancha, (though he wasn't speaking of clouds, but of the hem of Dulcinea's garment),  they are like gossamer, sheer, gauze-like, yet having substance that changes constantly through varying times of day and light temperatures.

In this painting, my goal was to create that warm hazy light that we sometimes get on summer days, when the sun is trying to break through, but isn't quite there yet.

I hope you enjoy this painting, because I enjoyed painting it!

Dog Day Afternoon, paintings of dogs, beach umbrellas, the Gulf of Mexico

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"Dog Day Afternoon", oil on linen

This is another painting that sold through the wonderful folks at Collectors Gallery and Framery in downtown Venice. I painted it about a year ago and right before the horrendous oil disaster struck on the Gulf of Mexico. I have been reading over the weekend that there are rumors that the so-called capped Deepwater Horizon well is leaking again. I certainly hope it is not true. There are way too many disasters hitting the planet these days, and I can only hope and pray that the Japanese disaster will be the last for awhile!

Speaking of which, if you have not checked out all the fabulous paintings at The Daily Paintworks' Challenge for Japan, please do so! Last I looked, about 150 paintings were being auctioned off for the benefit of the Japanese tsunami victims, including my own enty , "Bodacious Gossips". It's a wonderful opportunity to purchase an original work of art, while also supporting a very worthwhile cause! You can read more about my own entry here.

I have not been painting much lately. I lost my beautiful mother to brain cancer on the day of the Japanese earthquake. I believe that she is definitely now at peace and in a better place. I hope to resume my daily painting soon. Thanks for reading.

Sea Oats at Siesta Key-Plein air, beach view, sea oats, sand dunes, Florida beaches, top 10 vacation destinations, sea grapes, white sand beaches

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"Sea Oats at Siesta Key-Plein Air", 12x9, oil on Raymar panel (Note: You can click on the image to see the detail better!)

This morning was a perfect day to paint outdoors in Florida! The temperature was perfect and there was a slight breeze rippling through the sea oats just enough to create a delightfully subtle movement throughout the scene. I limited myself to only an hour and a half of plein air painting so that the light would stay somewhat stable. I finished all but the foreground sea oats there at the beach, and I added the oats with a couple quick strokes of the palette knife when I got home. I am very happy with this painting as it is a breakthrough for me-combining my attempts to become more accomplished with a brush with my palette knife skills in order to have the excitement of palette knife texture combined with the beauty of blended brushstrokes. I also incorporated my knowledge of color with a limited palette in order to create a painting that is more in keeping with nature's true colors without going tonalist.

Although there were a few people on the beach this morning, I decided to keep the scene simplistic and omitted the people from the scene. It always amazes me when I get home and look at my photographs of the scene that I have painted. They never look anything like what I had seen while painting! For this reason, I cannot emphasize enough (to novice painters) the importance of painting from life!

Here is the scene that I painted today, and a quick shot of me with what my Jewish friend Sally refers to as Hadassah arms flailing around the canvas.



Just one week ago, I painted outdoors on Venice's beach at Sharky's Restaurant on the pier. The weather was dreadfully cold and windy that day after Hurricane Ida had passed through the area. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two paintings side by side to see what a difference there is in light temperature only a week apart! (see below).

Venice Beach and Siesta Key are less than 30 minutes apart, by the way. Siesta Key to the north has been consistently rated in the top ten of American vacation destinations in recent years. While Venice beach is a bit more relaxed and attracts less tourists, it does not have the white sand of Siesta Key. What it does have is fantastic fishing and sharks teeth! More about that later;0)

Check out the difference in light temperature below!

Thanks for visiting my art blog.



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