"Empty Chairs and Empty Tables", 9x12, oil, paintings of interiors, candlelight, Buckley's Tavern, Maryanne Jacobsen art, Bombay cat, Les Miserables, loneliness , isolation, grief, black cats

"Empty Chairs and Empty Tables, 9x12, oil on linen

A few years ago I had a lovely birthday dinner at Buckley's Tavern, in Centerville Delaware. I was up north for the annual Brandywine Plein Air festival, which always happens to fall on my birthday week.

By the time our meal had ended, it was late and the guests were pretty much all leaving for the night. I loved the warm firelight  that exuded warmth and old world charm into the formal dining room, so I snapped a couple of photographs for future artistic reference.

Last week I was feeling rather morose- our lovely  Bombay rescue kitty Sebastian was diagnosed with liver and kidney disease and the prognosis was bleak. I found myself crying inconsolably and feeling isolated  and alone with my sadness since my husband is unable to ever feel quite as deeply as I do. It's not his fault. I am an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person), and thus everything I feel is magnified tremendously compared to the emotions of a non-HSP. So my husband has never been able to identify with the sometimes unbearable levels of sensitivity that I feel in almost all situations.

It's tough being an HSP, but as the years have gone by I have managed to understand myself better and know that I am this way along with many many other sensitive individuals who are overcome by feelings that affect most people to a much lesser extent.

Anyhow, I decided to translate my feelings to paint and added the lonely figure in the back of the restaurant to the painting. Maybe I was trying to transfer my feelings of sadness and loneliness to the canvas in order to alleviate my own pain. I don't know. As I painted I played the soundtrack from Les Miserables, since the sad song, "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables", seemed to fit the theme.

I'll be returning to the Brandywine valley again this October and will probably celebrate another birthday dinner at Buckley's. I hope by then that these feelings will have subsided as a result of knowing that Sebastian is either well again, or that he is in a much better place- a place where spirits can soar free of the burdens of these earthly bodies of ours.

I hope this post is not depressing. I don't want it to be. I celebrate the wonderful life that we have given Sebastian and the joy that he has given us, and I know that as in all sad times- it too will pass.

"Winter Warmth", 12x12, oil on Ampersand panel, winter still life, snow, wine, candlelight, red pear

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"Winter Warmth", 12x12, oil on Ampersand panel

I was attempting to create a feeling of homey warmth on a cold night in this painting and I hope I achieved it. I thought it might be helpful to those who sometimes write and ask me questions about how I go about a painting to document my process. I never start a painting exactly the same way twice, and my process changes depending on my thoughts and goals at the time. But I often do use transparent washes in the initial stage, so I thought this would be a good painting to use as an example.

1. I typically set up my still life with whatever I can find nearby and try to make it a pleasing combination of elements, but in this case I had some specific things in mind, like the wine and the candle. In not having the window that would form the background, I knew I'd need to improvise, so I constructed the night scene with substitutes using my shadow box, some two by fours and a blue bathmat. My biggest fear was that the mat would catch fire so I only lit the candle for short periods of time.

2.The sketch- next I did a quick sketch in a notebook to get comfortable with the drawing, adding some notes that were relevant.

3. Next I stained the support with magenta and then sketched in the composition loosely, using a green pastel pencil. I like to use pastel pencils rather than charcoal, because I find that charcoal can dirty the color when I lay in the paint on top.

4. The initial color block-in: Next I blocked in the elements thinly, using only transparent colors and no opaques. I was not worried at this stage about either color or value, but instead was just trying to cover the entire support with a nice soupy mixture of transparent colors.

5. The next step is to go over the transparent washes with opaque paint,  and correct the values and colors of each object.

6. In the last step, I go back and try to harmonize color, refine shapes and correct anything that looks out of wack. Finally I attempt to create the atmosphere that I'm trying to achieve, softening edges  and checking highlights.

Overall, I wasn't displeased with this one. I think I was able to capture the feeling of being in a warm home on a cold night. Thanks for checking in!