Monhegan Morning, 11x14, oil on linen, Monhegan Island, summer garden, landscape, Summer garden, Maine, Maine garden, Carinas garden, cats, morning walk, island beauty

 Monhegan Morning, 11x14, oil on linen

This is a familiar scene to anyone who has ever visited Monhegan Island, a tiny picturesque island off the coast of Maine.

There are 2 ferries from the coast that can take you there, and this magical island is always worth the trip if you are on holiday in Maine. 

The island is tiny but is a painters/hikers/ boaters paradise with its unique landscape, and magnificent sunsets.

This scene is at the lush, ever blooming garden at Carina's, which was once a little convenience store but has closed in recent years. The garden changes with the seasons, as do the cats that will accompany you on your morning walk!

Send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if you are interested in this painting.

"Friends Forever", 12x16, oil on gessoboard

"Friends Forever", 12x16, oil on gessoboard 

We visited my son and his family in California recently. and my daughter-in-law instead on taking me to a lovely place called Summer's Past Farm in San Diego County. I am a sucker for any kind of garden, but this one was especially unique and beautiful. They are open only certain days of the week, so if you are planning on visiting , be sure to check out their hours.

My 7 year old grand-daughter became enamored with the cats that hang out there, and I caught a photo of her petting one of the tabby cats. The scene was backlit and her blue dress made a lovely contrast against the bush of orange nasturtiums outside the doorway of the gift shop.

This painting is meant to be nostalgic, sweet, and a lovely memory of all things young, loving and innocent. I enjoyed painting it.

"Sunsets with Jill", 9x12, cats, paintings of cats, sunsets, Cedar Key

SOLD

"Sunsets with Jill", 9x12

And so Jill's legacy to the art world lives on.

What am I talking about, you ask?

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you may recall that I took a lovely trip last spring to Cedar Key, Florida for a weekend getaway with my hubby. There were absolutely no accommodations to be found in town, but as luck would have it, a chance walk into a realtor's office provided the much needed getaway accommodation  we'd been hoping for.

When we saw the home, we knew we had hit paydirt! It was absolutely lovely, beautifully decorated, and came with its own dock and golf cart! Yup, life is good sometimes.

So we began the weekend with a trip to a local seafood restaurant for some take-out, which we brought back to our "getaway" so that we could enjoy the sunset from our prime location, as we ate our meal on the deck.

But seconds after sitting down to my salmon plate, a very strange looking cat meandered up to me and plopped herself down right onto my lap! When I say strange, I am not exaggerating. This was probably the homeliest cat I had ever seen, and I'm a cat lover.

The long and the short of it was that the cat wanted my salmon dinner much more than my affection and the two of us began a cat and mouse game over who would end up with the salmon. I finally gave into her demands forking over piece after piece of savory salmon pate. From that point on, I was sunk. She never let me alone for the rest of the weekend, and at one point I had to cast her over the side of the dock to get her out of my paints! I had set up on that dock the entire weekend, and probably turned out about half a dozen paintings from that one location- sunrises, sunsets and everything in between.

So the last night we were there, I painted Jill doing her sunset walk, and the painting sold almost as soon as I posted it here on my blog.

Seems other people love homely cats, too!

This painting is also sold and was commissioned by the owner of the lovely home where we stayed. Interestingly, Jill the cat does not live there. She only visits when people eat salmon on the deck.

To read more about Jill and see photos of her in real life, go to my earlier post which is here.

"The Owl and the Pussycat #2", 6x6 oil , nursery rhymes, bedtime stories, cats, owls, fantasy art, Maryanne JAcobsen art

SOLD

"The Owl and the Pussycat #2", 6x6 oil

A few years ago I painted The Owl and the Pussycat, a scene after the whimsical Edward Lear poem by the same name.

I was always a little sorry that I sold that first painting, and vowed to try it again one day.

The opportunity came up recently, when I was asked to do the painting again as a commission piece.

It's always hard to replicate a painting that you've done before, because you can never get your head back into that very same place! So instead, I tried to make this one different- and better- concentrating on the tenderness between the elegant fowl and his furry lover. I was happy with the way it came out.

If you are not familiar with the poem, shame on you! And here goes....

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat: They took some honey, and plenty of money Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!"	Contemporary Illustrator: Donna L. Derstine

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, How charmingly sweet you sing! Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the bong-tree grows; And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood, With a ring at the end of his nose, His nose, His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand on the edge of the sand
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

"Catwalk", 8x10, oil on board, Vincent Van Gogh, Sunsets, cats, nasty cats, Cedar Key, plein air

SOLD

"Catwalk", 8x10, oil on board

What do you do when a cat struts into your plein air sunset painting?

You paint him, of course!  (Or her.)

In this case it was a "her" and what a character she turned out to be.

We rented a home on Cedar Key for a few days recently, just to get away from it all. Cedar Key is an Old Florida- type town that hasn't changed a whole lot in a hundred years.

There are gorgeous sunsets and sunrises each day, mud flats and oyster beds galore, and plenty of decent fresh seafood to boast of on Cedar Key. On one particular gorgeous Florida evening, we brought home a take-out of fresh oysters, clams and blue crabs from a local restaurant. That's when we met "Jill", the ugly and nasty cat that lived next door to our rental.

Sadly, I confess that I am to blame for the fact that we could not get rid of her after that night, because I was the one that could not resist that miserable face and so I fed her some seafood.

Jill then attached herself to me like a parasite, and after that, I literally could not paint or enjoy the sunset on the deck without Jill by my side. One particular night I decided to paint the sunset. The gnats were really annoying, and so I determined to do a quick little piece that would give me notes for a larger work in the studio.

My efforts, however, were interrupted continuously by Jill, who definitely wanted a piece of the action.

Jill made her way up the deck as though she owned it, like a model on a catwalk, showing off the latest Ralph Lauren masterpiece. Without warning, Jill suddenly dove onto my wet palette, and  with an equal lack of warning I unceremoniously dumped Jill off the deck and onto the mudflats directly below.  Lucky for her it was  low tide.

Jill was not to be deterred, however. She cleaned herself off, and made her way back to me, not to be put off by a little oil paint, mud, and rude human treatment. Eventually after being ignored, she settled down and made herself comfortable in a chair by my side, but not before I finally gave in and stuck her into my sunset painting.

The painting is rather Van-Gogh-esque, probably because the contretemps between myself and Jill was enough to make me want to cut off her tail and my own ear. The latter of which was a direct result of the meowing that occurred each night when I shut her out of our vacation rental without nary another piece of crabmeat to speak of.

I hope if you ever visit Cedar Key, you will enjoy its beauty, minus the benefit of a diabolical cat named Jill.

"Looking for Catnip", 6x6, oil on panel, paintings of kittens, little cats, animal portraits

SOLD

"Looking for Catnip", 6x6, oil on panel

I painted this little kitty in between making homemade bread and broccoli cheddar soup from scratch.  I dropped the painting face down on the floor when I went to photograph it, but happily it didn't seem to have done much damage!

"Aragorn", 9x12, oil on board, cats, pretty cats, flowers and cats, tulips, yellow tulips

SOLD

"Aragorn", 9x12, oil on board (Note: Feel free to click on the image in order to see the painting better!)

This beautiful cat belongs to my friends Jens and Marianne Christensen, who live in Germany.

Jens is a talented musician and you can hear two of his beautiful classical pieces here, while also perusing some of my original art!

I must confess that although I have painted cats numerous times before (see here and here and here), this lovely kitty almost drove me crazy. Indeed I wiped this painting out three different times and started over, though I probably should not admit that!

Today I tried once more and this is the final result.

Indeed, I think it would have been easier to paint Lucrezia Borgia herself than Miss Aragorn!

This painting will be going to Germany when its dry but feel free to send me your kitty photos if you would like me to do a portrait of your precious pussycat.