"An Evening in Zurich", 12x12, oil on panel, Cityscape, nocturne, Switzerland, Zurich, Maryanne Jacobsen art , Münsterbrücke, Zunfthaus Zur Meisen, vacations in Zurich, Fraumünster Church, lamplight

SOLD

"An Evening in Zurich", 12x12, oil on panel

I painted this scene to reflect the warm glow cast over the Swiss city at dusk as the sun is setting. A streetlight casts additional warmth onto the bridge in this fall scene, reflecting Old Town Zurich's quietness after the summer tourists are gone.


A couple walks hand in hand on the old Münsterbrücke, grateful that for now, at least, the bustle of traffic is gone and only pedestrians share the bridge with them.

Warm lights from the windows of the elegant old Zunfthaus Zur Meisen cast warm reflective light onto the Limmat River, and it is fabled that ghosts of ancient guildsmen, artisans and vintners still traverse the hallways of the museum where their collections are kept.

Across the street stands The Fraumünster Church, another historical relic in Old Zurich's history. It is built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women . The monastery buildings were destroyed in 1898, and the church building today serves as the parish church for one of the city's 34 reformed parishes. A landmark in Old Town, the Church's clocktowers reflect the time on every side of the spire.

I painted this in muted tones to reflect the atmosphere of a nocturne in Old Town Zurich. If you have ever traveled to that beautiful city, perhaps this painting will evoke some special memories for you. I certainly hope so!

Thanks for visiting. Please visit my new website and sign up for my newsletter to receive news, special discounts and other offers.

"Relish & More", 12x16, plein air, nocturne, Lighthouse Plein Air Festival, restaurants, Cafe Centro, Ray Chang, Relish & More, Old Northwood Historic District, Palm Beach, piano bar, MAryanne JAcobsen art

"Relish & More", 12x16, plein air nocturne

This painting was the most fun to do during the Lighthouse Plein Air Festival a couple weeks ago. I am behind in posting my paintings from the event, because I came home sick, but this one I really wanted to post because of all the fun involved in the creation. The restaurant is located in Old Northwood Village, near Palm Beach. Old Northwood Historic area is a lovely neighborhood of classic Mediterranean and Mission style architecture made popular by distinguished architects in the 1920's.

The restaurants and shops in this neighborhood are both artsy and eclectic, and I chose to paint here twice, because I was so enamored with the colorful buildings and fabulous architecture. On the second night of the plein air festival, I came here in the evening to paint a nocturne, and chose this spot because it was well lit and I loved all the lights twinkling at Relish & More.

My hubby and I had had a delicious Italian meal that night at Cafe Centro, which is directly across the street from Relish and More, so I felt comfortable setting up there on the corner where Cafe Centro is located.

As it turns out, it was a Thursday night, and Ray Chang's piano bar was on hand to provide me wonderful entertainment as I painted! The music varied in style, but there was not one single song he did that I didn't thoroughly enjoy! As it was, I found myself bobbing up and down to the music as I painted, totally immersed in the joy of the moment and dancing with my paintbrush. (Hey, the blog isn't called PaintDance for nothing!) By the end of the evening, a congo line had formed and people much dancing in the streets to some contemporary stuff with a killer beat. Such fun!

I have only done a handful of nocturnes in my life and am rather inexperienced at the skill required to paint in the dark, but this will go down in memory as of of the most enjoyable paintings that I ever did, thanks to Ray Chang! I so wish we lived closer so I could go back every Thursday night!

Here is a photo of my set-up on the corner:

The thing that makes nocturnes so difficult, is that the light is so distorted that it's hard to judge values on your palette, or even see your canvas very well, what with the glare from the headlamp that you need to use in order to paint. It wasn't my best painting of the week, but it certainly was memorable.

Thanks so much Ray Chang and Cafe Centro for the great meal and music. To get a little taste of what it was like to hear Ray sing, here's a link to a couple videos from the CAfe Centro website or Ray entertaining the crowd. Enjoy!

"Little Church in Moonlight", 6x6, oil on panel, church , moonlight, full moon, nocturne, St. MAtthews Church, Chester Springs, Roots CAfe

"Little Church in Moonlight", 6x6, oil on panel

The first night that we arrived in Pennsylvania we decided to have dinner in a fabulous little organic/sustainable restaurant in downtown West Chester called "Roots Cafe" You can check out their website here. They pride themselves on good locally grown and homemade food and the ambiance in the restaurant is intimate and charming. There is also local art on the walls! Yay!

We had a great dinner and on the way back to our cottage in Chester Springs, I noticed a full moon in the sky and decided it might be a good night, albeit chilly , to paint a nocturne. As we came up the hill on Route 401 (Horseshoe Trail) I asked my husband to pull into the parking lot of the little St. Matthews Church, (which sits on a hill and is incredibly pretty to look at) and so he did.

The night was really chilly for this Floridian, (about 37degrees) and so I decided that I didn't feel like painting a nocturne afterall. But the full moon was bright and straight above the little church so we both grabbed our cameras and decided to take photos of the scene.

We were gone from the car for all of ten minutes but we did leave the car doors open. When we got back into the car it wouldn't start! I couldn't believe it. The Plein Air Brandywine Valley event was due to start the next day and I didn't have transportation! It is a dark, middle-of-nowhere kind of location by most people's accounts, but happily we used to live just down the road so I wasn't too worried by the rural setting. My husband , always the level-headed one, called AAA and they were out in about an hour to jump the car's battery. I thanked God that it was just the battery and we knew we would have to replace it first thing the next day.

Not the best way to start a paint-out, but at least I got this little 6x6 inch painting out of the adventure!

"Almost Winter, Montmartre", 16x20, oil on board, Paris street scenes, Place du Tetre, Sacre Couer, nocturne, moon, Artists Quarters

"Almost Winter, Montmartre", 16x20, oil on board, (Copyright, 2015)

This scene has been painted thousands of times by artists all over the world. It's easy to see why. This is the Artists' Quarter in Paris, though Montmartre is truly a village unto itself at the north end of Paris. You can see Sacre Coeur lit up in the background, and if you don't know your history, you may not know that many of the residents of Montmartre were not happy when it was built in the early 1900's. It's not hard to figure out why, of course. Down the street a few blocks is the Moulin Rouge, a dance caberet hall where the "notorious" Can-Can was born. (I personally love the Can-Can myself and have been known to perform it on street corners at inopportune times.) Certainly the devil was NOT in the details when the church's founders were drawing up the plans!

At any rate, the scene above is the famous Place du Tetre where numerous artists, writers and poets would come to paint and frequent the coffee houses. It's still a haunt for the bohemian crowd, though it's become a horrendous tourist trap as well. In this painting, I really wanted to try to picture Montmartre in a gentler time, before dozens of tourists crowded it's narrow streets year round.

I wanted it to be a contemporary painting, while still maintaining vestiges of the older days. I hope I was successful.

"The Owl and the Pussycat", 8x8, original oil on museum -quality gessoboard-nursery rhymes, paintings of owls, pussycats, moon, love songs, nocturne

SOLD S"The Owl and the Pussycat", 8x8, original oil on museum -quality gessoboard


Don't ask me what possessed me to paint this today. Other than the fact that I had runcible spoons on my brain, I have been thinking that I have been way too serious about my paintings recently and needed a little break from the world of serious.

So today I decided to delve into a place of whimsy, fantasy and memories of childhood nursery rhymes in order to create a new painting.

"The Owl and The Pussycat" was an all time favorite nursery rhyme of mine growing up, and I must say that I was duly appalled when I found out on a recent walk with my hubby that he had never heard of it. I was reciting the poem to him as we walked and he thought it was just plain funny.

"Funny?" I said. "I beg your pardon! I think it's a first rate love song!" I shrieked.

"Beg your pardon", he said quite humbled by my seriousness.

Although I always thought it was a bit suggestive for a kid's nursery rhyme, I'll always love it anyway.

Now wouldn't you just love to dine on mince and slices of quince and eat from a runcible spoon? I'd be happy just to dance by the light of the moon! (Not to mention those bong trees!)

If you are unfamiliar with this delightful little piece of prose, by Edward Lear, here goes:

The owl and the pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful peagreen 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
What a beautiful pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O, 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 Bongtree grows.
And there in a wood a Piggywig 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.

Postscript: a friend sent me this video today of a barn owl that looks a lot like my guy above. This video is just amazing- you've got to see this friendship between an owl and a pussycat!

a Painting a day, Daily painters, original art , affordable original art, paintings of pets, cat art,contemporary impressionism, art blogs, paintings of cats,alla prima,tabby cat oil paintings,affordable original oil paintings,the owl and the pussycat,colorist art>,a Painting a day, Daily painters, original art , animal art, floral impressionist paintings, colorist art,contemporary impressionism, affordable Maine art, original light house paintings,alla prima,palette knife paintings,palette knife oil paintings,affordable original oil paintings,affordable original art,colorist art>,

paintings of New England, Maine seascapes, lighthouse art , affordable original art, paintings of bayous, colorist art,contemporary impressionism, Florida art, Gulf coast paintings,paintings of swamps,Maryanne Jacobsen paintings, impasto paintings.