"Provencial Light", 30x24, oil on wrapped canvas, paintings of Provence, Lacoste, palette knife paintings, Maryanne Jacobsen art, impressionism

SOLD

"Provencial Light", 30x24, oil on wrapped canvas

I had painted something similar to this in a smaller format some years back, and really enjoyed trying to capture that elusive Provencial light that makes artists gasp for joy when visiting Provence. So I determined to paint the scene again, this time in a much larger format than before.

I  must say that I thoroughly enjoyed painting this. It was painted with mostly a palette knife and has thick passages of paint throughout.

This painting is sold. Please contact me if you would like to commission something similar to this one.

"Holiday Villa", 12x16, oil on board, south of france, French villas, paintings of Provence, gardens, French gardens, French holiday

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"Holiday Villa", 12x16, oil on board

I am reading a book called The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain, which chronicles the story of Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. At one point in the book, Hadley makes the fateful decision to bring all of Ernest's work with her on a trip to Switzerland to see her husband. Waiting for a train, she takes a short walk around the platform, only to find out that the small valise containing all of Ernest's writings of the last four years has been stolen.

What ensues afterwards is a dry spell for Ernsest, in which he finds himself unable to write in the wake of finding out that his work is gone.

It happens to me more often than I like to admit, a dry spell when I can't paint- though I certainly can't blame a spouse who has lost or destroyed my paintings!

Today I took a devil-may -care attitude about beginning a painting, refusing to allow the inner voice inside my head to start telling me I couldn't do it.

It worked. The painting came out pretty quickly and effrotlessly, and I am hopeing that that is the end of my current dry spell for  awhile!

If you would like to take a holiday to the south of France, you may purchase this painting and visit this beautiful villa every day of the year. Now how's that for a nice offer?

Visit my website here to view more of my original oil paintings.

"Long Shadows-Provence"-10x8, oil on wrapped canvas

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"Long Shadows-Provence"-10x8, oil on wrapped canvas

I have been having a hard time getting back into painting. Today I wanted to go paint outside in the sunlight, but a friend sent me a link telling me that there is a lot of radiation hovering over Florida, so I changed my mind. I tried to think about what I could paint that would make me feel happy again, and then I remembered Deborah Lawrenson's beautiful blog about Provence.

Deborah is a British author and her new book "The Lantern" is due out in the United States in September. I can hardly wait, and if I can't, I'll my order the British copy instead, which is due out in June. "The Lantern" is a modern Gothic novel about a crumbling hamlet in Provence. What more could any woman ask for?

Deborah and I met online not that long ago, and she was kind enough to grant me permission to use a scene from her Youtube video about "The Lantern" for a painting. With my mom's recent passing, I have forgotten about a lot of the paintings that I had planned on painting this spring. But as I revisited her hauntingly beautiful video this afternoon, I decided to try to do a quick study of the scene I found around 2 and a half minutes into the video, where lovely long shadows tucked across a weathered path meet sun-drenched passages that are sumptuously dripping in tangerine-colored notes influenced by a late afternoon sky.

This was my reference:

I painted this with a palette knife only and if I only had a better photo of the scene I might attempt a larger painting of the same image. Working from a screenshot was a little challenging, since the quality wasn't there, but I was intent on just trying to secure the light and shadow notes in a complimentary color scheme that would accentuate the drama in a simple scene.

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"Red Poppies in Provence",14x11, oil on board

SOLD
"Red Poppies in Provence",14x11, oil on board

This is one of those paintings that fell together without much effort. No preliminary sketch, no intense thought behind it, just lots of vibrant color and fun! Loved painting it, and since it fell together rather quickly I have priced it well under my normal pricing structure to sell quickly. The photo does not do justice to the painting as the impasto and brush strokes cannot be seen.

Lots of lovely color and pieces of impasto in this one! Take your very own trip to Provence within this painting for a fraction of the price! To see some of my other paintings of the Provencial region, simply type the words, Provence, Luberon, , mas, St. Paul de Vence or lavender into the search box located at the top of the left hand column at my home page or visit my official website here.


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"In the shadow of the Vaucluse", 16x12, oil on masonite

"In the shadow of the Vaucluse", 16x12, oil on masonite

I was just discussing with a friend recently how fortunate Europeans are. They can just hop in their cars or get on the train and within a few hours they are in an area with a totally different culture, cuisine and language from where the the trip originated. That's the beauty of Europe and I really long to go back there one of these days.

My goal in painting this scene was to sharply constrast the light and shadow passages. In Provence, the light is incredibly beautiful- rather orangey in nature with amazingly deep blue skies, and so I contrasted orange against blue and raw umber in this painting to show the shadow patterns that exist within this ancient alleyway in Provence which lies in the shadow of the Vaucluse mountains and the castle of the Marquis de Sade.

"La Bicyclette", 12x16, oil on masonite, by Maryanne Jacobsen

SOLD "La Bicyclette", 12x16, oil on masonite

Over the past weeks (and actually months! ) I have lost a lot of interest in painting. It definitely started with the BP oil spill back in April. Now there is so much bad news everywhere, and especially regarding the environment, that one wonders if it's the end of the world! The recent mass die-offs of whales in Argentina , as well as fish and birds in the US, and huge floods and earthquakes around the world, has had me thinking that the world that I have known and loved is changing in a negative way.

Today I decided to try to paint SOMETHING! Not an easy task when you have had the blues for a few weeks.

France has always been a place of magic for me, so I decided to start in that place that I love-Provence. I also have had a mean crush on Rod Stewart for the better part of my adult life. So I turned on a Rod Stewart CD (and hit the replay button on a couple of my all-time favorites) and just went into a happy zone. Although in shadow, the bicycle is the focal point of the painting, since it is the starting point in my effort to lead the viewer's eye throughout the painting.

"La Bicyclette" was painted with palette knife only, since I knew I was too lazy to attempt to clean paint brushes in my current lousy state of mind. Let us hope that the earthquakes, floods and massive deaths of birds and fish was just a weird holiday aberation and that the new year will be full of health and happiness for the planet.

Hope everyone has a very happy, healthy and blessed New Year, and thanks for staying with me as I've wandered around in the desert.

A Year in Provence

"A Year in Provence", 12x24, oil on masonite

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she's gone.

{CHORUS}
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Ah... Ah..."

Somehow, every time I look at this painting, I think of the Beatles' 1969 hit, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Sure, there's marmalade skies in this painting, but there's certainly no boat on the river there or even a girl with sun in her eyes! However, this painting does have many, many wonderful elements in it- the mountains of Provence, lavender fields, an old French farmhouse and even sunflowers in the foreground! Anyhow, I truly love this painting, and it has gone into many art shows over the past year or so since I first painted it. I recently decided that I need to let go and sell some of my favorite paintings in order to challenge myself to do even better work in the future, so if you like this painting, here is your opportunity.

If you have any interest in purchasing this painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com. I am also willing to sell it professionally framed as well, (for an additional charge, since it is a custom frame), if someone is wanting to receive it in a custom frame ready to hang. Here is a picture of the framed piece below:

This painting has incredible depth and texture that a computer screen can simply not measure. It was painted thoughtfully with palette knife only, over a period of time. I hope you enjoy it!

Doorway in Provence

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"Doorway in Provence", 12x16, oil on canvas panel-

About a year ago I painted a little 5x7 inch painting that I called "Front Entrance". (Go here to my website if you wish to see it.) I was delighted that it sold for a very good price, and have often thought about painting another one like it. This week I had the chance to do just that when another artist friend who recently sold her farmhouse in Provence and moved back to the states, provided this photo that she took of another front entrance taken in St Paul de Vence, a hilly little Provencial village on the French Riviera. As you can see from the photo below, the building had a similar doorway and a potful of those lovely orange nasturtiums cascading playfully over the pots. My dilemma was whether or not to subdue the nasturtiums in order to make the purple bougainvillea the center of interest. I don't think either one won, frankly. The painting is a bit busy , but filled with luscious , juicy paint and thick texture from my trusty palette knife. Here is the reference photo that I used:




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A Year in Provence- June, 24x12

"A Year in Provence-June", 24x12, oil on masonite (Please click on the photo to see a better view of the texture.)

About the Painting:

The first time I read Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence" I laughed so hard that my husband came running into the room thinking that I was having a convulsion. I've read it twice since then, and highly recommend it to anyone who loves Provence, and enjoys the dry wit of a Brit coupled with first hand knowledge of the earthy pleasures that govern Provencal life.

Whenever I get down on myself about my art , I revert to painting scenes that I love. Completed last night, this is the newest of my lavender paintings (all the rest have sold) and it's definitely my best. I named it "A Year in Provence-June", because I've decided to paint a series of scenes from Provence for every single month of the year. This one was painted exclusively with a palette knife so there are thick layers of juicy color and texture throughout.

I photographed the painting indoors, where the light is warm (see above), and outdoors as well, (see photo below), where the colors are more bluish due to the cool light. I'd say that the most accurate colors are somewhere in the middle of the two, but I simply cannot find a place to photograph the painting that doesn't have either warm indoor or cool outdoor lighting affecting the true color of the painting.

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