"Moonstruck", 5x7 , oil, white rose, painting of a white rose, small studies, little gems, small affordable paintings, paintings of roses, Maryanne Jacobsen fine art

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 "Moonstruck", 5x7 , oil

Recently I decided to challenge my painting skills by attempting a white rose. Now that may sound like an easy task to some artists, but for me, painting a white rose was always a challenging thought. 

It was a "thought" because I never actually tried to paint one. I just assumed I couldn't do it.

Roses are so very complex. Their beauty is astounding, but mastering the painting of roses takes a great deal of skill. I have painted roses before. Some came a little easier than others, depending on what I was thinking at the time.

Our thoughts have a great affect on how we approach life, especially painting. I have often condemned myself before even starting! Such was the case with rose painting, and in particular white rose painting.

So last weekend I bought 6 lovely white roses that opened gradually over the course of a few days.

I picked one (they are all unique!) and put it in a bud rose vase and set about to paint it. Here was my reference and what struck me most about this photo is how very little you could actually see! Which is why we are always told to paint from life. Duh.

Anyhow, I must have wiped this thing out at least a half dozen times before I finally started to see the flower develop.

It's not perfect, but I felt like I accomplished something! The white rose was always a big bogey man in my mind. But now I feel better. Do you have any painting challenges that you may or may not have overcome? I'd love to hear about them!

"Dark Roast with Cherries", 11x14 on Canson oil paper, paintings of roses, impressionism, Maryanne Jacobsen art, cherries, coffee, coffee break, morning coffee

"Dark Roast with Cherries", 11x14 on Canson oil paper

My old computer crashed last week, taking with it the photo editing program that I have used for years. I now am using a MAC, but have no idea how to edit or if the photos of my paintings look the way they are supposed to or not! This image looks dark to me, but I don't know how it looks to others! Very frustrating.

Anyhow, this painting was a nice break for me to do before I start a couple commissions next week. I love painting flowers and especially roses, and the Canson art paper is so much fun to paint on! Unfortunately, it's a little trickier to frame, but it can be done. I think this painting would look great with a linen border and that is probably how I'll frame it.

This painting won a second place Award in The Visual Art Center's "Color" exhibit. Please email me at maryannejacobsen if you have any interest in this work.

Roses for Mama

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"Roses for Mama", 9x12, oil on acid free Belgian linen panel

The roses in my garden all decided to bloom at once, and I picked some of them for this arrangement. Here's a photo of them posing for their portrait:

Teacher's Pet

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"Teacher's Pet", 12x16, oil on linen panel

I don't think I was ever the Teacher's Pet. Were you?

Well, wait a minute now.

Maybe I was a bit of the teacher's pet to Mr. Sell in 10th grade English. Mr. Rodney Sell was his full name and he really got me hooked on fine literature. I do think he liked me because I was a very good student. In his class we read a lot of Thomas Hardy. I remember "Return of the Native" very well. That book led me to "Tess of the D'urbervilles", (which was pretty steamy for 1967), which led me to "The Mayor of Casterbridge". I think Mr. Sell was a rather odd duck, much as Thomas Hardy was. A mixture of agnostic with a touch of spiritualism thrown in, and loving the concept of illicit love affairs and rejects in society that are somehow elevated to a hero/heroine status through the expertise of the author. That's how Mr. Sell struck me. I'm betting Mr. Sell is a Joyce Carol Oates fan, too. She's a contemporary author that makes you think about subjects that you normally don't want to think about. I've read a lot of her books, over the years, though lately I find them too disturbing.

I wonder if Mr. Sell is still alive? He was young when he taught me so he might be. Hopefully if he is, he won't read this and discover that I've called him an odd duck. Actually I had a bit of a crush on Mr. Sell, and he was probably the best teacher that I ever had, as he instilled a true love of fine literature in me. In his class, we also read the classic Greek poem "The Odyssey" , and I'll never forget how traumatized I was by the first few pages of that book. Were we really expected to be able to understand this odd prose? But by the end of the book I had become accustomed to the style of writing of Homer and couldn't wait to read more challenging works of literature.

I also recall reading Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", some Shakespeare, and a lot of Sinclair Lewis in his class. I felt like a more mature, worldly young person by the end of the school year thanks to Mr. Sell, and a great deal smarter than I had been about controversial topics in the world of literature!

I wonder if young people today have English teachers that challenge them the way that Rodney Sell challenged me. I truly hope so.


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