"French Shutters", 22x28, oil on wrapped canvas (available framed for an additional cost)
Bienvenue means welcome in French and this painting welcomes the viewer into a sunlit street in an old village in France, or even Italy. The painting was painted about 10 years ago, when I painted with thick impasto, in the colorist tradition. I first painted the scene as a commission for an Italian Restaurant in New York, and had so much fun painting it, that I painted it again! The painting has thick, rich textures, and the image does not do it justice.
If you are interested in "French Shutters", send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com
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This beautiful old cypress tree stands atop Pinnacle Point, at Pinnacle Cove, a hiking trail at Point Lobos State Preserve in Carmel, California. The tree is a testament to endurance-its wild wind-blown beauty gracing the top of the granite rocks that overlook a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. Painting it brought me back to the first time I hiked that path, my heart catching in my throat as I approached the top of the steps. Truly, Pinnacle Point is a place where I left my heart one day, and I hope that this east coast girl will have the chance to return again some day. This painting won Third Place at the Venice Art Center's "Branchin' Out" exhibit.
Please contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, if you are interested in this painting.
"Day's End, Good Harbor Beach", 8x10, oil on wrapped linen, plein air
Good Harbor Beach is located in Gloucester, on the North Shore of Massachusetts. This little plein air painting was done during our recent August trip to Cape Ann, and this was my first chance to post.
Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the
Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston
and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. We visit there almost every summer becuase Rockport is so near and dear to my heart. We now have another reason to visit since my youngest son is attending the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston. Yay! So in addition to visiting with our son and catching the beautiful soft sunlight on Cape Ann, we also made the trek to Orleans, Cape Cod for the American Women Artist's National exhibit. I was very pleased to have been accepted into this prestigious national show for the second year in a row, and so oveall it was a great trip. The sky was tinged in purple right before sunset on the August day that I set up my easel at Good Harbor. I hope you enjoy this painting. It has thick paint throughout and epitomizes the simple quaint beauty of this New England seaside town, captured quickly as the light kept fading.
"La Bicyclette", 12x16, oil on board (Note- Please click on the image in order to see the impasto clearly.)
A modern day bicycle, sits against a crumbling wall in an ancient village in Provence. Numbering under 500 inhabitants, the streets of Lacoste are deserted right now, as it's that magical time of day when Provencal folk either nap, eat, drink, argue in a pub or have sex, "under the roof".
La Bicyclette waits patiently for the return of its owner who will meander down the cobblestone paths any minute now, smiling at a distant memory and emerging with his face slightly flushed after polishing off a bottle of old red straight from the vineyard of Max Skinner, and which he imbibed alfresco-style at the lovely Cafe de France in the heart of the village.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then go watch "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe and the stunningly beautiful Marion Cotillard. You'll fall in love with Provence and it's ancient villages, and crumbling walls and purple valleys nestled in the heart of the Luberon and in the shadow of the Vaucluse.
Lacoste is truly ancient, crumbling, mysterious and exotic all at once. Forget the Marquis de Sade and his crumbling castle; the view from the Cafe de France of the Luberon valley and the neighboring village of Bonnieux is enough to make your heart do somersaults, as is most of the scenery in the area.
I painted this quickly with a palette knife, listening to a combo of "shuffled" music on Pandora that included Cafe France, Rod Stewart and the Gypsy Kings. The only thing missing was a bottle of old red.
SOLD "Blowin' in the Wind", 14x30, oil on wrapped canvas by Maryanne Jacobsen
This is one of the paintings that were commissioned for the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida. It will be hung in September. I can't wait to see them hung! The painting is of Siesta Key beach in southwest Florida, a gorgeous white sand beach rated the number# 1 beach this year in the entire country!
If you come to southwest Florida, I do hope you'll visit Siesta Key beach. The sand never gets hot beneath your feet. How lucky I am to live so close to such a great beach!
"Last Man Standing", 7x5, oil on wrapped canvas (Note: Please click on the image to see the impasto better!)
Below is the sad and pitiful (and slightly ridiculous) ballad of the last man standing in the pumpkin patch, whose life has been immortalized in this juicy palette knife painting by Paintdancer, aka Maryanne Jacobsen.
"The Last Man Standing", written by Peter Pumpkin, (no relation to Peter, Peter, the Pumpkin Eater who uses pumpkins as battered wife shelters)
You know this is it. You are the LAST MAN STANDING in the pumpkin patch. Most of the others have either been sliced, diced and gutted by stupid adults cow-towing to their little kids regarding some ridiculous satanic holiday, or else they've escaped the slaughter but now their backsides are rotting in their orange skins, and as they shiver in the autumn dusk they know there's nothing in the world a pumpkin can even do to reverse the rot.
But me? Hah! I'm still the last man standing. Yep.
Even though I am standing next to an arrogant pinecone who thinks he's in charge here just because he's as tall as me! He even tried to become the focal point of Paintdancer's painting, but she's wise to his kind, thankfully. Well, just wait, Mr. PineCone. Your days are numbered, too! The Martha Stewarts of the world will quickly gather you up for festive holiday baskets soon, and you will be all alone with the other dried up pinecones in the basket, unable to even feed a squirrel, just as I am now in this frigid pumpkin patch in nowhereland, USA.
The last man (hmmmmm, maybe pumpkin is a better word) , standing in a world where no one cares. Where no one even sees that your brethren have been butchered and just murdered for fun and trysts. (or maybe pumpkin pie:0()
Trysts, you say. What is a tryst?
Just look at the purple grapes that grow next to me. These grapes know all about trysts, you see because they grow in clusters! (Please don't ask me how a pumpkin patch ended up in a vineyard, as I haven't figured it out yet either !)
But there are vineyards and there are vineyards, and I just happened to grow next to an exceptionally plump group of grapes this harvest season. Which is maybe why I didn't get sliced and diced on Halloween.
This painting won Third Place at the Venice Art Center's "Branchin' Out" exhibit.