"Lovers in the Rose Garden", 9x12, plein air oil study, The Ringling, Museums in Sarasota, John and Mabel Ringling, Mabel's Rose Garden, plein air, wedding venues in Florida, statues, small paintings, Maryanne Jacobsen art, romance, mystery

"Lovers in the Rose Garden", 9x12, plein air oil study

I always love painting at The Ringling, but this week was a bit of an exception. The wind from Hurricane Nate, far away, yet still in the Gulf, was  a force to be reckoned with as I attempted to paint this courting couple in Mabel's Rose Garden. Named for Mabel Ringling, the rose garden is filled with statues of lovers, beautiful roses, and a small pavilion, with a backdrop of ancient canyon trees to add mystery to the charm.

It was that mystery that I wanted to capture in this little study, pitting the dark banyan forrest against the sun-lit statue of the lovers.

The wind whipped everything about. My trash basket flew away dozens of times, and at one point my hat blew off and flew right into the wet painting. Not to be deterred, I held tight to my easel and did the best I could in the two hour time frame I had given myself.

The Ringling, formerly known as the The Ringling Museum, is a real treasure in Sarasota, Fl. Seated right on Sarasota Bay, Ca' D' Zan, the mansion of John and Mabel Ringling, is a jewel to behold. There are museums to wander and manicured grounds to explore, but choosing a cool day is preferable since it gets very warm throughout the year.

The temp was about 91 when I painted this, but the wind took away some of my discomfort.  As I painted, I wondered who the couple were, how the young man had lost his hand and if the fair damsel holding the basket truly cared for him.

It's all a mystery!

This little plein air study is available for purchase. Just contact me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com, for more information.

"Pea Green Boat", 8x8, oil on panel, the owl and the pussycat, Edward Lear poem, romance, Valentine's Day gifts, original oil paintings. Maryanne Jacobsen art

SOLD

"Pea Green Boat", 8x8, oil on panel

I've painted the Owl and the Pussycat a couple other times in the past and I guess I never tire of these furry friends and the loving relationship they had in Edward Lear's little poem.

This painting has been in a couple shows and has been hanging in my living room for a while, framed in a beautiful Randy Higbee floater frame.

It occurred to me that it might make a lovely gift to a couple romantics for Valentine's Day, so I decided to take it off my wall and offer it for sale for a limited time only. If you order by Saturday, I should be able to ship it in time for the big romantic week=end coming up next week.

I am offering it for sale for $400 or $450 framed as shown above. Please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if interested and I'll invoice you via Paypal.

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great day!

"Table for Two", 18x18, oil on wrapped canvas

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"Table for Two", 18x18, oil on wrapped canvas

This was such a joy to paint today after the last two weeks.

Never mind what that means!

Sometimes it's important to just paint what you love, and in the manner in which you are comfortable!

Then it's easy and the result is satisfactory. For this one I changed up my palette a bit. I used yellow ochre, cad yellow pale, can orange, napthol red, permanent rose, cobalt violet, ultramarine blue, king's blue and  viridian. I am going to be tempted to go back into it tomorrow and re-work some of the passages, but I think I'll force myself to let it alone, since it looks loose and impressionist.

Forever Young, 8x10, oil on linen, roses, ballerinas, little ballerinas, figurine, chasing light, red roses, yellow roses

"Forever Young", 8x10, oil on linen

My husband bought me the figurine of the little ballerina years ago, and I have always loved looking at it.

One of my first dreams was to become a ballerina some day, and I still remember my first dance class at the Summer Recreation Center when I was four years old.

Many years would pass before I had a chance to learn to dance, but even today at 60, I cherish those years in ballet class, immersed in classical music and my own psyche- always trying to do better in spite of the difficulties.

In ballet class the struggles are endless, improve your turn-out (my knees tell that story!), increase your extension- higher, higher with that leg! Point the toes harder, harder, try your best to make your flat feet look curvaceous and lovely! Jump higher, turn faster, increase your stamina, more plie! More pirouettes! More, more , more and ever more.

In spite of the fact I started dancing late and my body was never suited for ballet, I loved each and every one of the thousands of ballet classes I took over the years. Loved them so much that I wanted more than anything to share that love with my own students. Sometimes I would spend hours composing choreography for ballet classes for my students.

After all these years, all I can hope is that they enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed teaching them!

Today I no longer dance. I paint. The challenges are just as great, but the fun for me is not in the challenge but in seeing the result.

I struggled with this one. Painting  the figurine proved much more challenging than I would have expected. The light across the table mesmerized me as it swept over and beyond the figure and bouquet of roses. I hope I was able to capture a little bit of that magic!