"La Jolla Wildflowers", 9x12, La Jolla California, yellow wildflowers, nasturtiums, plein air study, Maryanne Jacobsen Fine Art, impressionism, seascapes, Pacific coast, southern California art

"La Jolla Wildflowers", 9x12

Back in April I spent a couple days in La Jolla, California, one of the prettiest places in the whole country! All the rain that California experienced in January and February paid off , because the wildflowers were blooming everywhere! On the hillsides and the highways and byways of southern California, nasturtiums and purple statice were blooming everywhere in a riot of complimentary colors! Although the San Diego area is always lovely, I had never seen the area so verdant before.

So I took the opportunity to go to La Jolla cove and paint one morning. There was a slight breeze and the temperatures were perfect for painting.

The next week proved to be the beginning of a challenging couple months for me, of which I am still recovering. But I am happy that I had the chance to fit in a fun painting before the  problems started.

The additional good news is that this painting recently won a ribbon at the Venice Art Center's summer exhibit. Special thanks to juror Katie Dobson Cundiff.

If interested in this work, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

Please check out my new website at Maryanne Jacobsen Fine Art

"Stormy Seas", after Ivan Aivazousky, 8x10, Susan Ploughe workshop, waves, boats, ships, storms, seascapes, Maryanne Jacobsen

"Stormy Seas", after Ivan Aivazousky, 8x10

On the third and last day of the excellent Susan Ploughe workshop that I took this week, the topic was waves. I rarely paint waves for a couple reasons. Firstly, they are HARD!!!!!! Second, we really don't have hardly any waves to observe here on the west coast of Florida (Gulf of Mexico) so I don't practice them. Our waters are pretty calm, with the exception of the occasional hurricane. Third, I have often thought that many paintings of waves were rather boring. That was until Wednesday, when Susan showed us a slideshow of how different artists handle waves and I was introduced to Ivan Aivazousky.

Whoa!!!!!! Can I say jaw-dropping, exceptional, mind-blowing beauty? I googled him that night to find out more about him and turns out he is considered one of the greatest maritime artists of all time!
Ivan Aivazovsky was born in 1817 into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. He died in 1900 and evidently studied the sea extensively throughout his lifetime, producing the most incredibly gorgeous seascapes I have ever seen.

So as with the other days of the workshop, after Susan's demo, we were given chance to choose which wave photo we wanted to paint and how could I resist this?

Original work of Aivazousky above.

I struggled quite a bit with this one. Painting the delicate tracings of foam on the water almost made me cry, but in the end, I learned so much just from trying to copy the work of a true master.

I am going to continue to practice painting the sea, and maybe someday I'll find it less intimidating. 

I highly recommend Susan's workshop "Waterways", if you want to learn some of the many intricacies of painting water in all of of it's delightfully daunting forms.

"Morning Whale Watch", 8x10, oil on canvas by MAryanne Jacobsen

SOLD

"Morning Whale Watch", 8x10, oil on canvas.

This scene was inspired by last year's whale watch in Bar Harbor Maine. The whales were absolutely amazing and so was the scenery.

I've painted this schooner twice before, both times with a limited palette, but today I decided to use a full range of colors, which was fun.

"Summer's Day-Peggy's Cove", 10x8, oil on linen-Peggy's Cove, palette knife seascapes, Nova Scotia, boats, Canadian provinces

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"Summer's Day-Peggy's Cove", 10x8, oil on linen

I painted this one rather quickly, so I wouldn't get mired down in details, and I was happy with the outcome.

Impressionist paintings are intended to portray a brief moment in time, painted through an impression of the moment captured in the artist's memory, and without a lot of fussy details. There also should be passages that are kept vague, so that the viewer can fill in the details and the "rest of the story" for himself.

I have gotten away from impressionism for reasons that I can't even explain. I hope to return to that journey and this was a good start. The painting was done with only three colors, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and cad yellow. Just goes to show  that you can create an impressionist painting without a lot of colors on your palette!