Mr. Clucky in Miami, 12x16

SOLD"Mr. Clucky in Miami", 12x16, oil on wrapped canvas(Note: you can click on the painting to see a close up of the texture.)

I was very happy to find out today that Mr. Clucky has been juried into the American Impressionist Society's annual juried show at the Saks Gallery in Denver, Colorado, running October 23rd through December 1st. The show was judged by incredible impressionist artist Quang Ho who will be doing a demonstration at the gallery on October 24th. Please visit the AIS website here for more information about this exciting exhibit!



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Tuscan Vineyard

SOLD"Tuscan Vineyard-summer" framed

Last week I was able to hang my solo exhibit at The Back Eddy Bistro in downtown, Venice. I was invited to do the exhibit through the Venice Art Center's satellite program, combining art with business in this little resort town in a joint venture. Of the 13 paintings that are on display, I do believe this one is my favorite.

Here are a few photos of the restaurant. If you haven't eaten at The Back Eddy yet, what are you waiting for? The food is wonderful and the restaurant has a wonderful continental ambiance. See you there!






To purchase any of the paintings on exhibit there, please call Haley at The Venice Art Center at (941)525-4227.

The Arabesque

SOLD
"The Arabesque", 11x14, oil on canvas panel

The other day, I pulled out what seemed like hundreds of thousands of photos I'd collected of my students when I was the director of The West Chester Performing Arts Center some years ago in the suburban Philadelphia area. I never get tired of seeing the looks of avid concentration and dedication on their young faces. By now, those young girls are grown women, probably with active lives and families of their own. How the time flies by!

This past Christmas, I was incredibly proud to have had the chance to see my niece Kaitlin dance the role of Clara in her dance school's production of The Nutcracker. She was simply lovely in the role and I am delighted that a great deal of her Aunt Mary's passion for ballet rubbed off on her!

I was also very happy to see Melissa Sandvig's emotional performance on this week's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance". Melissa has been a favorite of mine since the beginning of the season, and although I think the remaining two girls are also quite talented and wonderful, the amount of maturity and abandon that was required to dance Tyce DiOrio's pas de deux about breast cancer could have only been done with such an incredible outcome by a lovely dancer like Melissa. I am very happy that this season produced a new awareness of classical ballet to the younger viewing audience, thanks to Melissa. I wish her luck in the final weeks of the show. My guess is that Janine or Brandon will win this year, and I am usually right!

This painting is sold, but if you are interested in ballet art, please visit my website at Maryanne JAcobsen Fine Art, and click on the ballet and portraiture page in the sidebar.

Wildflower Garden in Denmark

SOLD

"Wildflower Garden in Denmark"-12x16, oil on linen

A few years back, my husband and I took a trip to Denmark to visit my husband's relatives and celebrate the birthday of a cousin. We had a wonderful time and were able to go back in time and trace my husband's history, which included a dad who was a stowaway on a boat out of Copenhagen headed for America many, many years ago. The stowaway dad was discovered at Ellis Island, became a merchant marine, and the rest is history for our family!

The Scandinavian cousin took us on a wonderful tour while we were there, and today I pulled out the pictures I had taken from the trip. This one caught my eye:

I recall the moment I spied this beautiful wildflower garden. We had just come over a bridge where there was a castle-like structure with a swan in the water and some red -timbered buildings with thatched roofs to the left of us... Sorry, I can't recall the name of that particular village in Denmark, but if anyone knows of it, I'd love to have a name attached to my painting!

At the foot of that bridge was this incredible wildflower garden, and although I was not a painter at the time, I knew I had to try to capture the beauty of that garden with my camera! Anyway, the trip was wonderful, and I am glad that although I was using a pretty lousy camera at the time, I was able to translate my memories of the moment into a painting!

The light temperature in Denmark is very, very different from where I now live. See how cool and grayish the light temperature is! I always kind of chuckle whenever I look at the beautiful paintings of fellow daily painter Rene Plein Air, because I know he is painting true to the light temperature in the Netherlands. If Rene ever comes to Florida he'd better be prepared for a road to Damascus moment! Because the light here is really blinding!

Compare the photo of the wildflower garden in Denmark with this beach scene in Southwest Florida and you'll see what I mean. If you have no idea what I'm talking about. look at the sky color, which is the source of light in all landscapes:
See how strong the light source is in the Florida scene compared to the wildflower gardenin Denmark?

Since everything in a painting is affected by the temperature of the light, it is imperative to get the sky temperature perfect when painting a landscape that will hopefully depict the character of the scene. Although I usually don't like to paint scenes that lack contrast and have a limited value range, I really wanted to do this one. I cooled all my colors considerably from what I would typically do in a Florida landscape and I was happy with the outcome!

Some day it would be nice to return to Denmark and other European cities that we have visited.

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View from my garden-Plein air

SOLD
"View from my garden"-11x14

I've been out of town much of the week, and I was very happy to find myself home again today with a typical southwest Florida blue sky to raise my spirits. (It rained all week, where I visited, and I have gotten used to blue skies 95% of the time, so I have a new understanding of people with SAD!)

Although I was able to paint the little "Here Comes the Sun" piece in a gloomy hotel room, I could not wait to get outside this morning, albeit the extreme heat and humidity I faced. I decided to paint in my back yard, where I'd have ample access to water (and a pool!) if things got too uncomfortable. This is the view looking north up the hill and past neighbor Steve's house, to the left. Within 15 minutes there was sweat pouring down my back and my cat Sabrina kept crying incessantly from behind the door of the caged lanai, probably unable to figure out why I had changed my painting location to the great outdoors, which is off limits to her.

The past few days gave me plenty of quiet time to think and read, and I read Kevin MacPherson's "Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color" from cover to cover. Macpherson is one of my favorite impressionist painters, and I decided to take his advice and go with a limited palette today, which included only six colors, including white. I had no trouble mixing the various colors, my only problem is that I detest alizarin crimson, which is one of the colors he advocates. I stuck with it to the end though, and I do like the way the limited palette creates unity in this painting. I also incorporated brush work into this one, and just as he warned- there's a learning curve that occurs when you try to use a tool that you are less skilled with. I do like using both the brush and the palette knife, so I am going to keep at the brushwork. As far as painting plein air again in the near future- it's just too darned hot!

If you would like to purchase this painting, please contact Leah at Collector's Gallery and Framery for purchase info. Leah can be reached at (941)488-3029.

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"Here Comes the Sun"

SOLD
"Here Comes the Sun", 8x10, oil on canvas-$69

I'm finally feeling a little better after a difficult week. If you love this old Beatle's song (from their Abbey Road album) as much as I do, you can play it just by clicking here.


Now, sing along with me, and SMILE:

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

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The Getaway Cottage-Florida cracker style house

SOLD
"The Getaway Cottage", 9x12, oil on wrapped canvas

I visited St. Augustine this week and it seems I never get tired of the quirky architecture in that ancient city. You can pass a gorgeous Victorian mansion on one corner, turn down a side street and be greeted by an old ramshackle house with a tin roof . The main style of architecture in the historic district was strongly influenced by the Spanish for a time. The later colonial period brought the architecture of colonial America into play, and the two and three story wooden houses with the second story porches is the style that I most readily connect with St. Augustine. Whatever style you prefer- St. Augustine homes are old-very old- and like fine wine and mature women, their facades are filled with character and a comfortable familiarity that borders on déjà vu.

Even though the heat was practically unbearable this week, (96 degrees with very high humidity) I got out and painted for a few hours yesterday. This cute little house with a tin roof and wooden shutters was the result. I think it looks inviting, don't you?

This was painted with palette knife only and has thick passages of paint. To see the impasto better, check out the photo below, in which I photographed the painting outside and the impasto shows clearly: (You can also click on the photo to see it better)

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Bellissima World-Sunflowers in a white pitcher

SOLD
"Bellissima World", 12x16, oil on linen panel

This painting was done with palette knife and brushes and has nice impasto throughout.

Rainy Season- God Bless the Rains

"Jungle Music- God Bless the Rains", 11x14, oil on canvas panel
Note : please click on the image to see the impasto.

This one is pretty wild, but it's also rather cool. I like it a lot, because the strokes seem to be dancing. Must be because I was listening to Toto's Africa, recorded by the Colgate 13, while I was painting this. Wanna listen to the Toto version? It's really cool, though I like the Colgate 13 version , too, which was done a capella. My son was leader of the group when they recorded it for their Cadence album in 2001. Here's the Toto version:




This painting has been accepted into Art Center Sarasota's "Green" exhibition, through September 12th. Contact me after that date if you wish to purchase this painting. And if you like acapella music done really well, purchase some CD's by the Colgate Thirteen. My favorite albums are Cadence and Stargazing. You can listen to Africa sung a capella by clicking this link and going to the Stargazing album, and then clicking on track #11. I like this version a lot, though I like the version on the Cadence CD better.

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"Nantucket Morning"

SOLD
"Nantucket Morning", 12x16, oil on wrapped canvas

I am very pleased to be represented by Lorica Artworks, in Andover , Massachusetts. Please stop by if you are in the area and visit this beautiful gallery just north of Boston. "Nantucket Morning" is one the paintings that are featured there. It is a very serene scene culled from my memories of trips that the hubby and I would take in the summertime to one of three of our favorite vacation destinations- Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Newport were places where the scenery was always lovely, the salt air was invigorating and the chowdah was the best around!

If you would like to purchase this painting, please contact Lorica Artworks at (978)470-1829 .

Nadia, portrait study

"Nadia", 14x18, oil on linen

Tuesday morning is my day to paint from a live model at a private studio. Although I was totally out of sorts this week, I did manage to turn out a decent painting, I believe. This week our model was Nadia, a woman with wonderful features, and very different from Carl of last week. It was her first time to model for painters and she kept changing position, but her large lips, small nose and Mediterranean coloring made up for it. Nadia is part Spanish with I think some Romanian blood as well, and overall she made for a very interesting model. We asked her to come back next week as well.

Although I should probably develop this painting a little more, I think I am going to put it aside for now and concentrate on new pieces for my upcoming solo exhibit in Venice in July. I am running out of time! If you have any interest in purchasing this painting, please email me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

Effortless- ballet art, dancers

"Effortless", 8x10, oil on gallery-wrapped linen (Masterpiece) canvas.

I must admit that the one show that I never miss an episode of is "So You Think You Can Dance". I was heartbroken when Danny Tidwell was eliminated (he came in second) two seasons ago, because they guy literally brought a lump to my throat every time I watched his incredible grande leaps, high jumps and long, lyrical lines that moved like molten lava in their slow effortless intensity across the dance floor.

This year , my vote is definitely going to go for Melissa Sandvig, who also has the grace and fluidity that makes for great dancing. She is the first dancer on the show, to my knowledge at least, who is a professionally trained ballerina, and that ballet training will shine through loud and clear in the weeks ahead on the show, in my humble opinion. She danced a contemporary piece last week, with her partner, Ade, and it was just beautiful to watch. I saw the little elonge of the wrist at the end of the arabesque , so I am betting she was trained in the Vaganova pedagogue, as well, which was how I trained my dancers. My painting above, reminds me a little bit of Melissa, and I am eager to see what she will do in tonight's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance!"

The trick to being a good or great dancer, is to make one's movements look effortless, in spite of the hard work involved to get to the point where a dancer can make her movements as light and effortless as a feather.

Painting is like that also, where less is more and an overworked canvas can be the death knell to what started out as a good painting. This painting took me a while to do, but thanks to the wonderful Masterpiece Vincent canvas that I used for a support, I was able to make changes to it and not have it look overworked.New!

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Organic Vegetables- a painting of peppers and an avocado

SOLD Organic Vegetables, 12x16, oil on gallery-wrapped canvas

The shape of peppers is quite intriguing as a paint subject. Like people, there are a lot of hollows, valleys and plane changes that occur within a pepper that make for some very interesting paint choices. The deep green of the avocado against the colorful peppers makes for wonderful contrasts! Although this painting is sold, if you would like me to paint something similar for you, please email me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

Also, thanks very much to Magdalene at Gifts of Creation, for nominating me for a blog award! I am very grateful that God has given me the opportunity to create things of beauty for people's enjoyment! Thanks again for the compliment! You can visit Magdalene's blog here, and see more gifts of creation from other artists!

Colle Verde Vineyard-Summer

SOLD"Colle Verde Vineyard-Summer"-24x36, oil on canvas

Back in the spring, I was invited to participate in the Venice Art Center's annual plein air festival.

The evening of the reception I was approached by some people who asked me if I would be interested in doing a satellite exhibit for the art center at some of downtown Venice's business venues. Venice is a lovely tourist town , and I felt very honored to have been asked to do a personal exhibit for the sponsors. Recently, I was informed that my first exhibit in this venue will be at Back Eddy's Bistro, on the island in downtown Venice. On Friday evening the hubby and I had one of the most memorable meals we have had in ages at Back Eddy's. The food was absolutely scrumptious cuisine, (I had the salmon in dill and he had the duck), but the dinner also gave me an opportunity to view the wall space- which is quite expansive, and try to plan on what paintings will be placed on exhibit.



I realized that evening, that I need some BIG pieces! So I immediately started painting on Saturday morning. I painted a new version of "Colle Verde Vineyard" , after a recent award winning painting, only I made it warmer to reflect the summer light in Tuscany.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I'll probably get up and decide whether or not to include this painting in the exhibit. In the meanwhile, I am enjoying painting on a larger format these days, thanks to a recent commission and this new exhibit venue, and although I have been using tons of paint doing these big pieces, I do love the bigger formats for expressive palette knife work.

Please let me know what you think, too!

A Fisherman's Sunset

SOLD
"A Fisherman's Sunset", 12x16, oil on canvas panel

Sometimes an event will happen in our lives that leaves us unnerved, off balance, and totally out of control. I now understand what it's like to literally "See red". This happened to me a few days ago. Without repeating the incident, suffice it to say that a person whom I love very, very much, hurt me deeply. The feelings that I felt after a one minute phone call left me feeling simultaneously empty, incredibly sad, and trying to control an anger that was beyond my ability to control.

I had been painting when the phone call came. I can't even remember what I had been painting. After the phone call, I couldn't think of anything other than trying to deal with the anger and pain that I felt. I picked up my palette knife and began smearing paint all over my canvas. Red paint. Red, hot, orangey strokes plastered on the canvas like flaming embers. I just kept smearing and smashing red and orange cadmiums onto the canvas, without even being aware of what I was doing. Not long afterwards, the phone rang again and it was someone else. We talked and I became calmer as a result of this voice of reason and grace. I cleaned off my palette knife and stuck the canvas in a place where the cats would not walk through it and make cadmium red footprints all through the house. (Yes, that has happened before, as a result of not having a studio and painting in one's kitchen where everything is accessible and paintings are as vulnerable to cat-paws as mosquito-landings. )

The next day I was still upset. But by the end of the day I had settled myself, knowing that only God can change people and things, and there is nothing I can do to change or help a loved one once they've reached an age where they are capable of making their own choices- be they bad or good. Nothing, that is, except to continue to pray and have faith that God will touch that person and change them from within.

I took out the painting with the red strokes of flaming anger written all over it and looked at it again. I decided that I wanted to create something soothing out of the chaos I had rendered the night before. Recently, I had read something on the Daily Painter's forum about the deep pervading loneliness that can ensue for a fisherman's wife, when the husband goes off to sea. Fisherman, or sailors, especially those in the military who are submarine sailors, leave home and often are not heard from for months at a time- and the fear and loneliness that ensues until their return can be heart wrenching.

So with that thought fresh in my mind, I decided to make my angry painting into something much different- hopefully a reminder of how wonderful it is when a loved one returns home after a period of absence and darkness, and an example of how inevitably hope reigns eternal in humans that in the end love and goodness and mercy for all- even the lost- shall prevail. I guess the story of The Prodigal Son comes to mind here, and I sincerely hope that God in His infinite mercy can truly forgive all the prodigals in this sad world of ours.

This red hot painting of anger, frustration and sadness has hopefully evolved into something a little more peaceful now that I've re-worked it. The globs of red paint dried overnight for some weird reason, since I live in Florida

But life is filled with challenges. Each day is a new day and we must try to love to the best of our abilities, even when the loved one has hurt us deeply, or the paint has gotten dry and unwieldy, and hope becomes dimmed by repetition of failure. I hope this painting has some beauty in it, despite its origins. And I hope that anyone reading this who can identify with the deep emotions that render us helpless at times will realize that we are only human, and judgment of others is foolish in view of one’s own human frailties. Luckily for me, I have an outlet for my emotions. I am very grateful for that.

Thanks for listening. Now you know how some paintings come about....

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