"Van Gogh"s Boats", 8x10, oil, Vincent Van Gogh, French Boats, empaths, highly sensitive personalities, French seacapes, impressionism, Bouzique, France, old fishing boats, Maryanne JAcobsen art

"Van Gogh"s Boats", 8x10, oil

Nothing is sadder than an artist that cannot find his footings in a cold world. Such was the case with Vincent Van Gogh.

Today we have a name for people like Vincent. They are called empaths, or highly sensitive personalities, or whatever. I understand Vincent. Sometimes the world is hard. Sometimes the world is cold.

And sometimes the world is beautiful!

 Empaths struggle to find their footing because everything is bigger for empaths than the life that most individuals see and live each day. Bigger and scarier.

Anyhow. That's all I have to say about Vincent's mental state. Vincent painted colorful fishing boats in a  painting titled, Boats at St. Marie.

Here is an image of his painting:

These colorful old fishing boats dating back to Van Gogh's era can still be seen in the small fishing port of Bouziques, in the south of France. How cool is that?

This little painting was painted a few years ago and I took it out recently and re-worked a couple passages. If you like it, send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com

"Catherine's Restaurant" 9x12, oil, Catherine's of Unionville, Pa. Chester county restaurants, cafes, paintings of restaurants, fall colors, MAryanne Jacobsen art, buildings, street scenes

"Catherine's Restaurant" 9x12, oil

Back in the fall I passed this adorable restaurant in Unionville, Pa, while traveling to a site to paint during the Plein Air Brandywine Valley Festival.

I am a huge sucker for brightly -colored awnings, so I knew I'd have to paint this!!!!!
Evidently, Catherine's is a very popular restaurant in the area and has been written up many times  by local newspapers for its fine cuisine. I have added it to my bucket list as a must-do restaurant the next time we are up in that area.

To check out their menu, just go here and happy eating!

"Oak Shadows", 16x20 , oil on Panel, Maryanne Jacobsen art, Sarasota Florida, New College Sarasota, Ringling Museum, Ralph Caples, live oak tree

"Oak Shadows", 16x20 , oil on Panel

Winter can be a beautiful time to paint outdoors in Florida. Recently I bundled up and ventured out in temps that were below par for Florida- 50ish, I believe. Yup, a little cold for us Floridians, and windy, too, but the sunshine makes it all worthwhile. It was brilliantly sunny that day and the sky was that truly gorgeous blue that is the reason why Florida artists need cerulean on their palette! (Cobalt and viridian mixed are a decent substitute.)

Anyhow, I went to the Caples mansion and carriage house, which borders on the beautiful Ringling Estate. Ralph Caples had a personal and professional relationship with the wealthy Ringlings next door and if you want to learn more about the Caples history you can read about it here.

 As soon as I arrived on the site, I become enamoured with the patterns and negative spaces that the immense oak tree was creating with her branches, and so I decided to paint it. The carriage house next to it seemed to figure into the composition as well, although I knew it would be a lot to do in one painting session.

I worked on the painting for about two hours before calling it a day. I packed up my car only to discover that the battery had gone dead because I kept the hatch up while I was painting, meaning that the light drained the battery. A kind man jumped my battery and all in all it was an almost perfect Florida painting day except for the battery.

Over the weekend I used my plein air sketch to recreate the scene above on a larger canvas. Those live oaks with the Spanish moss hanging from their limbs can be quite challenging to paint, as was also the complexity of the architecture of the carriage house, which was modeled after the Mediterranean Revival style. Overall, though, I was pleased with the outcome.

Be sure to visit the historic sites of the Ringling Museum, and the Caples sites, if you ever visit Sarasota. Both properties are on the waterfront of Sarasota Bay and the scenery is quite lovely and the history quite interesting.

"Eventide", 12x24, oil on linen, Eucalptus trees, cypress trees, California landscapes, MAryanne Jacobsen fine art

SOLD

"Eventide", 12x24, oil on linen

This was painted a while back and is still a favorite of mine. The trees in California are so beautiful- from the willowy Eucalptus trees like the ones above to the gnarly, twisted cypress trees that flourish along the windy coasts- I think if I lived in California, I'd be outdoors every day, painting trees!

Please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if you would like to commission a painting similar to Eventide.

"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!

"Restoration in Progress"12x16, oil on panel, MAryanne JAcobsen art, Gloucester MAssachusetts, old boats, The Flight, paintings of old boats, welders, New England boats

"Restoration in Progress"12x16, oil on panel

Last spring, while up in Boston for my son's graduation, we took a day to visit Gloucester, one of the country's oldest fishing ports and a favorite haunt of mine whenever I'm up that way.

I always enjoy seeing all the old boats, and on this particular day "The Flight" was out of the water and being restored. I watched a man carefully welding her sides and I determined I had to paint her.

This one took mustering some courage before I even got started with it. I had to really concentrate on getting the details of the drawing correct, before I could move on to worrying about the paint application.

I also made some changes to the composition  in order to take some of the frivolous dock debris out of the background and replace it with the simpler suggestion of water and  distant shore.

Hopefully it doesn't look labored, but in truth it was a laborious task from start to finish!

"Pears, Peonies and Pentimento", 12x16, oil, peonies, pink, pentimento, MAryanne Jacobsen art

SOLD

"Pears, Peonies and Penitmento", 12x16, oil

It's rare that I can resist fresh peonies when I find them available in the supermarket. Especially in the winter when things can get a little dreary, even in Florida.

So I picked these up and painted them with some fresh pears that I had on hand. I played a little with the color in spots which was fun.

This painting was done on top of another painting that I decided was not one of my best efforts, so there's some really cool pentimento throughout. If you are not sure what pentimento is, you can read about it here.

"Red Umbrella", 9x12, oil on board, Paris, cityscape, small streets, LAtin Quarter, impressionism, alla prima, red umbrella

SOLD

"Red Umbrella", oil on board, 9x12

This was a quick study that I did last night of a little side street in Paris after a rainfall. My objective was to keep the painting fresh and the brushwork lively and not to overwork it. It was completed in just under 2 hours.

"Esperanza Roses and Watermelon", 16x16, oil on wrapped canvas, esperanza rose, hybrid rose, white, pink roses, watermelon, fruit, impressionism , still life with watermelon, Maryanne JAcobsen fine Art

SOLD

"Esperanza Roses and Watermelon", 16x16, oil on wrapped canvas

I recently discovered a new hybrid rose variety that I absolutely love. They are called esperanza roses.

They are delightfully pink on the top and then have shades of cream and apple green on the petals. I picked up a bunch of the in the supermarket and painted them recently in a green vase which i converted into a pitcher for artistic reasons. The watermelon was a nice compliment to the set-up and I was really happy with the way the painting turned out.

The painting is available through Galerie du Soleil in Naples, Florida. You can contact them at (239)417-3450 if you are interested in purchasing this painting.

Thanks for looking and happy New Year to all my collectors and artist friends!

"Shrimper's Sunrise", 10x20, oil on linen, Shem's Creek, Palm Avenue Fine Art, Charleston, South Carolina, American Impressionist Society, shrimp boats, bleu boats, Maryanne Jacobsen fine art, sunrise

SOLD

"Shrimper's Sunrise", 10x20, oil on linen

This painting was done from a photo I took of the shrimp boats at Shem's Creek in the early hours of daybreak. I was fortunate to have had a painting juried into the prestigious American Inpressionist Society show at the M Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina, and I made the most of the opportunity by taking a workshop from fabulous Master Impressionist Kenn Backhaus. Kenn took us over to Shrimp Boat Lane at Shem's Creek on Mt. Pleasant Island where we painted all day and I fell in love with all the magical nautical scenes.

The plein air sketches I did that day have sold- which is a good indication that I loved the scenery!!!! This one was painted later, from a photo, and it sold recently through the fabulous Palm Avenue Fine Art Gallery in Sarasota, Florida.

I used a limited palette of Yellow ochre, Lemon Yellow, Napthol Red, Permanent Magenta, Ultramarine Blue and Viridian, plus white for this one.When I commit myself to a limited palette I'm always successful and need to do this more often!

"Verte et Rouge", 11x14, oil on panel, green, red, floral, esperanza rose, apples, still life, palette knife

"Verte et Rouge", 11x14, oil on panel

I loved the way these two compliments played against each other as I painted this. I opted for cooler reds throughout, which made the warmer greens pop.

I guess with Christmas right around the corner, I had red and green on my mind.

This painting is available for $850. If you have any interest in this painting, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

"Almost Winter, Montmartre", 16x20, oil on board, Paris street scenes, Place du Tetre, Sacre Couer, nocturne, moon, Artists Quarters

"Almost Winter, Montmartre", 16x20, oil on board, (Copyright, 2015)

This scene has been painted thousands of times by artists all over the world. It's easy to see why. This is the Artists' Quarter in Paris, though Montmartre is truly a village unto itself at the north end of Paris. You can see Sacre Coeur lit up in the background, and if you don't know your history, you may not know that many of the residents of Montmartre were not happy when it was built in the early 1900's. It's not hard to figure out why, of course. Down the street a few blocks is the Moulin Rouge, a dance caberet hall where the "notorious" Can-Can was born. (I personally love the Can-Can myself and have been known to perform it on street corners at inopportune times.) Certainly the devil was NOT in the details when the church's founders were drawing up the plans!

At any rate, the scene above is the famous Place du Tetre where numerous artists, writers and poets would come to paint and frequent the coffee houses. It's still a haunt for the bohemian crowd, though it's become a horrendous tourist trap as well. In this painting, I really wanted to try to picture Montmartre in a gentler time, before dozens of tourists crowded it's narrow streets year round.

I wanted it to be a contemporary painting, while still maintaining vestiges of the older days. I hope I was successful.

"Pea Green Boat",8x8, oil on panel, owls, barn owl, cat, kitten, tabby cat, the owl and the pussycat, small paintings, moon , love, childhood poems, framed paintings, holiday gift ideas, romance

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

 I love Thanksgiving because it gives me an opportunity to step back and reflect on my blessings. It's a time to be surrounded by family and friends and to share love and blessings with others less fortunate.

The poem of "The Owl and the Pussycat" has been a favorite of mine since I was a child because it's filled with light, love and happiness. It's whimsical and a little corny, but in the end, it's a love story about how two unlikely characters come together in love. They didn't allow fur and feathers to separate them. The Turkey who lives on the hill, officiates the ceremony and instead of dining on the turkey they chose to eat mince and quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon of course.

  

At the end of this feast they danced hand and hand by the edge of the sand by the light of a beautiful moon. How cool is that????????

 

It is sad that this year so many people are mired in fear and hatred over things that are sometimes difficult to understand. I think it takes a conscious choice to choose love and joy over hatred and fear. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  has said so well:

 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: 
only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

May love and joy surround you this holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: This painting would make a lovely gift for that special someone with a romantic heart. It can be purchased framed as shown below in a lovely Randy Higbee floater frame for the special holiday price of only $400 plus shipping and including the frame! Send me an email if interested at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

"Morning Chill", 9x12, oil on linen, plein air , Coverdale Farm Preserve, Greenville, Delaware, Delaware Nature Society, Visual Art Center, Punta Gorda, Bill Farnsworth, red barns, autumn landscapes, harvest, award-winning art, MAryanne Jacobsen art

SOLD

"Morning Chill", 9x12, oil on linen, plein air (aka "October Morning")

This was painted on a frosty cold (29 degrees) morning at Coverdale Farms, near Wilmington , Delaware, during the Plein Air Brandywine Valley event last month. Coverdale Farms is a non-profit organization run by the Delaware Nature Society and it's a lovely place for artists to find inspiration. Red Barns, sheep, roosters, haybales- you name it. They were all there the morning I went there to paint, and the only dilemma was figuring out which scene to choose.

I finally chose to stand on the hill overlooking a red barn, spent cornfields and autumn-dipped trees, where a thermos of hot coffee kept my fingers from freezing while I painted.

Although I was seriously cold that morning, the funny thing about plein air painting is that you pretty much loose yourself in the moment and kind of forget your discomfort as you attempt to capture that all too fleeting light in the short span of maybe an hour or so.

 Recently I entered the painting into the "Harvest of Art" exhibit and fall festival at the Visual Art Center in Punta Gorda, Florida. There are many fun events that the art center is sponsoring in conjunction with the exhibit, so check out the info here if you enjoy Harvest celebrations in conjunction with beautiful art.

I was pleased to receive a merit award for this painting by juror, Bill Farnsworth, a very accomplished award-winning artist, who was this year's juror of awards. You can check out Bill's website here. The painting is available for purchase for $750. You can contact the art center directly to purchase or just send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

"Autumn Day at Marsh Creek", 9x12, plein air, Marsh Creek State PArk, Chester County paintings, autumn landscapes, fall, trees, oak trees Pennsylvania landscapes

"Autumn Day at Marsh Creek", 9x12, plein air

Marsh Creek State Park was about a ten minute drive from where I used to live in Chester Springs, PA., before moving to Florida. Our family had many happy times at that park. We would walk the trails, fish, canoe and wind surf in the lake and swim in the community pool on hot summer days. It was a great place for picnics and watching sunsets.

During our recent trip up north, I decided to go paint there. The trees did not disappoint, and one in particular seemed to be screaming, "Paint me! Paint me!"

So I did.

Feel free to email me at maryannejacobsen@aol.com if you are interested in this plein air sketch.