Available on my Etsy shop, Paintings by Marlene. Just click here.
Four Apricots
First Haircut
UCD Arboretum Gazebo
Since the pandemic began and the warm weather picked up, I started to join Philippe Gandiol‘s Plein Aire Class on Thursday mornings. With our masks on and practicing social distancing most of the time, we met at the UCD Arboretum. So Philippe demo this area; he used brushes but also palette knives to create his texture. I’ve tried that in my painting and found it more expressive.
Painting Pears
I’m back to painting still life, fruits to be exact. Fruits were my first subject matter when I wanted to tackle oils. But getting back into them is like visiting an old friend. Besides I was requested via Etsy to paint more fruit paintings.
“Brown and Green Pears” was worked on with oils and cold wax. I was able to applied a bit of collage in the background. I hope to paint more paintings with oils and cold wax to create the translucent look.
“Chinese Whiskey Jar and Asian Pear” was painted strictly with oils but I used a palette knife towards the end. There is something expressive that happens when I use the palette knife for accents.
Portrait Artist of the Week
The series Portrait Artist of the Year, a portrait artist competition held in Britain, decided to do a virtual competition on Facebook. The annual competition is a delight to watch where artists paints celebrity models in rounds to eventually win a commission to paint a prominent celebrity. For the virtual competition there was a model a week. Past winners of the competition are invited to paint the prominent model. Facebook viewers are invited to paint along to work from a screen shot and Then submit their portraits to be pick for first, second or third place winner for that week.
I was delighted to participate. I definitely got my practice in. So below are 8 of the 9 people painted. I used a limited palette of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red and ivory black. Though sometime I would used burnt umber and ultramarine blue to make black. I discovered that when mixing the black this way I can make it as cool or warm when I needed it. It was a good time to experiment with different palette arrangements.
Akirm Kahn, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Bernardine Evaristo, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Clare Balding, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Mary Beard, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Noel Fielding, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Robert Rimer, PAOTW 2020, 7×5 inches, oil on canvas panel
Tom Mead, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Will Young, PAOTW 2020, 8×6 inches, oil on canvas panel
Ginger Jar Commission
A commission for a Ginger Jar. This was a bit of a challenge because of the detailed design on the jar. But I found a brush, Silver Bristlon Round 0 that worked perfectly with fine details. My main objective in this painting was to created feeling of roundness, protruding out of the canvas.
Two Small Dogs Portraits
Found this little dog portraits of two little dogs. Available for purchase on my DailyPaintworks
Doolin Pet Commission
Another commissioned finished!
Since I had painted his ears off to the sides the 3D effect was quite noticeable. I have to say I do like this effect.
Some preliminary studies. I find doing a pencil drawing and a transparent red oxide underpainting helps me to get into the mood of painting a commission.
This was my photo reference. Nice, clear photo with some lighting off to the side is a perfect photo for commissions.
Musicians
A walk through memory lane.
These paintings of musicians were done back in 2014 from photos I had taken. The guitarists were performing in Woodland during the Art Walk. I believe the harmonica player was in Davis for the Second Friday ArtAbout. (I missed those days!) It’s been awhile.
Guitarist 2014
Harmonica Player 2014
Red Guitar 2014
These paintings are available in my Etsy shop.
