… more metallic surfaces. Adding colors is purely fun.
…practice
art
Wee bowls
My step-mom, Betty, was a potter. People now say ‘ceramicist’, but I will use the term she used. She made many useful items, including all of the dishes we used every day. She also made decorative things, vases, and even a full chess set once! No other potter I had seen the work of carved into their pots the way she did. She made many interesting patterns.
Here are a couple of tiny paintings I did to record my step-mom’s sweet little bowls.
metallic surfaces
Stainless steel-yikes! This one actually metal. I was hesitant to try it, definitely fine over an old painting. ‘You have to start somewhere department’ as my mother might have said.
#allaprima #allaprimapainting #twohourstilllife #paintingpractice
Differences
When the King tides photography project came up, I remembered these rocks painted during a normal high tide. It was a foggy, grey day, but these rocks jumped out strongly while everything else was in the background and soft. I felt a little bit of color would make it feel more “welcoming”. Hey-it’s my painting, I can do whatever I want with it!
#landscape #landscapepainting #waterscape #oilpainting #hightide #contemporarypainting #californiacoast #bayarea #shorebirdpark
Pontessieve Village from a Winery
This distant view of Pontessieve Village was one I started while on my last trip to Italy. There were a lot of foggy, overcast days, but they sometimes make surprisingly interesting moods. This day had started out with a complete whiteout, but then lightened a bit as the day went on.
You can buy this little painting on Daily Paintworks, it is featured today https://bit.ly/3uhZLEM
a young lady
While I often paint using a limited palette this young lady required more colors. She is so fair and blonde, her features become just mildly prominent. I like to try to get a feeling for the person while painting, and, to me, her face seems to shine kindness, fairness, even-temperedness, and I’m sure she is all of those things!
unforeseeable results
alla prima – over another painting. why does this work more frequently than when painting on a blank canvas?? Maybe it’s more freeing, since you feel like the original, no matter how hard you worked on it, wasn’t working and so whatever you do will be better than ditching the canvas? It still needs a little work, but I like the rough and fresh quality of it, so hope not to ruin that. Wish me luck!
still counting? face 50
a carpenter from Elk, California who has worked on boat projects as well. The right paper helps! This portrait was easier to work on than the last one. I was wanting to try lots of detail in the hair, but set the drawing up too small for that.
Garapata Park
The Pacific Ocean feels giant all along the coast south of Carmel. Maybe it’s the mountains alongside which partly give it scale.
This painting will go into the Arts Benicia member show next week, I hope you can join me at the reception!
Art of the Community 2019
Reception is Saturday, January 26, 6:00-8:00 pm
at Arts Benicia Gallery
991 Tyler St. Suite 114, Benicia CA 94510
—how to pronounce the name of this park:
put together two short sounds: gara + pata
workshop with Randall Sexton
faces 50, 51, 52
Weekend Warriors – 2-day portrait workshop. Randy is a great teacher – relaxed but informative and supportive. I find his work inspiring, wonderful images capturing a feeling of a place without being slavishly detailed, and lots of luscious brushwork.
These are two sketches and a full-day portrait which I did over this intensive weekend. I scrubbed one. It’s good to throw paintings over sometimes, it makes it easier to abandon those which aren’t going in the intended direction. Don’t hang on – move forward!!
Micaela Marsden 