Gallery on Daily Paintworks

If you have been wanting to add any of my little (or big!) paintings to your collection and wondering how — I now have a convenient spot to find and purchase them on Daily Paintworks. They accept PayPal, and I can ship anywhere in the U.S., and maybe even further away once I research that. If you are outside of the U.S., please contact me and we’ll see how that could work.

https://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/micaela-marsden-14063

I am accepting commissions for portraits of children as well. Please contact me by comment here, or DM me on Facebook or Instagram. Thank you!

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 goat among the grapes

This vineyard painting was beginning in an abstract way, but I didn’t know where to go next. I thought of completing it as a traditional plein air painting, but I really liked the graphic stripes that were there — so I split the difference and added a goat painted in a loose way, with some unusual colors.

a Fainting Goat

Painting the painters!

Although I really enjoy doing Plein air painting with my painting buddies, sometimes I just want to paint them instead the landscape. Trees, hills and sky can be wonderful, but it’s nice to change it up occasionally.

If you take a moment to think about it, you could paint anything outside and it would be “plein air” — you could paint an abstract! A couple of weekends ago, I decided to just give it a try. This was not done all at once, I added the artist watching who arrived later, so it can’t be called “alla prima”. Why is it that we use terms in other languages to describe some of these things? Maybe it’s because we feel like it gives it more gravitas or legitimacy as art or something.

day 8. Marin coast

in Marin – along the coast. a sunny calm day.

Pierce Point

day 7. seeing through the trees

this little watercolor was intended to be a literal rendering of the trees but it was rather winsome at this stage, I thought. All this wonderful transparency, we wish we saw more of “out there” as well!

Carmet Beach

This is an “alla prima” or “all at once” painting from a few months past up on the Sonoma Coast. It works better from a distance than right up close, as you get more of the feeling of the coast stretching off South. I may work on it some more, in the studio.

Carmet Beach, looking south

Plein Air Painters of Mendocino – Annual show!

Hi all,

I will be participating in the Plein Air Painters of Mendocino Annual show which starts Friday, March 7. This is primarily a landscape show, as you may have guessed, with a popular subject being the beautiful Mendocino coast. If you are planning to visit the coast, this is a good month to do it as it —  the whales are normally migrating north in March. They come very close to shore at this point in California, and you can easily see them at Point Cabrillo as well as all up and down the coast. Come up, and enjoy whale sighting and check out the art!

Plein Air Painters of Mendocino annual show

Open Studios – starting tomorrow!

I will be in Jack London Square at the Pavilion Building, as in past years. It’s such a great, airy, open space, really pleasant. I have new plein air work from around the Bay Area, and Mendocino.

We are the largest group showing in one location in the entire East Bay Open Studios, and we have teamed up with another group just a few doors down at Market Hall, so between the two locations there are 80 artists.

Hours and days: Saturday & Sunday — two weekends — June 1 & 2, June 8 & 9 — open 11 am to 6 pm

It’s just plein fun!

Hope to see you there!

Keyhole Rock Mendocino  20 x 16 oils

Frank Bette Plein Air Paintout-Old Crane by the Ferry landing

While trying to squeeze in a few paintings for the last week’s plein air paintout in Alameda, someone told be that this old crane by the ferry landing at the north end of the island will be torn down soon. If we had the relative strength of an ant, we wouldn’t need these, I think it’s fascinating how we create these things which help us do amazing feats of construction which we couldn’t otherwise do.
A lot of people commented on this painting. You can see it at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts at 1601 Paru Street, Alameda August 10-September 29. There may be a reception, if so, I’ll post that soon.