For Sale – Page 4 – Marianne Thompson

For Sale

December 17th, 2013

December 17th, 2013
Backyard, Massachusetts
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

Well there has been so much snow, I really couldn’t stand not painting it. Today there’s a snow storm, which was just beginning as I went out with my palette, canvas and knife to capture the world around me. Well not capture, really; I take no prisoners. ‘Commune with’ is a better way of putting it. The photo above is the painting when I had run out of white and had to stop. All those really artistic and beautifully placed snowflakes are, of course, snowflakes, not paint. There is a finished version that someone is making me feel insecure about so it may or may not really be done – but the exercise, of painting out in the snow and the 14 degree weather, was delightful. I love winter!

November 30th, 2013

November 30th, 2013
Half Moon Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in

As usual the day after a painting day, this is a lousy photo taken in low light. Saturday was a cold day, and my perch on top a big granite boulder in the ocean wind did nothing to remedy the fact. I painted until my hands were so cold I could no longer hold my knife. The view that had taken me when I arrived was of the dark shore & boulder offset by a few brilliant twinkles of sunlight on the water, but as the day wore on the sun went in and the colors came out. I decided to try and key it back to when the sun was out and the land was in shadow, but there are a few things I still need to fix. The next two weeks I may not post (though I hope I do) as I’ll be manning my “open studio” all weekend long, Dec 7-8 and Dec 14-15.

November 23rd, 2013

This is November 23rd as it stands on the afternoon of the 24th. The difference in tone (between how it looks above and how it looks below) is only due to a lack of sunlight/presence of electric light in the room the photo was taken.

November 23rd, 2013
Stage Fort Park, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

I am still transfixed by the beauty of light shining through dead and dying leaves; they look like jewels to me, much more captivating even than flowers at their peak. I’m still trying to achieve the effect that besots me. In this photo, the canvas is blocking the rocks that explain the blue/greens in the painting. I’m heading out shortly to finish this, I hope it gets better not worse.

November 16th, 2013

November 16th (and counting)
Half Moon Beach, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in

Not done yet. On Saturday, I was moving with all the elan and brio of a comatose slug swimming upstream through a sea of frozen molasses. I got to Gloucester late, and once I had set up I realized I had forgotten paper towel – without which I really can’t paint. So rather than return all the way to the car, which seemed like oceans, decades, lightyears away I found a pencil and decided I would just draw. Luckily David Curtis showed up with his generous good nature and brought me some. It was beautiful there as it always is and the colors are always the best part. I focused on the foreground and water while I was there, and mixed the colors for but did not complete the opposite shore and sky. I filled in what I could in the studio the next day.

October 19th, 2013

Finished

October 19th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

When I began this painting, the sky was bright blue and the sun was high – as a result, the bleached log was blue (as in the painting) from reflecting the sky. As the day wore on, the sky changed as did all the colors. I had the same struggle I keep having – I’m painting with the conscious intention of making it look fairly real, but I’ve chosen the scene because I love the rhythm I see in the design. You can’t serve two masters, as they say, and I keep getting torn between the literal and the ornamental – and making a mess. I was happy, though, taking this picture on site, that the color of the leaves (oak) is so well matched you can hardly tell where the painting ends and the ground begins. I’ve decided I may do 10 mins of work on it tomorrow, maximum. The worst thing I can do is overwork these things (see last week’s.)

NB- It is now Sunday, and I’ve decided to leave it as is. Yesterday David Curtis told me it was better than I thought, and that I should go home, get something to eat, get some sleep, and look at it again in the morning. I did, and I like it enough to not want to take the risk of “improving” it.

October 12th, 2013

October 12th, 2013
Sumac Attack
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in

This painting needs a little settling down, but I’m posting it as it stands for the time being. It was a dark, overcast day and the sumac was festive among the bare bushes it grew in. I was looking through the leaves and branches to a stone bench nestled within.

Fireweed

Fireweed
October 5th, 2013
Lake, Ipswich MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

I was driving to the usual place this morning, and came across this pond I’ve seen and wanted to paint many times. It was all lit up and aglow with fall, and I had to paint it. It was an overcast day which really gives the colors life, and I tried, as usual, to communicate my experience of that spectacular riot of color. Once I had the piece home to finish, away from the location of the scene (the canvas was fully covered, it was just a matter of finishing / settling) the focus was on balance of color, line and motion. This photo doesn’t do it justice, I will retake when the weather / light is better.

September 14th, 2013

September 14th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 20 x 24 in

This is a long way from done, but I am posting it as it stands right now because I left the field today just teeming with shame and frustration, I thought the painting was so horrible that I couldn’t do anything but race to my car and try to drive away and forget. I took its picture (in a dark driveway, so don’t take the colours and light too literally) as a sort of punishment to myself, so I could look at it all night on my phone and brood about my failure. But when I looked at it on my phone, prepared for the weeping and gnashing of teeth these things generally warrant, I just thought “Oh. Huh. Well, that’s actually a little pretty. Maybe I overreacted.” There is still plenty I can see to improve. But it’s nice to be free of some of the drama I had bound myself in.

September 7th, 2013

September 7th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in

This painting is a testament to how comfortable I can be with chaos. I believe that ultimately order will emerge, and in the meantime, I’m content to sit within the friction between tones. There’s a rhythm to this painting. I was looking into a tangle of vines, there was a stunning cluster of glowing red leaves. The sun filtering into the bush resulted in some pretty incredible jewel tones. It’s the surprise of that incredible glow that struck me, and I think that’s why I’m not interested in making that firey centre look more literal. I captured the surprise. I captured what happens when I look into a tangle of such beauty as this – the devolution of form to the intrusion of glorious light. I have yet to get a really good photo of it, I’ll keep trying and update.

NB – Just added this to “Matching Scene to Painting”

August 24th, 2013

August 24th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

It was a day of multiple missed connections, in the human sphere, but I communed cheerfully with the woods around me.