September 16th-INCOMPLETE

Life has been fun and busy these last couple of months. I’ve had two milestones to celebrate. One being selling my first ever painting in a gallery at the Tomato Art Fest in East Nashville. The second is I’m going to be merchandising my art, cards and ornaments at a new store on 8^th Avenue called Erabellum. These are two things I had no expectation of accomplishing this year. So, I am very happy and thankful.

As you might imagine, this has left me with a lot of unfinished work. At least half of it gets painted over as I’m working it. I guess I just envision that the finished product is not going to cut it, so I abandon ship half way through. There is good in this too though, as I am learning quickly and improving.

There is a down side to it too. Looking at some of these photos of the incomplete paintings, I can’t help but wonder what some of them would have turned out to look like. I’m going to spend the next few weeks sharing them with you. Then, it’s back to finished works. So, they will just be the painting and dimensions. Not much if any commentary.

There is a lot of value in seeing something all the way through I believe. You’ll never know what your capable of unless you commit to complete things, regardless of the results.

Marisa Ray

September 9th-Autumn In The Valley

I've done a lot of snow scenes this year, so this painting was an intentional detour from that. It was almost like I was painting snow by default, not even realizing it. For this piece, I wanted to do a valley-like scene with a few houses in the distance. The structures here are not the entire focus, although they are part of the center of interest. I also wanted to incorporate birch trees, which I have a growing fondness for; the way they tower over the landscape. I was hesitant to put leaves at first, as it had been a while since I'd done so, painting bare winter trees for so long.

The light in this piece is softer than the stronger red tones I've used in the past. I aslo did not use any white in this painting, rather I chose unbleached titanium, which is more of a dull cream tone. I like the effect it gave.

Title: "Autumn In The Valley"

Size: 8 x 10 inches

Medium: Acrylic on panel

September 2nd-Open Mic At The Blueberry Cafe

Well everybody, here it is. Officially the silliest painting I've ever done! I decided to include one funny painting for this years Tomato Art Fest. I can't tell you how many nights I spent at open mic nights. The Gibson Cafe, The Commodore, Bluebird, French Quarter, etc. Some of these clubs are closed down, which is a bummer. I remember waiting until 10 or 11pm to get on stage. By the time I did, there were a few people in the audience, and mostly other musicians waiting to get on stage. I finally quit going to them, and just decided to spend the time working on songs at home.

Title: "Open Mic At The Blueberry Cafe"

Size: 11 x 14 inches

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

TOMATO ART FEST

Art and Invention Gallery

August 26th-Fall In Provence

This painting is a copy, meaning I painted it myself, but the actual composition idea is from a book. The only thing I did different than the original is I added the patch of greens in the lower right corner, and different splashes of color around the picture. I did this as an exercise (a tedious one I might add) to practice what many artists call the troublesome greens.
The original was done by a canadian artist named Ian Roberts. It can be found in his book entitled, Mastering Composition. I'm learning a lot from that book, including the importance of softening edges; managing cool and warm sections, etc.
This is also the first time I have done a painting with a golden light tone all over. You know I do the reds, and have been working on the blue tones as well. Completing this painting has given me charge to take on one with identical tones, only this time the canvas is EXTRA large! I'll post in a few months.
Title: Fall In Provence (NFS)
Size: 9 x 12 inches
Medium: Acrylic on canvas

August 19th-Blue Landscape #1

I've been working on this type of landscape for a while, but really had yet to publish one. I did show you a painting with similar tones a couple months back called "Icy Winter", although I really wasn't happy how it turned out. I think this one is a lot better. I'm really having a lot of fun painting just landscapes. When I first started painting, I did a lot of houses and cottages. Sometimes I think (not in all of them) that the landscape suffered, because many times I was just winging it.
I have found several good books to help guide me through this process. Many of them talk about drawing out your compostion from several different angles. When I first started doing art a while back I quite a bit of drawing, but now I am just too eager to start painting. I need to discipline myself more to draw. With my commitment of one painting per week this year, I find myself always in a rush to get the next one done.
Anyways, you should see several more blue landscapes as time goes on.
Title: "Blue Landscape #1
Size: 5 x 7 inches
Medium: Acrylic on board

August 12th-Sun Kissed Winter

Here is a small landscape I've done, entitled "Sun Kissed Winter". You might be thinking, 'Gosh, you paint a lot of reddish winter scenes!' I know I do. Part of the reason is I'm just drawn to snow scenes. Secondly, it's this particular toning I'm most acquainted with. I hope to master it someday.
Secondly, there are a lot of unfinished paintings here at my home studio that you haven't scene, that are blueish toned. I find that harder, so a lot of them sit on a shelf while I wait for clues from above on what to do with them. I'm working on them though, and I hope to publish them on this blog very soon.

Title: "Sun Kissed Winter"
Size: 7 1/2 x 3 3/4 inch
Medium: Acyrlic on wood

August 5th-"Winter River Bend"

"It's almost too pretty....kind of like a Kinkade." Those were the words one of my peers used when giving me feedback on this painting a few months back. I knew by the way he'd said it that he couldn't be a fan of Thomas Kinkade (not many people in the art world are). I'll admit I think his later works were over done, however I've admired his paintings since I was a kid, especially in the 90's.

Last year I heard another artist say, "Paintings should be representative of reality." When she said it I wholeheartedly disagreed. I think there should be realistic features in art no doubt, but I also think art should ultimately make people long for a better world and existence. After all, we were made for Eden.

Title: "Winter River Bend"
Size: 8 x 10 inches
Medium: Acrylic on board