The following year, we progressed to oil painting, but only in black and white for the first semester so that we would gain a complete understanding of values and, at the same time, learn how to manipulate the oil paint.
When we did introduce color at the end of my sophomore year, we were only allowed to use the three primary colors plus white so we could still concentrate on values and not be confused with the myriad of colors available in tubes to the aspiring artist. I remember being especially intrigued with Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine Blue and Venetian Red and how those three colors, along with white could make any of the colors and values that I needed. As an extra bonus, the use of a limited palette insured that the colors were repeated throughout the painting and therefore unified the painting with a pleasing color harmony. These three paintings were done with only the three primary colors and white. Look how many beautiful colors and tones you can get with only three colors. My junior year we finally got to use a full palette of colors.
My senior year, I took a watercolor class, from a wonderful oriental lady who influenced my choice of media for many years. We painted "en plein air" (outdoors) a lot, and I loved being able to finish a painting in three to four hours rather than several days. After I graduated, I continued painting in watercolors and, over the next 20 years, studied under several well known watercolor artists (Zolton Szabo, William Mangum, Judi Wagner, Jeanne Carbonetti, Mona Wu, Keith Rose, Sterling Edwards, Chuck McLaughlin, and Dorothy Nowell.)
And now . . . the FUN part . . . just soak in these gorgeous vivid colors . . .
About 15 years ago, I began experimenting with pastels, (love these things) . . . as I was fascinated with the vivid, vibrant colors and the directness of application. The new pastel papers and surfaces available now allow one to actually paint with pastels, even though they are dry. Previously, pastel was regarded as a drawing medium and done almost exclusively on Canson MiTientes drawing paper. I have continued to love painting with pastels and have studied with Bob Rohm, Kitty Wallis. Albert Handell and Louise West, Doug Dawson, Jack Pardue, Diane Johnson, Susan Ogilvie, Margaret Dyer, Elsie Popkin, and Dee Beard-Dean.
About the same time, I began working exclusively in pastels. I became interested again in drawing and painting portraits and figures. I had the privileged opportunity to study with and become good friends with internationally known artists, Scott Burdick and his wife, Susan Lyon who live nearby.
Other portrait artists I have had the opportunity to work with over the years include Daniel Greene, Marcus Blahove, Margaret Dyer, Steve Childs, Clayton Beck, Paul McCormack, Tom Edgerton, Patricia Williams and Abbe Rose Cox. Portraiture continues to be a favorite subject of mine.
In my new blog I will share with you some of my completed paintings, some of the paintings that I am currently working on, and I will address some of the questions that you might have:
Why did I choose the subject I did?
How did I decide how to arrange things in my paintings?
How did I begin?
What did I do as the painting progressed?
How did I know when I was finished?
Hopefully it will convince you that you can paint and to believe in yourself. Here are some of my paintings in various subject matter:
portraits/figures
gardens/landscapes
buildings/houses
oceans/sealife
still life/ florals
abstracts
and media:
charcoal
conte
pastel
pen and ink
watercolor
oil
mixed media
You can view other paintings on my website at www.marshathrift.com
PORTRAITS / FIGURES
"What a joy it is to capture the likeness of another human being. It has
been said . . .
that the eyes are the window through which we glimpse the soul.
That's my favorite thing to paint – souls!"
that the eyes are the window through which we glimpse the soul.
That's my favorite thing to paint – souls!"
-- Ann Manry Kenyon
CHARCOAL
CONTE
PASTEL
WATERCOLOR
OIL
GARDENS / LANDSCAPES
"The sky is the 'source of light' in nature, and governs everything."
-- John Constable
PASTEL
OIL
WATERCOLOR
BUILDINGS / HOUSES
"The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul
of our own civilization.”
of our own civilization.”
-- Frank Lloyd Wright
PEN & INK
OIL
PASTEL
WATERCOLOR
OCEANS / SEA LIFE
"I know that to
paint the sea really well, you need to look at it every hour of every
day in the same place so that you can understand its way in that
particular spot."
-- Claude Monet
OIL
PASTEL
WATERCOLOR
STILL LIFE / FLORAL
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that
I couldn't say any other way--
things I had no words for."
-- Georgia O'Keefe
PASTEL
WATERCOLOR
ANIMALS / PETS
"Is there any more mysterious idea for an artist than the conception of how nature is mirrored in the eyes of an animal? How does a horse see the world, or an eagle,
or a doe, or a dog?"
-- Franz Marc
OIL
PASTEL
WATERCOLOR
ABSTRACTS
| "The
beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the
most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it." -- Gustave Courbet |
MIXED MEDIA
ACRYLIC
"Great
art picks up where nature ends."
-- Marc Chagall
-- Marc Chagall
No comments:
Post a Comment