Posted on

More New Color Studies in Oil

Small Color Painting 2014-012
Oil on canvas
4″ x 4″
© 2014 Marilyn Fenn

Less flowy than the large painting I finished last night(!), I’m really grooving on these little color studies in oil. I did a couple last night; they are probably a little stiff, but there will be many more to come, I’m sure! Looking forward to seeing where all these experiments land me.

Posted on

Every Painting Takes on a Life of its Own

Flame Kiss
Oil on canvas
24″ x 24″
© 2014 Marilyn Fenn

This one started out as an attempt to reproduce at a larger scale a small acrylic from last summer…and it wasn’t working. I began to rework it in oil at the beginning of this year, and maybe it’s done now…not sure. I need to live with it for a bit and see what else, if anything, needs to happen.

Here is the painting as it was yesterday:

Flame Kiss, v1 – oil painting by Marilyn Fenn

Here is the small painting it was modeled on (quite a change, huh?):

“Composition Number 6, 2013,” Acrylic on panel, 8″ x 8″, © 2013 Marilyn Fenn
Posted on

Preparing for More Small Paintings

I added movable shelves to my pegboard system in the last week or so, so I have plenty of room for storing some small canvases while they dry. (some of the canvases on the shelves are to be painted or to be painted over, and some are done; there are a few I am undecided about, too).

Preparing new panels for painting:

New shelves for my drying mini paintings:

Sketching out compositions for small canvases:

Posted on

A Fun Experimental Painting

Small Daily Painting 2014-011
Oil on Masonite panel
10″ x 8″
© 2014 Marilyn Fenn

In between working on my series of color minis and larger works, I’m repainting some old failed works. This was one of my early experiments in acrylic, but is now more delightfully covered in oil paint; it has more or less the same color palette as the original, but the imagery is quite different! You can see the old intentionally scraped and gouged texture under the oils. Kind of fun, no?

Posted on

Rules for Composition

  1. Every picture is a collection of units or items.
  2. Every unit has a given value.
  3. The value of a unit depends on its attraction, and its attraction varies according to placement.
  4. A unit near the edge has more attraction than the same unit at the middle.
  5. Every part of the picture space has some attraction.
  6. Space without detail may possess attraction by gradation and by suggestion.
  7. A unit of attraction in an otherwise empty space has more weight through isolation than when placed with other units.
  8. A black unit on white or a white unit on black has more attraction than the same unit on grey.
  9. The value of a black or white unit is proportionate also to the size of the space that contrasts with it.
  10. A unit in the foreground has less weight than the same one in the distance.
  11. Two or more associated units may be reckoned as one.  Their united central point is the point on which they balance with others.

from “Composition in Art” by Henry Rankin Poore, page 10.

Posted on

From Richard Diebenkorn’s “Notes to myself on beginning a painting”

  1. Attempt what is not certain.  Certainty may or may not come later.  It may be a valuable delusion.
  2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued–except as a stimulus for further moves.
  3. Do search.  But in order to find other then what is searched for.
  4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.
  5. Don’t “discover” a subject–of any kind.
  6. Somehow don’t be bored–but if you must, use it in action.  Use its destructive potential.
  7. Mistakes can’t be erased, but they can move you from your present position.
  8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna.
  9. Tolerate chaos.
  10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

from “The Art of Richard Diebenkorn” by Jane Livingston, page 115.