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New Work: Food Forest

"Food Forest" Acrylic on canvas 24" x 30" © 2012 Marilyn Fenn
“Food Forest” Acrylic on canvas 24″ x 30″ © 2012 Marilyn Fenn

I really enjoyed painting this new work of three artichokes in three stages of growth as seen in an urban food forest.  It’s my first return to acrylics on canvas in 4 years, and — as seems to happen so often when I switch mediums — the change causes some unexpected and delightful creative things to occur.  I’m quite pleased with the result.  🙂

This painting will be part of my work at the one-night-only 4th Annual GROW Forth! art show benefiting Urban Patchwork Neighborhood Farms here in Austin, happening this Saturday.

More info on the show is available on the Facebook Event page.  I will be showing with five other Austin artists: metal sculptor Anne Woods, photographer and painter Ann Woodall, painter Pat Strong, ceramic artist Michael Merritt, and mixed media artist Stephanie Rubiano.  Come join us!

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New Painting: Ovation in Pinks

Ovation in Pinks - Oil on canvas - 12 x 12 inches - copyright 2012 Marilyn Fenn
“Ovation in Pinks” Oil on canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2012 Marilyn Fenn

Here is the first painting I have completed this year.  It started as something even more abstract back in November, but I couldn’t quite resolve it into a painting that worked back then, so I repainted it, and now it has become an abstract floral work.  I really love how it came out.

Here is how it looked after a few days of work back in November and what it is now:

A Real Slow Trip - Oil on Canvas - 12x12 inches - copyright 2011 Marilyn Fenn
Original
Ovation in Pinks - Oil on canvas - 12 x 12 inches - copyright 2012 Marilyn Fenn
Final version
As you can see, there are a few parts that remained more or less intact and a lot of additions and modulations.  That groovy shape in the top center just didn’t work here, but three calla lily-type flowers have taken its place rather nicely.

I didn’t want to lose that wonderful diamond-shaped bit of fuchsia towards the upper right, and I think it came out really well being made into a “flower.”  She’s kind of queenly, I think, and seems to be engaged in a dialogue with the fuchsia flower in the center, or maybe they form a trio of fuchsia flowers with the one below both of them.

Scream - detail
Scream – detail

The other part I was quite attached to was the little blue “mouth “engaged in a scream in the green flower on the upper left (when the painting was turned 90 degrees):

Some brushstrokes just can’t be duplicated (well not mine; not yet, at any rate), so this little guy remains even if it’s no longer so clear that it was a mouth screaming.

“Ovation in Pinks” is available from my new shop site, here: “Ovation in Pinks.”