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Progress Photos from the Painting “Food Forest”

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

Several people have told me how much they like seeing progress photos of paintings.  Soooooo, I thought I’d share with you all some of my progress shots from recent works, starting with “Food Forest.”

The process for this painting started with a photography session at an Urban Patchwork “food forest.”   Several artists were preparing work for a one-night show to benefit Austin’s Urban Patchwork community gardens.  I took quite a few photos, and then spent days just thinking about what I wanted my first painting for this show to be.  I came up with my composition using imagery drawn from many photos.

I also painted this in acrylic — Chroma’s Atelier Interactive acrylics, which is mostly what I’ve used when trying to paint in acrylic.  You may know that I’m an oil painter at heart, and find acrylics frustrating, but I knew I didn’t have time for a new oil painting to dry in time for the show, so acrylics it was to be.  (yikes!)

I started on a Friday afternoon and finished the following Monday, which is pretty fast for me to complete an entire painting this size.

I have to admit, shaking up my medium really worked in this instance.  I love this painting!  It now hangs in the living room, so I get to enjoy it every day.  Which is not to say that I won’t part with it.  🙂

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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.”

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New Painting: Hortical Mambo

"Hortical Mambo" Oil on canvas 16" x 20" © 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“Hortical Mambo” Oil on canvas 16″ x 20″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

Another little breakthrough!

I worked on this until 2am one night last week, then evaluated and made more changes the next day.  I ventured way out of my comfort zone in this painting, color-wise and otherwise, but in general, I like the direction.

Ostensibly, this is a painting of flowers, but the idea of flowers is really just something to give a bit of shape to the stuff of the painting–the paint, the colors, the shapes, the interactions.

What I love about working abstractly like this is that I cannot know what my painting will look like when I finish.  There’s no way I could make this painting happen except by painting it! I can make a few plans, but something in the work takes over and demands adjustments.  In this case, the adjustments were major. I love all the beautiful little moments and the unexpected, unplanned color mixes that happen when I work this way.

Maybe it’s just because I tend to be so literal when I work representationally.  When I begin a representational work, my aim is to make what I paint look like what I’m painting from. So I sort of know when I start what I expect my finished work to look like, and I know when I’m done.

This, on the other hand, is a journey into an unknown universe for me, and I love it!  Onward and upward in 2012!

*no actual flowers were harmed in the making of this painting

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New Painting: Frogs and Snails and Wiggledy Tails

"Frogs and Snails and Wiggledy Tails" Oil on canvas 18" x 18" © 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“Frogs and Snails and Wiggledy Tails” Oil on canvas 18″ x 18″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

My husband brought me flowers for our anniversary a couple weeks ago.  I got enchanted with the idea of using flowers as a way into shape creation for continuing my abstract paintings, but I was seduced by the representation of the irises and alstroemeria.  The vase in this painting is part representation, part abstraction; around the vase are some abstractions of some frog and snail toys (that you may or may not be able to discern), plus some shapes echoed from the abstracted reflections in the vase…and then there’s just some paint jazz. 😉

Abstract Art, colorful, flower paintings

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Artspoken 12×12 Opening

Artspoken 12×12 Opening

Wow! It was packed! We arrived almost at 6 on the dot, and the small gallery was already extremely crowded! It stayed that way the entire time, too.

Several people I knew showed up, even though I hadn’t managed to get my second invitation sent out to everybody. Met a couple of the women who run the gallery, who were both so very nice to me. They hung

It’s a nice space, too. I’m not sure you could have fit one more painting on the walls, though. 🙂

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Poppies Painting Series

“Impression of Poppies” Encaustic on Paper on Board, cradled 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
“Impression of Poppies” Encaustic on Paper on Board, cradled 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn

This series was inspired by a split-second view I had from BBC News of poppies growing in a field in Afghanistan — it just showed a couple of pods on stems. I took it from there. As with all my encaustic paintings, there is a depth of beauty to these that has to be seen in person to be appreciated.

"Poppies in Blowing Duststorm" Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12" x 12" © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
“Poppies in Blowing Duststorm” Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
"Poppies in a Windstorm" Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12" x 12" © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
“Poppies in a Windstorm” Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
"Stoic Poppies in an Earthquake" Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12" x 12" © 2007 Marilyn Fenn
“Stoic Poppies in an Earthquake” Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Board 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn