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New Painting: Fifteen Minutes for a Quarter

"Fifteen Minutes for a Quarter" Oil on canvas 5" x 5" © 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“Fifteen Minutes for a Quarter” Oil on canvas 5″ x 5″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

This is the third and final little rubber robot toy; this one is kind of a speed racer.  He was both hard and fun to paint.  He’s very small and yet full of so much detail, but the detail is so tiny, it’s hard to discern.  His little face is actually not very detailed and kind of strange-looking.  Each of these little guys is in fact a slightly different color; one is more bright green, one more army green, and this one is in-between bright and army green.

I aimed again for looseness with these last two paintings; it continues to be a struggle to overcome 20 years of painting habits, but I’m not unhappy with these.

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New Painting: It Was This Big!

"It Was This Big!" Oil on canvas 5" x 5" © 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“It Was This Big!” Oil on canvas 5″ x 5″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

This is the second of three little rubber robot toys that have accompanied me on my desktop computers for at least the past 15 years.  (Don’t tell the other two, but this guy is my favorite of the three).  His posture kind of reminds me of Kevin Kline’s character in “Dave,” hence the title.

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New Painting: Et Tu Klaatu?

"Et Tu Klaatu?" Oil on canvas 5" x 5" © 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“Et Tu Klaatu?” Oil on canvas 5″ x 5″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

With last night’s painting I am asking myself if what I am trying to achieve is looser and better brushwork while standing at arm-plus-brush length from the canvas, why am I using little toys for models that are sometimes as small as 1-1.5 inches high?   I can barely see them from my vantage point, and find that I do have to move in closer from time to time.

On the other hand, I am really enjoying painting paintings of these little toys, even though their tiny size is not as conducive to my loosening up as, say, a basket of apples would be.  Well, it’s all a process, and with each new (almost) daily painting, I learn a little more or gain a little confidence.  Tonight, I was quite pleased with a few really good brushstrokes, and sometimes, that’s enough.  🙂

As with all of my small still life paintings here, it is painted on a 1.25″ deep gallery wrapped canvas with the sides painted black, so it is ready to hang on a wall, without a frame (it would also look great in a floater frame).

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New Painting: “Wensleydale?”

"Wensleydale?" Oil on canvas 4" x 4" copyright 2011 Marilyn Fenn
“Wensleydale?” Oil on canvas 4″ x 4″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

Here’s another tiny painting of a little desk toy — this one of a flipping mouse.  I seem to get tighter one day, looser the next, tighter the day after that.  This one’s tighter; I was aiming for looser.  Gonna be a hard habit to break, that tight close blending style of painting.