From a plein air session at Cliffs Mines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Beautiful day, I wanted to capture the indecision of this bunch of birch.
Category Archives: Gestures
The Wind was Bitterly Cold
The Wind Was Bitterly Cold, 9×6″ pastel on sanded paper. ©2018 Marie Marfia
It made my ears ache.
This painting is on ebay as of 9pm tonight. Bidding starts at 99¢.
No. 86, Arielle
This woman. She is full of ideas, and mischief, which is kind of the same thing. I wanted to paint her in the style of an artist I only just found out about this morning, Richard Suckling. His plein aire landscapes are full of big marks and squiggly lines and I want my art to be like that, so today I did a more gestural drawing to start with and then I made sure I stopped before I’d completely covered it up. I like the lines! I think they give my work a more dynamic feel. And Arielle is the perfect subject for this, because she’s all about movement. She wants to do things, to change things, to make things better. She’s a mover and a shaker and this is what I see reflected in this portrait. Aahh! Love it.
Ariel, No. 23, 100 Portraits in 100 Days, 6×9″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
You may remember Arielle as this skull painting (No. 23 in this series), as well. She’s awesome on the inside, too.
Arielle, No. 86, 100 Portratis in 100 Days, 6×9″ pastel on gessoed mat board by Marie Marfia
Sketching op
The internet can be magical. This morning I was wondering what to paint for a quick study and then I remembered the Eagle Cam that was featured on the npr website and voila! I had a subject all ready for me.
I put down my oatmeal, grabbed my pastels and a piece of paper and had about five minutes before she/he got up and presented me with a different view. I quit then because my breakfast was getting cold. Here’s the result from this morning. I think I’ll go back again this evening and see what kind of light is available when the sun is on other other side.
Eagle Nesting, study, 6×9″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
It got me thinking that there are probably a million web cams pointing to interesting scenes from all over the world. I don’t have to fly anywhere to find something to paint. I can sit at my monitor and pick something at random.
Stealth sketching
I decided to try to get some sketching in while I was waiting for my number to be called at the Tax Collector’s Office today.
It felt kind of funny to be one of the only people out of about fifty-some that wasn’t on a cellphone. It was just me, a couple of elderly ladies, and a toddler or two. The toddlers looked like they would have liked to play on a phone. The one that was directly in front of me settled for poking at the walker belonging to the old lady next to me.
I haven’t yet worked up the nerve to ask someone to let me take a picture of them to use to draw with. My friend Cynthia does this all the time. I swear I’ll do it. One of these days.
This was fun, though. The first one is of a young woman who was intent on her smartphone. She had lightning fast texting skills. The other was of a woman leaning on the counter to my left. I liked the way her shirt draped in folds across her back. These are the first of more sketches to come, I hope. I want to do more of it, whenever I can, instead of automatically going for a distraction, like sudoku puzzles or imgur.
