Click to bid • 10x8in. • soft pastel on textured gator board • starts at $100
Sometimes I like to loosen up with an abstract based on the subject for the day. This is from a photo of Steve holding Niall, our grandson.
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I was looking at a cheat sheet that I got a number of years ago when I attended a Margaret Dyer workshop and I thought, I would like to do a pastel with a person in it, so I searched my photos for people and this picture of my granddaughter showed up.
The reference photo I used.
I wondered about the cropping on the photo, whether it would work as a painting or not and then I thought, who cares? and just dived in.
Here’s the time lapse video:
Maeve on the Beach, study.
I’ve been using an underpainting method that Lana Ballot teaches that’s mostly purples and I adapted it to the method that Margaret Dyer taught in her figure study class. I like the richness of color that the purple gives to the successive layers of pastel. I have another picture that shows more of the hat Maeve was wearing and I may combine the two in another, larger, version of this piece.
For now, it’s just fun to walk into the studio in the morning and paint whatever I want without thinking too hard about my choices.
Here’s the result of about a half hour session:
Maeve on the Beach, study, soft pastel on sanded paper, 5 in x 7 in.
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Thank you, Anna, for asking me to paint this portrait of your great Aunt Ardice. She’s beautiful.
Aunt Ardice, soft pastel on sanded paper, 10 in x 8 in, sold.
If you are interested in a portrait commission, please check out my commissions page for pricing and then contact me.
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Thank you, Suzanne, for asking me to paint your beautiful mom. It was a pleasure.
Marie Marfia, Suzanne’s Mom, 9 in x 6 in, soft pastel on textured board,sold.
If you are interested in a commissioned portrait of someone you love, check out my commissions page and then contact me. I’d love to make a piece just for you.
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Hey, y’all. I’m planning to teach a pastel portrait class from 6-9pm on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, 107 S. Harrison St., Ludington, Michigan.
I will provide everything you need to make an 8×10″ pastel portrait on sanded paper. There will be paper already mounted on a board, there will be a large selection of pastels to choose from, although you can certainly bring your own (not oil pastels, though, cuz that’s a different can of worms). All you need to do is bring a reference photo of either an animal face or a human face.
Please note: the reference photo should be 8×10″ with the size of the head measuring at least 7″ from top of the brow to the chin. There’s some leeway here, but basically, I want you to be able to draw a face that’s large enough to easily put some details in.
We’re going to be using the grid method of making a portrait. So you’ll draw a 1 inch grid on your reference and then a 1 inch grid on your sanded paper. This will let you get a pretty good likeness right from the get go.
If you want to participate, you should go to LACA’s website, and register for the pastel portrait workshop. Cost is $25 for members and $30 for non-members. There is a limit of 6 people.
Here are a couple of time lapse videos showing the process.
Maeve Speaks Out, soft pastel on sanded paper, 10×8″. NFS.
Roger Dodger You Old Codger, soft pastel on sanded paper, 8×10″. NFS.
Hope to see you there!
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This is a portrait of me and my husband from a selfie I took a while ago. We were out walking around Magoon Creek, which is about a half hour north of where we live along Lake Michigan. It’s a really pretty spot to wander in, with a wooded area, a creek and then a long strip of beach. It was late fall when we were out there, pre-pandemic. The sun was shining in our faces, the wind was blowing. It was a glorious day.
Later, after I stopped recording the time lapse of this piece, I ended up overworking it and lost whatever likeness I’d achieved earlier. Sigh. It happens. Just means I need to do more of these and more often.
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It was a beautiful day to paint outdoors, warm and sunny with a bit of a breeze. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my friends, Deb, Mary and Sue. They’d registered to paint in the Festival of the Arts Plein Air event from 10am-1pm and I’d driven an hour and a half from Ludington to join them. I wanted to enjoy the company of friends whom I hadn’t seen in far too long and also get a little painting in.
We’d been assigned to paint in the middle of downtown at Studio Park, a patch of astroturf surrounded by trees in concrete boxes, with a giant movie screen attached to one of the three buildings on the perimeter.
Our adventure started out pretty well. Sue was working on a careful preliminary sketch, Mary and Deb were painting in watercolor, and I had my soft pastels out. I decided to focus on Mary who was seated in the shade on the astroturf. I liked the stark shadows on the building behind her and her red hair against the bright green grass. By 11:20 I had put away the first piece to finish later and started on a portrait of Deb working under one of the trees lining the plaza. Just then a woman with a pony tail and yoga pants walked up and told us we had to move. She’d apparently reserved the space from 11:30am-1:00pm for her yoga class. Whoops.
Shaded Mary, soft pastel on sanded paper, 11×14″.
Mary asked politely if the woman needed all the space for her class and she said she absolutely did, whereupon she proceeded to cover the entire park with florescent orange cones, indicating where all the students were meant to spread their mats.
The Summer 2021 issue of Pastel Journal coincidentally features a ton of stories about the joys and trials of plein air painting. Tales of artists who get chased off their spots by alligators (Florida), sheep (Maine), bugs (everywhere) are par for the course. But this was the first time I’d heard of a paint out session disrupted by mat-toting people in leotards.
At least Mary and I were the only ones who had to move. We’d had the bad luck to set up on the astroturf in the first place. The others were fine where they were, Sue on the perimeter sidewalk painting café tables in the alley, and Deb sitting on a bench off the grass.
My plein air set up that day was pretty basic. I had a small pastel box that opened flat and attached to a tripod using a camera mount. The easel with pastel paper mounted on top of that and then I hooked my backpack under the tripod for ballast. To move, I just grabbed the tripod with one hand and my backpack with the other and carefully walked up the steps surrounding the grass. I wanted to be closer to Deb, since she was the subject of my second painting. But before I could set everything down again, a gust of wind flipped both easel and pastel box off the tripod and onto the cement.
Yoga happening in front of me. My rescued pastels in the box next to me.
I remember thinking, “Wow, that was quick.”
In the past, when my pastels have hit the dirt (cement, floor), I’ve cursed and thrown things, but that day I wasn’t even that upset. Maybe it was endorphins from having spent the last hour painting in the sunshine. Maybe I was on my best behavior because I was in front of my friends. Whatever the reason, I was more worried about getting everything cleaned up before someone plowed through it and got pastels all over their shoes than anything else.
The aftermath. Paint nothing but pictures, leave nothing but dust.
Deb Squints, soft pastel on sanded paper, 14×11″.
Deb helped me pick up the pieces and someone else found a push broom to sweep up the dust. Then more friends dropped by to say hello, and I ended up spending the rest of the session catching up with them, getting lots of sympathy for the pastel disaster and trying to paint some more.
Stuff happens. Pastels break, rain turns your work to puddles, people say weird things when you’re out painting in public. None of it mattered. It was still a beautiful day. I got to hang out with people I love. I spent an hour or two making paintings. It was all good in my ‘hood.
Besides, it could have been a lot worse. There could have been alligators.
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Recently I spent a day visiting the family cemeteries with my brother and his wife. It’s traditional to plant fresh flowers, wipe off the headstones, pull weeds and just spruce the plots up a bit before Memorial Day. I used to go with my mother.
As well as driving around the places where I spent my childhood, I like spending time with Joe and Anna. We tell stories to each other about the people under the headstones. There’s a lot of laughter mixed with the yarns and there’s something therapeutic about digging in the dirt. Anna always says goodbye to everyone before we head for the next stop.
I try to imagine what it would be like to be buried in one or another of the cemeteries–Fennville, South Haven or Covert. I think I’d like Covert best. It has lots of old trees, and the road that passes by there is quieter than the others. Also, Mom’s family were not given to as much drama as Dad’s and I think it would be more peaceful to spend eternity among low key folk.
In honor of Memorial Day weekend I decided to paint a picture of my father in uniform and this was the one that I chose. On the back of the original polaroid it says “This family lives in Room # 204,” and then lists the names of the men he’s standing with: Edwin Manson, Dan Mannen, Roy Mann, with my dad on the far right. This was a picture he sent home to his parents and I imagine he was trying to inject a little humor into what was otherwise an anxious time. From the letter, he was in air force training school in Miami and so these must have been some of his classmates as well as the guys closest to him alphabetically. The year is 1943, so he would have been in his twenties.
Though the original was black and white, the photo is sepia-colored now, and my memories of my father are taking on those faded overtones, too. As with any portrait, I have to decide which shapes to define, where the highlights will go, and what will stay buried in shadow.
This Family, WIP.
This Family, detail.
This Family, detail.
This Family, soft pastel on gessoed gator board, 12×12″
I have always loved imagining my dad flying through the air, arms outstretched, chasing crows across the landscape. He died over twenty years ago, but I still think about him a lot. I wish that the end of his life had been easier. He had Alzheimer’s and the last seven years were spent in nursing homes. I remember laying my head on his knee once while visiting him and feeling his hand on my head, comforting me. He lost almost all of his memories but kept his ability to let me know that everything would be all right. I’m grateful for that.
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This is a portrait painting I did to remember a recent visit by my daughter, her wife and their baby. It was magical to have them all out to the house and spend time with them.
For a reference I used a picture that my daughter took of me on the floor in the living room, chatting with Maeve. There’s another picture of hers that I want to use, too.
It’s nice to have a reference that I didn’t set up myself for a change. I am always so self-conscious when I’m doing the picture taking. This is a nice composition. The figures are loose and relaxed. I like the way the light is outlining our heads and faces. I tried not to overwork the faces, but it’s easy to get carried away. Just means I need more practice!
Here’s the time-lapse:
Here’s the final:
Getting Reacquainted, 11×11″ pastel on sanded paper by Marie Marfia. NFS.
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I recently heard from someone whose portrait I’d done a few years back when I was in the middle of my 100 Portraits in 100 Days project. She wanted to know if that portrait and the one I’d done of her husband were still available to purchase.
I was pretty sure they were. I’d enjoyed making them, especially because of the furry hat and beard in one of the reference photos. (I have a weakness for furry hats and beards.) And sure enough, I found them in my flat file.
I mean, I make paintings because it’s fun and challenging and therapeutic, but I always love it when they find a home. Portraits especially. No one wants to live in a flat file all their life, right?
Here they are:
Portrait No. 38, 100 Portraits in 100 Days, 9×6″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia, sold.
Portrait No. 39, 100 Portraits in 100 Days, 9×6″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia, sold.
Below is a picture of how they’re displayed in her home.
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