Magnolia Tea I (WIP)

A new Bird & Teacup on the easel today! This time it’s one of the little Dark-eyed Junkos that are always underfoot. This one is nestled into some branches of Star Magnolia that my friend painter Isaias Sandoval had cut for me from his tree. I love the way it’s coming together!

Magnolia Tea I  (WIP) 1 - Marie Cameron 2016

I sketched out the image in magenta oil…

Magnolia Tea I (WIP) 2 - Marie Cameron 2016

Blocked in the darks and mid tones of the background loosely…

Magnolia Tea I  (WIP) 3 - Marie Cameron 2016

Worked in the branches…

Magnolia Tea I  (WIP) 4 - Marie Cameron 2016

Paid some attention to my bird…

Magnolia Tea I  (WIP) 5 - Marie Cameron 2016

Laying in the shadows in the petals and cup, they may look like white flowers but they have a huge range of warm and cool colors (pinks. yellows, greens, treys, lavenders and blues) in both the shadows…

Magnolia Tea I  (WIP) 6 - Marie Cameron 2016

And the highlights…

More tomorrow!

La Niña

Well, I finished my tattooed baby today, at long last!

La Niña - 48x48 IN - oil on canvas - Marie Cameron -2016

This image had been burning a hole in my head ever since I began following the news of Central American children risking everything to escape gang violence in their home communities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, taking dangerous journeys north to the States where too many have been held in challenging circumstances while waiting for their cases to be heard, 80,000 unaccompanied minors from October 2013 – July 2015, according to Azam Ahmed writing for the New York Times last October!

I wanted to explore the impossible situation of the innocent living in the midst of this kind of violence, being groomed to be the next battlefield should nothing change. I hoped the imagery, drawn from tattoos, would morph into an inviting but nightmarish scenario that would take on a life of it’s own.

I’d like to pursue two more in this series, a little boy, El Niño and a baby seen from the back, El Ángel, hopefully with each one I can achieve a higher level of expression.

Among the Hedgerows and Hydrangeas (WIP)

I’ve started work on a new commission this week which I’m calling Among the Hedgerows and Hydrangeas.  My challenge here will be to blend my realist style with a softer nod to impressionism. I must learn to make sure what I see doesn’t interfere with my creative license!

Initial oil sketch – note the water fountain / urn that will soon disappear….

…Gone….

…..in favor of a garden sprite! It’s loose but not lovely…yet….

It’s starting to get that turn of the century feel I’m after but too loose for my taste, I like a painting, especially of this size (16 x 20″), to hold up to closer inspection.

I think I’m starting to head down that realism path …. no worries….it’s only paint!

 

 

Bamboo Tea I (WIP)

I love to start a new painting with the new week – fresh start, fresh paint and all the those days stretching out before me like an empty road. I was able to race ahead with an image I’d already worked out…a cute, vintage Japanese bamboo demitasse filled with lucky bamboo against the lush pattern of a period cheongsam (that used to fit me). I loved this combination but wasn’t sure what bird to pair it with until I saw these Japanese White Eyes in Kawaii last winter (yes it takes me a while to get to all the ideas I have filled away). I love how their chartreuse feathers and little white eye rings act as a perfect compliment to the vignette.

As usual, I keep the initial oil sketch very loose, making sure only that the teacup is centered.

Next I loosely blocked in the background – there’s not much detail in the fabric anyway  being some kind  of watercolor looking satin and velvet burn out affair (I wish it sill fit me!).

The teacup came next.

Then the bamboo.

Then the birds were roughed in, all I could manage for the day.

Today, with the paint a bit set, I was able to come back in and start working on the details. At this point the birds are starting to develop personalities and the teacup is taking on it’s character. I’ll bring fresh eyes to it tomorrow, but it’s well on it way to being complete!

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)

This week before Halloween seems a good a time as any to begin work on my barn owl.  This bird, who goes by the name of Owlivia at the local Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, is paired with an Aynsley teacup (circa 1939) filled with trumpet mushrooms. I love the woodland magic of this combination – now to try and do it some justice with paint!

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  1 - Marie Cameron 2015

Loose sketch in oil.

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  2 - Marie Cameron 2015

Loose dark background.

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  3 - Marie Cameron 2015

Blocking in the owl.

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  4 - Marie Cameron 2015

Mushrooms.

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  5 - Marie Cameron 2015

Teacup.

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  6 - Marie Cameron 2015

Blocking in the table, feet and mushroom perch.

more tomorrow ( I hope) … the chainsaws are coming….

Mushroom Tea I (WIP)  7 - Marie Cameron 2015

The chainsaws were only intermittent today and I was able to really start laying in some details in my owl and work on the appropriate background contrast to really make her glow. In the white of her face there are lots of other hues – lavenders, blues, greens, ochers and rusts. It’s these subtle variations on white that create depth and volume and vitality.

Chainsaws came back for a few days to finish off the oak so I wasn’t able to complete the painting but at least I have the owl standing on a mushroom now instead of a pair of oversized gulab jamuns!

Tulip Tea I (WIP)

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 1 - Marie Cameron 2015

I’ve begun a new bird & teacup piece. This time a Purple Finch (the only red bird I’ve shot) with a Coalport teacup paired with some vintage redwork embroidery, calico and red and white striped tulips. I start, as always with a loose, painting directly on the prepared board.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 2 - Marie Cameron 2015

I really should have worked the background first but I decided to block in my reds instead.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 3 - Marie Cameron 2015

Eager to see some tulip action I painted these in loosely as well, letting the pigment pull through the brush strokes.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 4  -  Marie Cameron 2015

I was eager to see the finch too .

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 5 - Marie Cameron 2015

I worked on the teacup next, as it supports both the flowers and bird, I wanted to make sure they felt well integrated.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 6 - Marie Cameron 2015

Dobbing in the foreground to feel where the shadows would fall.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 7 - Marie Cameron 2015

Filling in the vintage linen embroidery backdrop I experimented with a crosshatched look.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 8 - Marie Cameron 2015

Dropping the crosshatching, I tried more definition and a brighter backdrop.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 9 - Marie Cameron 2015

Wanting a deeper shadow I try blocking in dome darks but the grays are all still too wet.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 10 - Marie Cameron 2015

I end up wiping it off down to the initial sketch with a rag dampened with mineral spirits.

Tulip Tea I (WIP) 11 - Marie Cameron 2015

I begin to apply the darks in a more controlled way – a muddy mess is a nightmare!

More to come….

Tulip Tea I  - 12x12 inches - Oil on Board - Marie Cameron - 2015

Finished!  I’ve messed around with little details until the painting told me I was done.

Rick Guidice – Plein Air

So THIS was the gorgeous sunset over Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company last night where Rick Guidice was having his opening reception for his plein air paintings! The exhibit will run through October 31.

With all the tables cleared away, the cafe made a great venue to exhibit art and host a ton of people!

For someone to just pick up oils and produce a fabulous body of plein air work within a year and a half would seem pretty unreasonable, but this is Rick Guidice who has spent a lifetime working in art, as an architectural illustrator at the age of 16, space art for NASA (now on view at NUMU), advertising illustration for Atari and creating residential and commercial designs for his own firm. Pencil, acrylic, watercolor now oil. The medium doesn’t matter it’s the skill and the eye and the passion that matters.

Me and Rick at his very well attended reception.

Moss Landing

Scotts Valley Two

 

Rick Guidice with artist Maralyn Dorsa and Frank Dorsa.

Elk Horn (a personal favorite)

Rick Guidice’s wife, artist, Susan Jaekel.

Artists Ed Lucey, Maralyn Miller and Veronica Gross

Ed offered to get me in there too!

NUMU Curator, Marianne McGrath with Rick Guidice.

 

Painting Wildflower

Wildflower - WIP day 1 - Marie Cameron 2015

I love starting a new piece first thing on a Monday morning, with whole week stretching out before me for miles and miles and nothing on my schedule but a paintbrush! I feel a fresh sense of ease and possibility!

Wildflower Day 1 - 2  WIP Marie Cameron 2015

I’m so excited to be working on this painting!  It’s a portrait of a singing man, wearing the wreath of wildflowers his daughter had just made.

Wildflower - Day I -3 Marie Cameron 2015

Wildflower WIP Day 2 - Marie Cameron 2015

I’m going to try and portray a sense of this man’s beautiful spirt, his joie de vivre.

I’ll keep adding to this post until the painting is complete.

Wildflower - Day 5 WIP - photo Marie Cameron

Day 5 – trying to bring some richness to the background but concerned about loosing all the spontaneity!

Wildflower - Marie Cameron 2015 oil  48 x 48 in

Day 11? I’ve lost track, but I’m done and I’m so delighted with this piece!

Marie Cameron with completed Wildflower - 2015

Working on a portrait is so challenging but the rewards can be huge! I am so grateful to my subject and his lovely daughter who made this painting possible in every way.