Blue Boy

I have become quite fond of juxtapositions lately:  Warm against cool, dark against light, calm against active etc.  And turquoise, red, black and white is one of my favorite color combos.  Seems like I used them all in this blue heron portrait. I grayed down the reds a little in this painting to make them recede and the blues stronger.

When I use the word portrait to describe a painting that isn't of a person I mean that the bird, fish, turtle, palm tree or whatever is the only object in the painting.  (I do realize that great portrait painters i.e. Sargent, often painted their subjects surrounded by other objects.) So the next logical step would be to paint the heron in the landscape using the same color palette.  Once again I would like to thank the artists who generously share their reference photos on Wet Canvas.

"Blue Boy"
20" x 16"
$375

P.S.  did you ever do one of the paint-by-numbers of Gainsborough's Blue Boy?  Wasn't it fun!

As Luck would have it

As Luck would have it I am thankfully home safe and sound.  This is the first painting that I did while I was in North Carolina visiting my parents.  These fish are called Opah or Moon fish and I have used them in paintings before.  After the parrot fish painting I was still on a fish kick.  I wanted the boat to be floating peacefully in the middle of lots of activity. (the swimming fish and the swirling clouds) 

I hope everyone is Lucky Enough to find a peaceful haven today.

"Lucky Enough"
20' x 24"
acrylic on canvas
$480

On the road again (almost)

I have been away from home and my studio since Jan 1st.  I have been in NC helping my parents after my Mom had some surgery.  She is doing well and tomorrow I get on the highway and head back to Key West.  I did bring my paints with me (one of the perks of driving is you can drag a lot of stuff with you) and I got some good starts.  Now I can't wait to get into my studio in town and finish them.

But back in KW while I was away this lovey beach scene of mine was sold by the
 Key West Art Center gallery.  It was only in the gallery a week before it sold.  That makes me smile :).

Everyone have a great day.

Maggie

Beautiful swimmer. SOLD

I am having a show at the beginning of March at the Key West Art Center so I am starting to formulate the theme for the show.  I have finished a couple of paintings in same loose style of the turtle paintings.  I'm happy with the paintings, but more important, I'm really happy with the working style of them.  The process really is as important as the finished piece.  The final glow of this painting is a result of all the mistakes I made and then painted over.  One flat layer of paint is not my way of doing things. 

So the way the show is shaping up is that it is going to looser, larger and FUN!

Parrot fish
acyrlic on canvas

20" x 24"
$480 SOLD

Very exciting news about "this old thing"

The January issue of ARTnews magazine has an article titled  "THE FLORIDA KEYS: Inspiring Art" and this image was used in the article.  This is a painting of the historic Armory Building that houses The Studio of Key West - TSKW - and the studios gets a nice mention along with
Wet Paint Gallery and my friend David Scott Meier.   There are lots of wonderful artists in Key West and getting my image included is nice bit of Luck.   Thank you Mandy Miles who wrote the article.  Want to find out more about the Florida Keys?  go to the  TDC  website.