An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

6"x6" acrylic on masonite My daughter is a whiner, and defiantly a force to be reckoned with, she usually won’t take “no” for an answer. The first time anyway. This particular time she stood at my feet making demands. Instead of a long “meaningless” conversation with her, I calmly took my camera and photographed her at this very interesting angle. At least one of us walked away happy. I never really thought how different children must see our world having to always looking up at us from their small three foot perspective. SOLD

You can’t have a great painting without a good drawing. I prefer a contour line drawing, it’s clean and simple, just the basics. I have noticed that the more confident I am about producing an image the fewer details I will draw before beginning a painting. I then block in colors as broadly as possible. Later I refine areas with additional colors, details, and texture. Finally, you'll notice in the final painting bellow I add smaller details in the eyes and the brightest highlights.

6"x6" acrylic on masonite This cutie pie had just emerged from the little wooden house and I loved the way the sun lit her face and the ground around her. It has been awhile since I have gotten to work with earth tones and I really missed it. This painting came together so easily. I really had a great time from start to finish.

9"x11" acrylic on bristol Sometimes when I am working on a children's book I end up taking an awesome photograph that I can't find a place for in the book. This is one such image. The painting captures some of my childhood memories of climbing the big live oak tree in my grandmothers back yard. I will always remember the first day I was able to climb the massive tree.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite The model’s eyes are so expressive. I remember when she was a just a baby. Now she has grown into such a lovely young lady. This painting evolved from several ideas. I have been wanting to work with extreme lighting again and I found my chance with this one. I have to admit, “I hate painting white tee shirts!” This was a grand challenge for me. I am glad I can scratch that off of my rather long list of “Things I Hate Painting but Should Probably Try.” I actually do have this list and I can honestly say I have scratched three things off since I began daily painting.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite I fell in love with the movement of this horse. I decided to create a little painting that focused only on the horse. Unlike my previously posted image I was able to focus as much attention as possible on all of the reflective details.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite Having children means that I have ridden on my fair share of carousels. I love the colors and ornamentation on the animals, but there is one horse in particular that I see too often. This model happens to be the one carousel horse I like least I call him the The Beast. I find this model of carousel horse so over the top with it’s mane sitting outrageously higher than any of the others. It should have not surprised me when my daughter went straight to this one to ride. Then she turned to me and demanded that I not touch her horse. They deserve each other, had this not have happened, I would have never been able to take the image that you are now viewing. Oh, and after painting this horse, I have a new found appreciation for it’s design.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite This image was captured on my first trip to the San Antonio Missions. There are about four others including the more famous Alamo. I loved the way the light filters through the tree and mission. I had to pull out my salt trick to add a little texture to the walls of the mission.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite While in the interior of one particular mission, I was moved by light that had filtered through one of the windows and lit up one of the curtains. I couldn’t leave without taking a photograph. Some of the missions do still have services and a couple of them are actually found in the middle of neighborhoods. It was obvious that the neighborhood and city had grown up around them.

6x6 acrylic on masonite In Houston we have a long tradition of visiting the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo each year. We all had a great time this year. The joke among family and friends is "We're going to eat our way through the rodeo," They make it soooooo easy to do, every restaurant that is worth their weight has a booth set up. The particular day we went was absolutely perfect. No rain, and just enough sun. I thought this group captured the entire experience we shared. It was absolutely a great place to people watch.

6"x6" tempera on paper This is an image taken from my many trips into the city when I was in college. I became a little nostalgic when I uncovered a bunch of my old negatives and photographs from school.

4"x4" tempera & ink on paper This small gem was taken from my sketchbook. It's been awhile since I have played around with painting with such a limited palette. I think my main concern was capturing the light and getting the most out of my very limited materials.