An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

11" x 14" acrylic on hardboard One more portrait with glasses.  I absolutely love painting these portraits, and making people smile as many of your comments and emails indicate.  This is Zora again.  She is just as bubbly and enthusiastic as the portraits I paint of her.  Lucky for me she's never met a camera she didn't love.  I learned a lot about hair with this painting.  I always taught to hint at hair and not try to draw in every single string.  I know, easier said than done.  Don't get me wrong, I am just as amazed by those artists that literally paint in every string.  But who has that much time and patience?  The more extraordinary artists make this look easy.  Hair in three brush strokes.  Magic, is the only way I can describe it. I am not there yet, but I got a little closer with this painting.

11”x 14” acrylic on hardboard This is a painting about what happens after Sunday service is over and members are released.  Upon exiting the church doors, they spend another twenty to thirty minutes talking, joking, and laughing with one another outside.  My father reveled in it, and still does.  On the other hand, my siblings and myself were always ready to go.  We would sit in the car wondering when we would actually leave, while my parents butterflied threw the crowd of members exchanging niceties. In all fairness, we were Southern Baptist, which meant we had already sat in church for at least four hours straight that morning.  Patience is not part of the teenage condition. SOLD

11”x 14” acrylic on hardboard My son hates getting his hair cut.  Even to this day I have to trick him into the car, usually mentioning someplace he wants to go, leaving out where our first stop would be (to get a haircut).  He refers to it as, “The dreaded left.” This is because we turn left into the parking lot.  The only thing he hates more is going to my father’s barber.  This is in a traditional barber shop in an older part of town.  This barber has cut three generations of my families hair.  You won’t find a television blasting sports news there, and instead of waiting minutes, its usually an hour or longer to get the full barber experience.  This is a painting of my son’s first traditional barbershop experience.  Years later, his expression is still the same.  Maybe one day I’ll paint his younger brother’s first time there, he cried the entire time his hair was being cut.

11”x 14” acrylic on hardboard This is a painting of the year we brought in the new year with fireworks.  I completed this painting on this New Years night.  I found this appropriate because it is a painting of a New Year from about five years ago.  I hadn’t realized it until I finished.  Maybe it was my subconscious in control of my actions.  That year we were visiting an old friend from high school.  Our visit ended with fireworks.  This was great because, I hadn’t played with fireworks since I was a kid.  We’ve always lived in the city limits so, our kids had never really played with fireworks, so it was really a treat for them.  I thought about painting shoes on the little girl, I mean only a kid would wear flip flops with a sweater right?