An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

 11x14 acrylic on hardboard This painting was inspired by a visit my daughter and I took to the art museum, our last one before everything changed. The museum has played a significant role in my life. As a young artist, I attended programs and workshops there. Later, as a teacher, I brought my students to experience the same. I even helped many of them build portfolios to apply for the museum’s scholarship opportunities. And, of course, I brought my own kids, hoping to pass on a love for art and creativity. On this particular visit, I decided to take a grown-up step and support the museum the way it had supported me.   I purchased a yearly membership. Ironically, we never got to use the rest of the membership because... COVID. Still, we had a wonderful day. After exploring the exhibits, we capped it off with lunch at an art-themed restaurant. Although my daughter isn’t an artist herself, she has a genuine appreciation for art, which means a lot to me. At the end of o...

  11x14 in acrylic on hardboard This painting is part of my ongoing Little Miss series.  Each piece in this collection has been a joy to create, and this particular painting was no exception. As I worked on this piece, I found myself tempted to ground the figure with a shadow in the background to anchor her. However, as the painting evolved, I came to appreciate the light and airy quality that emerged. The result is a sense of weightlessness and whimsy that I absolutely love. Sometimes, the things we resist the most grow into unexpected favorites. My relationship with the color orange is a perfect example of that transformation.   For twenty years, I worked at a school where orange was the school’s spirit color. I wore it often, but never quite embraced it, at least at first. I used to joke that I felt like a giant pumpkin in my orange spirit shirt and jacket. I even recall a moment at the movies when an usher waved me back in without a ticket, saying he remembered...

11x14 in acrylic on hardboard I love pattern! I was immediately drawn in by the polka dots on the little girl’s dress. Before I retired from teaching, I would often remind my students that, just because something looks simple didn’t mean it will be easy. I myself relearned this lesson with this painting. Polka dots are simple enough but making them interesting is the hard part. When painting the polka dots, I had to make the ones on her dress more dynamic than those in the background to avoid a flat painting. It was a painstaking process, but in the end, the effort was well worth it. This piece also taught me patience. I originally started with a much larger version of this painting on stretched canvas, which I was eager to dive into. However, after five days of repainting the face for what felt like the hundredth time, I started questioning my own sanity. I’m not one to give up, but this one nearly broke me. Realizing I needed a new approach, I took a step back. I hadn’t painted in a ...

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard I recently rummaged threw some of my old work.   I can’t stand not completing something I start.   I came across this painting and I knew why I left it half painted I decided to start over with a more centered image, but it still bothered me…..so I finished it.   It was actually a good thing because I was able to see the contrast in my work then and now.

8”x 10” acrylic on hardboard I came across this image that was for a book called "Sylvia and Mrs. Lula Mae" the book’s interior was in black and white.   I thought it would be interesting to create a painting in color.   This is my grandmother, Mama Sissy who lived to be one hundred years old, and so did her grandmother.   I hope to be so lucky. The little girl is a cousin.   I think back now and realize how lucky I was to have such willing and perfect models for that project.   The author’s grandmother, which is who the book was about looked exactly like my grandmother, so I thought I was destined to get the book project and I did.   As I am writing this description, I realize that I probably had a second reason for choosing this image that seems so clear now.   A relative recently purchased my grandmother’s land and home.   Last week it was torn down to be replaced with his own new house.   This was bitter sweet.   I am s...

8”x 10” acrylic on hardboard This is a little gem that I just finished specifically for my portfolio.  I wanted to illustrate an image of children reading books.  It was so cute, this little girl insisted that I paint her holding her own books and not my daughter’s.  She had just began reading chapter books and was so proud.  Lucky for me her books were in the car and she was more than happy to run out to get them. 

8”x10” acrylic on hardboard What can I say, how cute are two little girls taking a break after picking strawberries?   I usually try to avoid painting foliage.   It’s never ending grasses and sticks and branches going every which way. But I took it on as a challenge. SOLD

9”x 14” acrylic on hardboard This is a painting from a very long ago birthday party.  Three little girls pose for a group picture, each in a different mindset. SOLD

9”x 14” acrylic on hardboard This is Zora in the last of the black and white dotted dress paintings.  I finally really do have this one out of my system.  I was attracted to the light on the surface of the dress.  I love the way the light falling across her arms and hands create the visual effect of gloves. ($150)

11”x 11” acrylic on hardboard In this painting, I was playing around with light reflecting threw and on objects.  Those that have followed my work for a while are familiar with the figure and the black and red polka dot dress she is wearing.        

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?

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard I took this one from a family photo.  The back of the photo had a few sentences indicating that the picture was taken after church services. The couple had just become a deacon and a deaconess. This is quite an honor for Southern Baptists. I originally left a lot of white behind the two figures, which stayed true to the original photograph, but it just wasn't working. My son walked through and offered his opinion, which he never does because he could care less about art, and painting, and creating.  Girl stuff is how he would describe what I do. He is a young man of simple words and he did not let me down this time. He looked at the painting on his way to the kitchen and said, "It needs more depth." He had never been so right, nailed it!  It needed more depth, so I added more shadows in the background.  We often laugh about him getting a "B" in Art.  He wears his "B" like a badge of honor, because his mother is an a...

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard She's just not that into you....anymore.  I began this painting during my Christmas break.  For the first time I looked under our Christmas tree and didn't find it filled with toys,  but instead electronics.  Christmas shopping had been simplified to several popular gadgets and to some degree I appreciated that,  but it was sad seeing that my kids were growing up.  The grays in my hair were already an indicator.   I really liked buying them toys.  I already miss it.

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard I haven't painted a museum scene in awhile.  These two ladies seem to be more interested in their conversation than the figure in the painting.  It reminds me of all of the time I spent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a college student.  It was a common place to have an Art History class meet.  After three and a half years, the grandness of the architecture and the experience had worn off.  I had became more interested in finding the paintings the professor wanted me to compare and write about, so I could get out of there before the kids let out of school.   They had a way of swamping the subway with their outrageous behavior.  I love art.  I love history, but I hated art history.  I was too immature and I'm probably dyslexic.  I found the book which weighed about five lbs. completely intimidating.  I know, I'm really bad, but honestly I just wanted to paint and look at paintings withou...

8" x 10" acrylic on hardboard I love using pattern in my work.  I often say,"I have a love hate relationship with it."  I love the magic pattern instantly brings to a painting, but I hate the complications it creates when I"m painting in the details that never seem to end.  In this painting I'm illustrating the similarities between two women who are separated by both a century and culture.   At first sight both seem so different, but with longer inspection  similarities  become abundant. SOLD

8" x 10" acrylic on hardboard I usually get really intimidated when I have to paint more than one person in a single scene. I am becoming better at this though, it's something I can't keep dancing around so I am meeting this challenge head on. I had a relative that I always thought of as very classy and worldly. She and her husband did things I could only dream of as a little girl growing up in a trailer park.  Things like going on vacations, traveling to California to visit relatives, and going on cruises. They were also members of several popular clubs and organizations. One such club was the Ladies Garden Club.  They took turns hosting the garden club at their houses monthly. I think this is one of the images from the ladies garden club, or at least that's what was on the back of the photograph. I guess I would consider myself an anti club person, but I was quite happy to find out that I received the dishes that she used when hosting her garden club ...

5"x 7" acrylic on hardboard This is the second of two red dress paintings that I had in mind. I love the color red and the mood that the painting creates.

6"x 6" acrylic on masonite As I looked at my work I noticed that my most recent paintings were all of single figures. I thought this time I would try something different, so I focused on a painting that had two figures. I am working my way up to a crowd (not really). These two little girls were photographed at one of the many kids party‘s we attend. They stood waiting for their turn in a balloon racing game. I love the colors and the pattern in the girl’s clothing. They are what I refer to as cute and beautiful also know as “Cutiful.” SOLD