An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

  11x14 in acrylic on hardboard The original Turtle Eyes has always held a special place in my heart. Instead of trying to clean up all the little imperfections in the first version, I decided to repaint it entirely.   I used to be a messy painter. I think it was because my goals were different ten years ago.   Now, I know that if I don’t keep it clean, I’ll have to edit it out afterwards and I have NOT mastered Photoshop…yet. The experience turned out to be incredibly rewarding. It helped me reconnect with my old self, bringing back cherished memories of Zora and our family pool parties, and how much I loved painting the big, bold portraits that break through the space of the hardboard panel.   It all just reminds me of a perfect summer day. After completing the first version of this piece, I developed a habit of collecting animal-shaped goggles, inspired by the painting. You can see some of them in my older paintings.

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

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'm really working hard with trying different colors in my palate. I naturally would've painted the little girl's shirt a light brown, maybe a brownish yellow, or a calming blue.  Here you can see, I chose green. It went well with the scenery in which she sits. I'm taking baby steps. I'm also working hard at not modeling everything way too much.  I keep having to remind myself that, sometimes less is more.  I'm fascinated by artists that can show great detail and visual information with a few simple brushstrokes. "That takes great skill!" Here the little girl is sitting on the swing and fort set, which gave her great height, almost putting her above the fence line, which is where the sun was setting. This allowed me to create a fantastic halo around her hair. The swing's gone as of a few summers ago, when a tree remover miscalculated his angle and demolished it. One by one each kid stood at the window in disbeli...

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard This is another painting from my trip through the back roads of La Grange.  I have always enjoyed seeing how the tree branches and vines reach across the dirt road almost touching in some areas.  

5"x 7" acrylic on hardboard   I took a rare trip to the country with my sister last weekend.  Rare for me because there is not as much reason for me to go now that my grandmother isn't there.   When we left out of her driveway she asked, "Which way do you want to go, I-10 or the back way?"  There has always been two ways you can make the trip.  Interstate 10 is the most direct, but for me the back way is the most interesting.  The town we were going to is at the beginning of what is known as the Hill Country.  Some of the towns we pass threw are quiet picturesque and the roads curve and wind in some interesting ways.  This is a painting of one such road.

8”x10” acrylic on hardboard We are still loving the Lennon glasses!   The kids love posing with them and I love the reflections they create on faces.   The latest addition is green.   The painting came together fairly easy, which is rare for me.   In this work, I began with the darker browns and built up to the lighter areas that you can see in the forehead, chin, and nose.   Darker colors are always painted in first, then the lighter colors are applied.   I leave the true white highlights for last.

8”x10” acrylic on hardboard   I picked up a couple of glasses at a party supply store.   These were called Lennon glasses from the singer John Lennon, unlike Lennon’s, mine are tented a lovely shade of red.     I’ve been having a lot of fun painting what I love, portraits.   I have been pushing myself just a little to do some things differently, like my color choices.   I would have never dreamed of using green like I have been doing in the last few paintings.   I have been pleasantly surprised by my results. SOLD

8"x10 acrylic on hardboard I actually started and completed a smaller various of this painting.  This larger painting sat around haunting me until I finally committed to finishing it.  For better or worst I am one of those people that have to finish what they start.  This time it took me months as I painted off and on, but it's finished.  I can finally say, I'm glad I didn't just gesso over it when it wasn't working out.

6"x6" acrylic on hardboard My siblings and I spent most of our summer in La Grange, Texas.  My grandmother lived there and many of my cousins.  My grandmother's house was up the hill and most of my cousins lived down the hill.  It wasn't much of a hill at all, unless you were trying to ride your bike up it.  Then it really felt like a hill. We spent many hours walking up this dirt road to various relatives homes. When we got bikes we rode them up and down this road and even further out as we explored dirt roads we'd never seen before.  I was always amazed at how the road would curve and disappear into the distance.  I guess that was the artist in me. SOLD

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard This is part two of my of my green inter tube paintings.  I love them so much, they look like giant life saviors.

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard I couldn't resist painting the reflected light on and across the intertube. At just the right time of the evening I noticed the light would pass threw the the garage windows and create the neatest reflections and highlights across the swimming toys.  After a little persuasion and a dollar I was able to get my daughter to stand inside of one of the tubes and hold it up to the light.  This made the painting.