An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard In my life I have a very strong relationship with food, so I have to admit, this one reminds me of butter.  I'm excited and find these last serious of paintings just plain fun to paint.  I love to look at them too.

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard A study in color.  I have been hording this image ever since last summer.  I always knew I would be painting this one.  I'm glad I waited because, I'm not so sure that I could have pulled off the goggles last summer.  I got lost in the reflections, changes in lighting and color as the goggles move across his forehead. It was a challenge to paint, but very rewarding.

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 I am still working on portraits and light.  I finally got tired of mixing this specific pinkish rosy color every time  I had to use it, which was often.  It never occurred to me that I could just premix an entire bottle or tube of the color.   That was until I read an article that had a painter describing her process.  She mixed some of her own colors so that they would be ready and waiting for her to use. "Duh! how brilliant, simple, and efficient." I went out and purchased some empty paint tubes.  I was shocked that they make these.  "Empty paint tubes!...duh!  It's my new favorite thing. SOLD

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 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 This is the second painting of the same hibiscus flower from my mother's house.  I think I can safely say that I was able to give it a longer life with paint than my daughter was ever interested in giving it.

acrylic on hardboard 8" x 10" At the end of our last visit to my parents house my daughter acquired this hibiscus.  My mother always feels as if she needs to walk us outside to our car as we say our goodbyes.  I looked back to see what was taking so long this time.  My daughter had  apparently  asked my mom for her flower.  She was breaking off one of the plant's few blooms.  Why? I thought to myself, this beautiful flower isn't even going to make it past the thirty minute car ride home.  Thankfully it did.  As it lay on the kitchen counter, quickly discarded I decided to put it in water and paint this gorgeous flower.

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard The last time I visited my mother, she surprised me with a photo saying, "I found a picture you would probably love to paint."  To my amazement she reappeared from a back bedroom and presented me with this image.  Wow!  My mother found the picture in a file with some other documents belonging to my grandfather. What a treat it was to paint theses fashionable women. SOLD

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard This is a painting from an unused reference.  I worked on a book several years ago about a little girl and the largest earth quake in the US.  I had been cleaning up some files and came across the picture.  It made a great painting.  I am always amazed at how my work has developed over just a few years.  In this painting I am particularly excited about how the butterflies and roses on the dress turned out.  I would have never even tried painting them before.  Now I not only painted it but the pink pattern glows off of the dress. SOLD

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard I had a great painting day over the weekend.  I was in the zone for most of Saturday.  I painted almost all of this painting that day.  The portrait alone would have had me pulling my hair out.  The little girl has dark skin and because she's back lit,  it was hard getting just the right balance of features and shadows on her face.  I find painting nature difficult.  I guess I am not bad at it because I have some great comments on the way that I handle certain landscapes, but it is not a subject I feel comfortable painting.  When your painting nature you have to constantly edit because you can't paint every leaf or twig.   So you are constantly asking yourself what is important.  Then you paint in the important stuff  like it took little or no effort at all.    SOLD

8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard I love the result I got from cropping the portrait so close.  Sometimes simple is more effective.  I learned a lot from this painting.  First, there is no such thing as too close.  Second, blurring the edges of the hair is far more interesting than painting in individual strands. Third, softening up the jaw line creates a much more rounded face than using sharp edges.

"Zora with the Orange Ball" 8 x 10 acrylic on hardboard I finally finished this painting.  It wasn't difficult, I just dragged it on and on while I completed other paintings.  At different times of the year we get extraordinary lighting through the windows in our dining room and living room.  I usually can't resist taking advantage of these remarkable moments.  They only last about thirty to forty good minutes. 

8 x10 acrylic on hardboard This is the boy's line from the same party as my previous painting.  As you can see the word line is used loosely.   The image reminds me of how I made the decision to NEVER teach at the elementary school level.  At the end of every summer I would help my mother decorate her school's cafeteria.   One of these times we ran out of paper.   In the short distance we walked from her cafeteria to retrieve some paper from the teachers' lounge we encountered a class in line at the restroom.  Not a single student was standing quietly in a single line.  Just watching them drained the little energy I had left.  This made my decision very simple.  Elementary school...never, but if there is one thing I tend to learn over and over again, it is to never say never.  So far so good.

"8 x 10" acrylic on hardboard When your kids turn a certain age you end up spending a lot of time at birthday parties.  Some months like October and December you end up at one and sometimes two every weekend.  My husband and I negotiate elaborate deals so that we get the least unappealing event.   He loves my side of the family, but it's a given that I'll be the taker on that one.  I'm horrible, but I don't even feel guilty that I made my poor sick husband stick with his turn to take our son to his last party.  I absolutely refuse to attend another paint ball party, they are just too dirty for me.  I prefer a nice quiet princes tee party any day, but I am a girl, my daughter often reminds me.  This happens to be one such birthday party.  I love that I was able to capture the expressions on each one of the little girl's faces as they stood in line waiting to begin a game. SOLD

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard I enjoy working with portraits.  No big surprise I know.      I thought I was being adventurous with a blue background.  Blue isn't a color I would have naturally chosen for the back, I'm more of an earth tone or neutral kind of girl.  This painting taught me a lot.  I generally think in layers when I am painting.  In order to get the eyes to look correct, I had to layered values and colors like I've never done before.  The eyes have about six layers of paint and gloss medium on them.

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