An Artist's Journal:Paintings by Felicia Marshall

12 x 16 acrylic on hardboard My aunt, seen here on the right, is what I call a wonder woman.  She raised seven children while working full time, and upon retiring opened and runs her own bakery. She created my wedding cake, which was gorgeous. Every year my aunt, organizes a musical for her church.  This musical brings people in from all around this big state of Texas.  This year the women all wore gray. It had been so long since I had been a part of their annual musical.  I was in high school the last time I participated.  I asked my parents whom are loyal participants,  how many people belong to my aunt's church now.  My parents thought for a few minutes before offering..."Not many."  My mother began counting each couple and the pastor and his wife finishing at the number eight.  "Are you sure I asked?" I was reminded that they live in a rural community. SOLD

5"x 7" acrylic on hardboard I was looking for inspiration for a painting, so I raided our family photo album.  This I was told was a family friend.  

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"x10" acrylic on hardboard   This is a study of contrasts.  I enjoyed playing with the idea of opposites attracting.  Here you have the reserved older lady in her formal blue dress seated next to the spunky younger woman in her short skirt.  Opposites do attract.  This was another image almost lost forever from our family records.  Had it not been for my father's final walk through of his childhood home, I would not have had this great image as a reference  for this painting. SOLD

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard I found an old photo of my Aunt Tip that I had never seen before.  I can't really explain it, but for me it's like finding a piece of gold. I guess it's because I know that in some ways old photographs are in limited supply. I've painted an image of Aunt Tip before. Those who follow my blog will remember her in pearls, well I guess this time it's Aunt Tip in pink. Pulling this painting off was a little hit and miss at first. I even thought about, dear I say giving up on it or at least putting it down for time. I trudged on and about twelve in the morning all of my work finally paid off and develop into this lovely painting. SOLD

5"x 7" acrylic on hardboard Sarah was my sweet mate in college. She was the first New Yorker I had the pleasure of meeting.  She was from Queens, New York and though she was just over five feet tall.  She was one tough cookie.  Sarah was the cool kid that knew her way around, needles to say we hung in different crowds most of the time.  We remained friends the entire four years of school.  This was a portrait I took of her our last year.  I was in a photography class and had to finish a roll of film, so I asked her and several other friends to pose for me.  I'm glad I did because these were some of the only images that I have of a couple of friends.   This painting was supposed to be easy, but like I tell my students, "Just because it looks easy doesn't mean it will be." I relearn this lesson from time to time. I began this painting a little over a year ago and got everything painte...

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard I found the figure before I found the painting.  Real woman have curves!  I could have called this one most women have curves or big bones.  I actually like big bones most, but I was afraid some people would be offended.  Some of you may have noticed this painting has changed a little bit from the original post earlier today.  This is because I am one of those people that never seems to finish a painting even when it's finished.  I completely repainted the wall which was a bluish white on my original post and the floor is now brown instead of white.  I hope my obsession works.  Something that looks great to me may seem off to others. (I know this works both ways).  In the end, four hours of painting later I am glad I made the changes. SOLD

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard While attempting to organize my life.  I came across this image of my sister.  It was a long forgotten photo that I took of her when we were both much younger and thinner.  She seems so serious which shouldn't surprise me because it's how I often describe her to others, after I mention how much we resemble one another.  She's not just any woman, shes' my best friend and always has been.  I guess I could have titled this one a couple of things like...study of a younger woman, or best friend, or sister, but when I look at it I think of how young we were, just about to make the monumental decisions that would shape our lives into the woman we are today. 

8"x10" acrylic on hardboard Carol is a great friend, we met in college and were roommates for the entire four years which was practically unheard of. We met the first day of check in at the dorm. I wasn't experienced enough to know that I should be terrified or at the least nervous about meeting the person that I had to get along with for the next year. Our dorm was the newest dorm on campus and literally the only thing I ever splurged on in collage. I was terrified of living in a communal or co-ed dorm. So there I was in Pantas Hall. I opened the door and met my new best friend Carol. We were both two fish out of water and with our easily going personality's could have both easily been gobbled up by this big city we now lived in but we weren't. After graduating we both returned home to be closer to family but Carol still remains a dear friend. The quilt she is seated in front of was hand made by my grandmother whom was a seamstress. I always remember a box of f...

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard This is my grandmother in her youth she turned one hundred years old today. Wow one hundred years old. I can barely get my head around the number. As young children my siblings and I called her Two Mama because she was like our second mother. Most family members call her Mama Sissy, and to everyone else she’s known as Miss Sissy. Everybody in her small town knows her, and I guess they should considering she is 100 years old. Her real name is T.C. which simply stands for T.C. She is history. She lost her two sisters to Tuberculosis in their twenties at the height of the TB epidemic in the US. I asked her once about The Great Depression. Her response was, “We called it the panic but it didn’t mean much to us because we were poor already so nothing really changed.” Her father was a moon shiner during prohibition, which I assume is how he was able to own land and a farm when everyone else were sharecroppers. She saw her husband drafted into WWII and re...

5"x7" acrylic on hardboard I am always fascinated with old family photographs. I guess I’m like a kid in the since that I can’t imagine many of my relatives as a younger version of themselves. When I looked at Aunt Matilda as this very young woman, I can’t help but wonder what her ambitions were, her hopes, and dreams. I am very pleased at the way this painting turned out. It was a treat to paint from start to finish. SOLD

6"x 6" acrylic on canvas This painting is really about my grandmother. This was one of her many hats. She always wore hats, big hats, small hats, ugly hats, and beautiful hats. You never knew which one you were going to get until she showed up to the function. Her hats were much better than her wigs, which in the seventies was probably fashionable. I remember waking up at her house as a child and trying on wigs from her wig draw. My brother, cousins, and I would take turns trying on all of her wigs before she got up in the mornings. This is one of the many hats we found as we put her house in order. We thought it a little odd that the little lady that owned the hat boutique had come to pay her respects. But after coming across some of the elaborate hats with the equally elaborate price tags it made a lot more sense. I can naturally assume my grandmother was a loyal and constant customer. When we went through her hat boxes some of her hats had not even been worn, I guess she ...

5"x7" acrylic on masonite At one of the festivals we attended I captured this scene of the young lady resting in the heat of the day. I loved this little umbrella that she had blocking the sun. I’d seen them all day long dotting the crowded street. They came in assorted colors of blue, purple, red, and orange. I had never seen these before and became obsessed with the way the bright color of the umbrella filtered through the fabric and turned everything under its canopy. I wonder if anyone else was as impressed by this. Dutch Art Gallery

6"x 6" acrylic on canvas My aunt tip was the kind of woman that was always well put together. She was a “hair dresser” or at least that’s what she called it. I think her occupation is obvious when you view the care that was put into her hair in this painting. I remember when I first came across this image of her as a young lady. What a gem. I had really never thought that she, my Aunt Tip was ever a young lady, and wow how stunning she was. As I look back at her through adult eyes I can describe her as both a simple and complicated woman. Simple in the way she navigated through her world with very few material things. And complex in the fact that she did it so well without any projection of poverty. This was a very easy painting to paint from the drawing to the finish. SOLD

8"x11" acrylic on cradled hardboard I was feeling grown up today, I guess this explains the subject. I should probably call this one the evolution of the red dress. Parts of the painting evolved from other images. It’s funny how I thought this was so different from some of the most recent posts, but as I glanced over my thumbnail paintings I realized that two of the last three paintings are of people in chairs. Hummmmm, what is that all about? I really don’t know. Keeping a blog is making me notice some things, for instance I tend to paint the same type of subject twice. I guess I just paint a subject until I get it out of my system.

6”x 6” acrylic on masonite We happened upon a restraunt celebrating their grand opening and managed to get the kids past the jumpers in the parking lot with the bribe of face painting inside. At ninety degree weather, I’d say we got off easy. I love pattern! I don’t like painting it sometimes and other times I find it calming. This young lady's shirt was not calming, but I love the end result in this painting.

6”x 6” Acrylic on Masonite I’m having fun with another portrait. I think I’m just working these portraits out of my system. Let’s see how long it will take.

Zelma with Greens 6”x 6” Acrylic on Masonite Sometimes I can’t wait to begin a painting because I know exactly what it will look like in the end. I know all the tricks I’ll use to get the painting where I want it to be, a recipe so to speak. I was pleased to see this image transform into something that it hadn't started out to be and that I hadn't relied completely on what I know as a painter. I often tell my students when they are choosing reference material, “Don’t assume the simple picture will be the easiest to paint.” My words echoed through my head for hours as I painted and repainted parts of this painting. In the end, I am happy with the results.

6"x6" I was at a loss for an image to paint today so I stopped on this lovely lady after thumbing through my box of reference material for sometime. The model looks like my mother when she was in her high school class picture. I guess that was what caught my attention.

6"x6" Acrylic on Masonite I could not decide on which composition to choose for my painting, because I was so indecisive about cropping my reference I decided to paint several portions of the photograph of the festive street scene. Transitions was my first attempt and this is my second. I have several more in mind for future paintings.