Mixed Media Artist

bright colours

In Earnest …


12″x6″ mixed media painting on clyaboard
$200 US + $5 shipping

‘Dew’ (my three year old named her).

‘She wasn’t use to be being told no. Not ever and certainly not now.
How dare he! Well, he would be sorry. He was not match for her big liquid eyes, parted lips, porcelain skin and soft curls.
Watch out! Stand Back! She was just about to get her own way.’

The above is describing my painting but could easily be describing my three year old as well. Go figure!
photo


Raven

Raven
4″x8″ mixed media painting on brick.photophoto


Trust Me

Trust-Me
5.5x 8.5 mixed media painting
SOLD

Trust me

Just Jump
don’t look down
If you jump with honesty
you will always find yourself on solid ground

I am on my second year of jumping with honesty. I am not sure where my new paintings are taking me. I can’t stop changing but I can’t stop.
The last little while I have felt as though someone else has taken the wheel and I can barely catch my breath as I am whirled along at break neck speed.
Can’t I just stay and do these for a little while longer?
No, we have to keep moving.
Will I ever do these again?
Uncertain, maybe, but never the same way.
Hmmm, this makes me sad but at the same time I guess this would always be true and king of reassuring. This seems right. Deep down this is the right answer.
Forced to continue to grow.
OK, I will go for the ride. I am curious to see what is next.
As long as I am going with honesty, I am willing to take that jump.


Red Heads …LOVE TO PAINT THEM

Don't-Look-Away
side Don't Look Away
Don’t Look Away
16″x12″ mixed media painting on clayboard profile stretcher (sides are painted scarlet).
$400 US+ shipping
Please contact me availability (maria@mariapacewynters.com)

The women that I have been painting as of late are definitely a little homage to Klimt and even Toulouse-Lautrec … they both loved big haired red heads! I have often mentioned how much I love to paint red hair. My daughter, Imogen, whom I use as a model quite frequently, often scowls at me (like only a six year old can) and protests:

” Mum! My hair is NOT red!”. (Imagine hands on hips, eyes rolling around her head, lips twisted, nose crinkled.)

I won’t be surprise if she doesn’t dye her hair when she gets older. It isn’t that I don’t like other hair colours but I find in a painting red hair is so powerful! Black and brown can look a little flat, blonde can take on green tones. But red … ORANGE …. it just POPS. I lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-Ve it.

Oh, and I really love this clayboard material this painting is on. It is especially made for mixed media. Great for drawing on, scratching into, collage on, painting on! It is awesome. Also, the stretcher is museum quality. Just beautifully made. The aren’t cheap but boy are they worth it.


Orange Geisha

Orange-Geisha
6″x9″ mixed media painting on paper

SOLD


Thomas –

Thomas-2

This is a 11.5″x15.5″ mixed media portrait on 100% rag paper.

Today when I was going to pick up my oldest daughter from the School bus, my three year old was wearing the most interesting ensemble. Tan cords, brown leather knee high boots, a pink tee and a tan faux lambswool coat. Sounds fine except I have neglected to mention the pink princess dress and a pointy princess hat (pink of course) with flowing veil.

KIDS DO LOVE TO DRESS UP!

Here is Thomas. He also loves to dress up. Over half of the reference photos I was sent to paint his portrait were of him dressed either as Batman or Superman. It was his mother’s idea to have him wearing a cape and I instantly thought it would be great.

I chose Superman strictly because of colour. ( I do like red.) Personally, when it comes to superheros no one can hold a candle to Aquaman. Perhaps because he is mainly under water. ( Get it? hold a candle? … under water? … ha, ha … geesh … tough crowd).

However, I am not sure if Thomas even knows who Aquaman is. Is he still around, I don’t have boys so I don’t know. I am fairly certain that he never wore a cape, it just wouldn’t have been practical. I do know but I have always been partial to the fair haired male (except you Mr. Depp, you are fine as you are) and perhaps this is where me liking Aquaman stemmed from, OR PERHAPS, (OMG) me liking fair haired men stemmed from Aquaman!

Now that I think of it, I do remember when I was five, watching Super Friends while my Mum made dinner, standing in front of the TV, eating a raw carrot and crushing on Aquaman. It is one of those weird vivid memories that up until now seemed so insignificant. Perhaps, he was my first crush! WOW.

Hey,come to think of it, do you think Aquaman looks like Chris?

photo copyaquaman


Harvest Rain

Harvest Rain
16″x16″ mixed media painting on wrap around canvas
$400.00 US + $30 shipping
This painting will be on exhibit from Nov 5-16. Shipping would not be until after that time.

harvest Rain aboveHarvest Rain belowHarvest Rain side


Don’t Look Back …

Don't-Look-Back
5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper.

… it’s never a good idea.

A painting/photo of a happy person makes me happy. I may even wonder what made them so happy. It will be a passing thought:
‘mmm, what were they so happy about’.
And then I will move on.

A sad person stops me longer. I just can’t help it. Perhaps it is the voyeur in me. I just feel this incredible curiosity well up inside me.
Why are you feeling that way? What happened to you? Is it a fleeting sadness or is it a deep and all encompassing sadness that you can no longer hide. Not for one more second.

Perhaps that is why Mona Lisa has intrigued people for so long. I know she is smiling but I have always felt her smile to be kind of sad in a way. She looks off to the side, kind of longingly. To me, it is a bittersweet smile. Someone with a secret. Maybe a dark secret that she doesn’t want to keep anymore. If she was simply smiling we wouldn’t even give it a second thought. There is something a little dark in that smile.

I have looked back many times in my life. I guess we all have. Let’s face it, if the world was made up of billions of Eckhart Tolles it would be a mighty weird place. I am not saying it would not be a better but it would be weird.

Looking back has never helped me, nor has looking forward, for that matter. Both create great anxiety in me and are extremely unhelpful when I am trying to be creative or make an important decision
.
The biggest mistakes I have made in my life have come about during times when I was either too focused on the future or on the past.
But there I go again, looking back.
So, I must stop.
NOW.

Available
on etsy


Dummies

Dummies-web

5″x7″ Mixed media painting on Paper.

SOLD

I watch way too much TV, I will be honest, but there are few programs that I actually enjoy watching.

I LOVE WATCHING PROJECT RUNWAY!

It is so much fun to watch and it is a show that Chris loves too, so we watch it is a couple.

I really love fashion and at one time in my life, really wanted to be a fashion designer/costume designer.
Didn’t happen, can’t sew worth a bean (and boy can these people sew!). So I live vicariously through them via reality TV. Works for me!

Speaking of Reality TV, have you heard of Star Portrait? My mum was telling me about it. It sounds fabulous. Right up my ally! Anyway, I haven’t watched it but plan on it. It is on Bravo and three portrait artists have two weeks to finish a portrait of a famous Canadian.

(YES, THERE ARE SO FAMOUS CANADIANS!)

I like the fact that it is not set up like big brother. Can you imagine a whole bunch of portrait artist living in a house together for weeks on end? No?

ARTIST #1: Did you see the way she painted his nose! Who the hell does she think she is!

ARTIST #2: Ya, well I heard that she only cleans her paint water once a week.

ARTIST #1 NO!

Not exactly riveting stuff.


Night Of Artists Nov 5, 6, 7 2009- Art Barns, Edmonton

Self--Portrait
mixed media on paper, 10″x13″ (GUESS WHO?)

As some of you may know, I have been accepted into Night Of Arists this year. This is very exciting for me. I remember, ages ago, traveling around Alberta while Chris performed at several NOA events. It was always a great night and yet, a little hard for me. Here were all of these great artists doing their thing. Putting themselves out there and I was too much of a coward to let anyone see my art. I really did hide away and sometimes would go months if not more without drawing or painting at all. Can you say envious? Or, I will be honest, JEALOUS? It felt kind of lousy, even though I was there celebrating and supporting my husband’s music and drinking in the beautiful art surrounding me, deep in the pit of my belly, it hurt.

SO GUESS WHAT?????? Now I get to REALLY celebrate NOA the way it should be celebrated. For the first time.
I have to tell you, hopefully without sounding like a cocky-cockhead, I am really proud of myself. Yeah me!
AND
Thank you Denise, Chris R. and Sandra b/c I know you bugged Phil to let me in. And thanks Phil for listening to those three wise women.

NOW I BETTER START PAINTING OR I WON”T HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW! YIKES!

Tickets available by contacting moi, maria@mariapcewynters.com for $25 each. (Free ACEO giclee of one my pieces for each ticket purchased.)


Come Hither

Come-Hither
5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper SOLD


Naming A Painting

I am pretty consistent when I name a painting. Usually, I name it something obvious, you know, descriptive. Girl On A Train, a painting of a girl on a train, no brainer. But the title, even an obvious one like that, is usually running through my head as I paint it. Sometimes, I make up a narrative in my head as I am painting. This has never really changed, when I was young, I used to sit for hours, drawing and making up stories in my head that went with the drawings. I am sure I used a forest of paper.
Now, if I have my act together, I write the narrative down. Lately, I haven’t been doing that and then it makes it harder to title the painting something obscure. I really don’t feel like leaving the viewer scratching their head.
Today’s painting is an example of a title swooping around my brain while painting and it seems so dumb but she was saying ” I Wish I Had Washed My Hair Last Night”. She really was!
So I have titled it this and hope that it doesn’t take anything away from the painting. I feel her regret, as silly as it sounds. She really is in those first stages of the anticipation of falling in love. A time when, even though we know we shouldn’t, we want to present ourselves as perfectly as possible. I think she should throw caution to the wind, accept the highly anticipated proposal and just wear a dam hat.I-Wish-I-Had-Washed-My-Hair
7″x10″ mixed media painting on paper
SOLD


Girl On A Train

Girl-On-A-Train
This is a 5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper.

This morning as Imogen ate her hot cereal I realized that appearances are starting to matter. Scarlett requested the curtain closed because the sun was in her eyes. I closed half of the curtain and left the other half opened. Scarlett asked me why I did not just close both curtains and I said it was nice to still be able to see outside. Disgruntled, Imogen stated that I should just close both curtains as a passerby might not only see her wearing the bib I made her put on so she didn’t drip on her clean clothes but also that Mickey Mouse Club House was on the TV. I hadn’t even realized. To be fair, I think she even found this humorous but I bet that would be different in a few years.

(OK, OK, I promise right here right now to never make her wear a bib again. A tea towel or a napkin would have been more appropriate for a six year old).

This painting makes me think about being clueless to her growing up. Sometimes I think I only really see my kids in photos. Look how old she is getting. She looks so young when she is sleeping or standing next to her 6′ 2 daddy. But in this picture she has some sort of wisdom I guess I miss when I am dealing with her on a day to day basis.


Yellow Legs

Yellow-Legs
This is a 7″x10″ mixed media painting on paper.
$35 US + $4 shipping
To purchase contact me
OR
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31880431

There is something, for me, about yellow socks/stockings. They are hard to pull off without looking like big bird but, I had a pair when I was 16 and I used to wear them with my Mum’s Honeymoon suit that she got in Liverpool in the sixties before my parents emigrated to Canada. Truly a dream for a girl in the eighties hanging out with ‘The Mods’. I don’t think that I looked like a bird, unless, of course, you are thinking about the English slang for ‘girl’.


This Big

This-Big

This is a 9″x12″ (2″ deep) mixed media painting on wood.

I painted this same image last year, an ACEO. It may have been the first ACEO I did. A couple of weeks ago I was going through my images, looking for inspiration, and I came across this photo again. It was taken when Imogen was almost three, I was pregnant for Scarlett. I think I asked her how big she was and she stood as tall as she could and stretched out her little neck. At three, it was really important to be ‘this big’. Come to think about it, I guess it is still important at six. Imogen had a big cry the other day because I made her get the size 13 shoes instead of the (big girl) size ones. Let me tell you, the 13s were even a little on the big side but she cried and cried and said ‘I am just a baby!’. It was hard not to laugh, if she could only realized that in a few years she will be wishing her feet were smaller so she could fit in all those fabulous size six shoes on the sales rack!


Give Us A Kiss

Give-Us-A-Kiss
Here is a new Circus Girl painting …
5″x7″ mixed media painting on paper.


Kite Flyer SOLD

Kite-Flyer
5″x7″ mixed media on paper.
We are at the lake. It is cold and windy … good thing Chris brought the kite. He took this terrific photo of Imogen flying the kite and I just had to have a go at painting it. I didn’t bring all my art supplies though and so I was forced to create with a few stray pastels and a bit of ink.


The Balance Beam

The-Balance-Beam

7″x5″ Mixed media painting on paper.
I am thinking that I would like to have some two colour black and white drawings to accompany the full colour images. This is me playing with that idea.


Six- SOLD

Six
Imogen is six.
Six is kind of goofy but sometime very mature (actually).
Six is exasperating but there is something about six. I remember being six and I was ME. I was who I am today. I haven’t really changed the way I think or the way I approach a problem.
Take it as you like, it can be both good and bad …
This is a new 24″x24″ mixed media painting on wood. It is $500 + Shipping.


Stage Fright

Stage-Fright

This is a 5″x7″ mixed media painting on canvas. A new painting of circus girl.

In the new painting, we see a frightened circus girl being comforted by Harriet the circus elephant.
SOLD


Take It In

Take-It-In
This is a 4″x6″mixed media painting on paper.

Knowledge

Drink it in
Take it in
Taste it
Feel it as it turns in the pit of your belly
As it catches in the back of your throat
You can never go back now
Ignorance may very well be bliss
but truth has way more power
SOLD


Innocence – SOLD

Innocence
This is a 4″x8″x3″ mixed media painting on canvas.

My first baby girl turns 6 tomorrow. How did that happen?
Wow. She is amazing to me.
photophotophotophoto


Bravo …

… although, she wasn’t really THAT impressed …
or was she?

Bravo

5″x7″ mixed media painting on canvas.

SOLD


My Magic Hat

Hide me
Protect me
Guide me
Take me
Hide meMy-Magic-Hat
This is a 3.5″x5.5″ mixed media painting on canvas.
Available on Etsy