Rose Red
5.5″x6.5″ mixed media painting on paper.
SOLD
October 15,2009
I was asked to write about this one, so I am coming back to it a few days later.
When I was little I got this old fairy tale book that had some obscure stories as well as some more familiar ones. I don’t remember what the book was called but one of the stories was about two sisters, Snow White ( who was fair) and Rose Red (who was dark). I remember it really struck me because up until then I always knew of the classic Disney Snow White, who was dark. My mum used to say that when I was asleep I looked like Snow White because I had very dark hair, very pale skin. So when I read this new story, I once again felt a kin to Rose Red and instantly she became a favorite.
The other day when I was painting this piece, I began by making her hair dark and when I did the name ‘Rose Red’ popped into my head. The whole time I painted it I was thinking of this story, the book, and my connection to the character. I wanted her hair to be blue black ( a colour my Grandmother’s hair was often described as), her lips, cherry red and her skin porcelain (like mine used to be).
This is my version of Rose Red from that old fairy Tale.
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
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.
Harvest Crow
11″x14″ mixed media painting on canvas.
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.
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
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
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.)
Little Crow, Little Crow
Little Crow, little cow …
Crows are so protective of their babies. Maybe that is another reason why I like them. They really make a racket if you try to go near their nest, even if you are simply walking beneath it. Unaware that it is high above you in the tree top.
Once, my dad, a bit of a wise guy (being from Liverpool it is hard for him not to always have some comeback or ‘witty’ remark), was walking outside our house in Victoria when a murder of crows started yelling at him, the way that they do, and he of course told them (I am sure ever so politely) to “SHUT UP”.
Well that was it for him. After that little outburst, they dive bombed him, knocked his hat off and crowed at him whenever he emerged from the house.
Crows do not like to be mocked or told to be quiet. They demand respect. Personally, I give it to them 100%. After all, there are not many of us in this world that can say they got the better of my dad. Ha, ha.
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.
7″x10″ mixed media painting on paper
SOLD
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.
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!
Six- SOLD
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.
Innocence – SOLD
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.
Dreams
This is a 4″x6″ mixed media painting on canvas.
I am continuing on toward mine. Some days they seem far away and some days I look around and realize that I am actually living them.
I will continue to dream on and on.
Available on Etsy.
Concentration
This is a new 8.5″x10.5″ mixed media painting on paper. I was going to name it ‘Girl With A $500 Cat’ (grrrrrrrr …)
But
‘Concentration’ really seems to sum it up.
SOLD
8.5″x10.5″ mixed media painting on paper.Friends
This is a new mixed media painting I did on paper. It is 11.5″x15.5″.
Funny enough, well, not funny at all, Beijing tried to jump on top of the fridge today and fell and hurt his leg. He is at the vet right now, under observation. Ching, ching (that is the sound of money …booooooo hooooo).
SOLD
IF ‘Subtract’ – Fog
Subtracting him from her was painful but made her whole.
Free As A bird ( I Wish I Could Make It All Better)
This is a 18″x24″ mixed media painting on wood from My Too Small series.
The image of a bird cage just keeps popping into my head and on to the pages of my sketchbook but, I until now, I have not included it in an actual painting.
I love the see-through quality, and delicate wire bars of this Victorian birdcage. As a sculpture, a birdcage is rather beautiful and decorative. (Indeed, many people collect birdcages just for that reason.) However, I can’t help looking at an empty birdcage without feeling a little sad. Like something is missing. (Well, a bird obviously!) Perhaps I just need to try thinking about it differently; that the bird has escaped its captures and is free. This would make me happy if I was not so sure that a bird that was once caged would most likely not fair so well out in the wild.
I worry about being over protective with my children. How will they fair if I never let them fail? I constantly try to protect them from any hurt or nastiness that this world may bring them. Will they be able to make it all better for themselves? Comfort their own hurt? How can I teach them these skills? And, indeed, is it already to late? If I keep them caged up now, what chance do they have? At the same time, I want their childhood to be magic, innocence and joy. Childhood should be paradise. It should be free of worry and sadness. It is the only time that we are truly allowed the freedom of those feeling. When I see children that are deprived of those things my heart aches.
It is such a balance isn’t it? Just finding that perfect balance is a life’s work. A mother’s work. (And father’s too, of course).
In The Moment
Here is a new 8″x10″ mixed media canvas that I did today.
Capturing a moment. Mid giggle.
Usually I gravitate toward the static , moody pose but occasionally I like to challenge myself with this type of image. Not unlike ‘Joy’.
Spring Dreaming
This is another mixed media drawing that I did today. She seems to be in a meadow. I wish I was in a meadow. A way from this frigid cold. I am so done with winter. Perhaps I have spring on the brain. I wish spring would sprung already.
Also, you can read an interview I did recently about blogging and my art by checking out this fabulous blog : Art of Humongous Proportions.
