Marilyn Fenn Studio

Wendell Castle
Music Stand (1964)
Oak, Brazilion Rosewood
55.5″ x 25″ x 20″
I just discovered this great blog post about an artist/craftsman named Wendell Castle at Emily Evans Eerdmans’ blog.  Wendell Castle has been creating amazing furniture for over 50 years.  He has ten “Adopted Rules of Thumb” for staying at the top of one’s creative game [...]

Hex
Oil on Canvas
16″ x 12″
© 2009 Marilyn Fenn
I recently read an article by a representational painter on another blog, in which the writer said that one should very carefully and thoroughly plan one’s paintings.  My first thought was, “No waaaaay!”  That would take all the fun out the process of discovery that, for me at [...]

State of Mind
Oil on Canvas
16″ x 12″
2009
(work in progress)
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. – Jonathan Swift
Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. – Josef Albers
I am getting very excited about my upcoming solo show.  I’m painting like mad, and I’m beginning to be very happy with some of [...]

6/15/09 – I was in a class several years ago in which another student complained about painting abstractly, because she didn’t know where to stop. She said when she worked representationally, at least she knew when she was done — for her, it was when the painting looked like the thing she was representing. Of course, it’s not as simple as that for many representational painters…

For the past year or two, I’ve been thinking a lot about what really matters to me as an artist.  What matters most…and what doesn’t?
Let me start with a list, and if all goes well, I will explore these issues in depth over the coming weeks:

Color
Color
Color
Form
Shape
Movement
Dimension
Texture
Surface quality
Playfulness
Seriousness