Organics Sketch 17
Acrylic on Stonehenge
7.5″ x 7.5″
©2010 Marilyn Fenn

This is one of my recent acrylic sketches exploring the structure of those organic forms in my head that I am currently fascinated to understand: in these images of interconnected solids among voids in a space of ambiguous depth, how are the parts connected; what is attached to what, and where?  I paint in order to see…

I should mention that I don’t think the color is completely accurate.  Sigh!

See more of these little sketch-paintings in my Organics Gallery.  And stay tuned for more in the not-too-distant future.

<!–8e2f4ac98291446388de6f9af981f401–>

8e2f4ac98291446388de6f9af981f401

I just redesigned my Small Wonders blog on Blogspot again.

You know…my other art blog, where I often offer my small paintings for sale before I have the chance to update my database and this (WordPress) site.

I seem to have gotten stuck in an endless loop of revamping all my gazillion online presences: this site, my FineArtAmerica portfolio, my Etsy page, my Paypal shop, and my Flickr portfolio (so far). Then when I went to add some of my latest small paintings from this past spring to my Small Wonders blog, I noticed I couldn’t add another page there without also updating the design (or getting deeply into the gnarly Blogger code). Kind-a snowballed!

Plus, I have several other free online portfolios that are out of date. Yikes! What to do? Delete them and lose all the work I’ve already put into them (and the potential for other eyes on my art), or continue to spend hours and hours updating web portfolios when I’d rather be painting?

All that aside, the good news is, they’ve made some improvements in Blogger very recently, including making it much easier to add pages.  So I re-did my visual design and code a bit to make it easier for me to continue making updates there.

I added a new page called “Gallery,” but it is really just a slideshow of a Picasa photo group—the one that contains all the images on my Small Wonders blog.  Even with all the improvements on Blogger, true image galleries (with thumbnails and all) still do not seem to be supported.  So about all you can do is add one image at a time, with slideshows from Picasa and Flickr in the sidebar, footer or on a page of their own.

Before

After

Check it out: Small Wonders.

I hope you like the new design.  It’s more in keeping with this site, color-wise, and also a little less scrunchy than the previous version.

If you have a Blogger blog, check out the new capabilities and template designs they offer now.

(By the way, if you’re interested in a custom template design for Blogger, I work hourly at very reasonable rates, and can usually whip out a new design in 2-3 hours that can be easily uploaded to your Blogspot blog. Standard disclaimers apply).

Knot
Acrylic on canvas
36″ x 36″
© 2008 Marilyn Fenn

Another painting of mine has been included in a very cute Etsy Treasury, complete with a joke. Check out the whole beautful treasury, curated by Kendra of laylaloustudio, at this link on Etsy.

I have spent some time this past week reorganizing and tidying up my website.  Everything is still here, but I’ve eliminated some top links for some of the less important items and items to be archived.

Try the Search box in the upper right if need be.  Additionally, there’s a Site Index which has been moved under the “More…” page link, here: Site Index.  It contains a regular index plus some sub-indexes of artwork,  photographs and more.

I hope you find the slightly slimmer link listings easier to navigate.  Let me know.

Organics Sketch 06
Watercolor Crayons on Canvas Paper
6″ x 6″
© 2010 Marilyn Fenn

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. — E Hubbard

The day after the opening of my solo show last October, I was thrilled to stumble on a somewhat new direction while doing some sketches, a direction that it seems I’ve been searching to find for the past few years.  Too bad this didn’t quite materialize in time for my show, but I’m sure the approximately hundred pieces of art I created last year prior to the show helped lead the way.

In these works, I’m exploring some lovely organic forms that—as far as I know—exist only in my imagination: images that consist of interconnected solids among voids in an abstract space of ambiguous depth, while other shapes float among the solid forms.

So far, I’ve only created a few small sketches in water media on paper or encaustic on wood.  I also have a few larger oil paintings in the works, and I am very excited to watch how this work unfolds and grows.

Under normal circumstances, I should have created more works along these lines since last fall, but circumstances have not been normal since just after my solo show ended.  At that time, my husband and I embarked on a house remodeling project which we still haven’t completely finished—one that turned my creative life upside down.

Now I’m back in the studio (and now I actually have one!), and the work is beginning to flow again.  So, after what seemed like an interminable interlude of the disarray of remodeling, I am once again back in my element, and optimistic about the present work and the future work to come.

In the process of making a painting in an abstract way, the painter is in search of a reality. Not one of realistic objects, but of the complete end result. The painting is experienced as a whole, and must evoke in the painter the absolute conviction that this is how it should be and no other way. — Paul Burlin

This can be great for your collectors and fans, because in one place, they can quickly see what’s available in both of your online shops and for what price, then link directly from your Facebook Page to the item of their choice in either shop.

My Etsy Shop on My Facebook Page

My Fine Art America Shop on My Facebook Page

To set up your Etsy Shop on your Facebook page, follow the directions provided on this link: Set Up an Etsy Shop Link on your Facebook Page.

To set up your Fine Art America Shop, follow these directions from the FAA site: Set Up a Fine Art America Facebook Page Link.

If you haven’t set up a Facebook page for your art yet, follow the directions on this link: Create a Facebook Page.

Do you know of other online shops and portfolios you can add to your Facebook Page?  I’d love to hear what else may be available!

Link to my Facebook Page and become a fan.
Link to my Etsy Shop.
Link to my Fine Art America portfolio.

Find out more ways to purchase my art.

Partially showing, center, behind the guy’s head — my painting:
Yellowstone
Oil on canvas
16″ x 12″
© 2009 Marilyn Fenn

The opening for the 33rd Annual AVAA Members Show had an great turnout tonight! It was crowded by the time we arrived, shortly after 7pm, and just kept getting more crowded while we were there. Hard to see the art, though, with so many people there.

The show continues through August 7th at Studio2 Gallery, 1700 S. Lamar, Suite 318, in the South Lamar Business Park. Hope you can get by before it closes. There’s lots of wonderful work there.

“Yellowstone”
Oil on canvas
16″ x 12″
© Marilyn Fenn

I just returned from helping hang the new AVAA members show.  It is going to be great!  There are so many wonderful pieces in this show, and the space—Studio2—is one of my favorites in Austin.  There are many very nice representational works, a wide variety of beautiful abstract pieces, and quite a few sculptures.

I’m showing one of my favorite recent paintings, and I love where they have it hung!

The opening is this Saturday, July 17th, from 6:30pm – 8:30pm.  The location is 1700 S. Lamar, Suite 318, in the South Lamar Business Park.  The show runs through August 7th.

Check the Studio2 website or the AVAA website for more information.

The most recent news is that I had another painting chosen for an ETSY Treasury for the holiday weekend; check it out (great stuff, beautiful colors!): Etsy Treasury: firecracker-firecracker-boom-boom-boom.  Many thanks to AB Graham Arts for including my work!

The Devil’s Wishbone
Encaustic on panel
12″ x 12″ x 1.75″
© 2007 Marilyn Fenn

Also, coming up week after next: I had a painting chosen to be in the 2010 AVAA Member Show, which will open on July 17th at Studio 2 Gallery at 1700 South Lamar.  The opening reception is from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm, July 17th, and the show runs through August 7th.  The AVAA members show always showcases a lot of great artwork from very talented local artists, so I hope you can make it! I’ll be there.

Backtracking:

We had a bunch of remodeling projects going on at our house, beginning last November and ending we-don’t-when-exactly, so the upheavals of remodeling have interrupted my studio life (on the minus side), while giving me a space to move my office into, thus relieving my studio space of the burden of hosting two rooms’ worth of activities, furniture and stuff!  In other words, I now ALSO have a room dedicated solely to a studio. Woo-hoo!

Also, on the plus side, I had more paying digital work in May than I have had in perhaps two years, so that kept me pretty much out of the studio and in my new (still unfinished) attic office, working day and night and weekends, too.  In addition to my regular website maintenance for existing clients, I created two new WordPress websites for artists and another for a building contractor, drew over 70 construction illustrations for the Carpenter’s Union, and helped one of my interior decor clients with some more home decorating. Exhausting, but great to have a few bucks in my pocket (which I then spent on basics and more house improvements).

Also in May, we finally had our great old house painted for the first time since we bought it eight years ago.  Woo-hoo!   It looks spectacular, many thanks to the wonderful painters at Good Neighbors Painting, of Austin.  They really did a gorgeous job; very professional, nice guys, and reasonable, too.

One of the house projects had me working outside in the heat for over a month, painting the garage, fixing siding, installing doors, cleaning up the yard, installing stepping stones and such, and decorating our new deck and pergola.  I finished just last Sunday, the day before it officially hit 99 degrees outside, and two days before the rains started with a vengeance!  Yes!

I am reaching the end of my major distractions and can begin again to spend more time in my studio. I will have more new work soon, and I’ll be sure to post it here, so please stay tuned!

“Twisters”
Encaustic and Wood on Panel
12″ x 12″
© 2010 Marilyn Fenn

Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it? — Frank Gehry

This is a very comforting quote for me.  When I paint, I frequently have only a very vague idea or sometimes — no idea at all — of what I am searching for in the new work.  I start somewhere, and often, the finished piece is so far away from where it started, it’s unrecognizable.  One of my favorite things about working this way is that I discover things — such as shapes and images — that I just couldn’t invent.

I recently watched the excellent movie called “It Might Get Loud” – a documentary on the electric guitar told through interviews and a meeting between three generations of guitar greats: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (White Stripes). I have loved the work I’ve heard by Jack White (such as the completely unabashed and fearless “Ball and a Biscuit”), but wasn’t really all that familiar with him.

He blew me away in this movie. He talked about the need to struggle in the process of creation, and if you’re not struggling, he says, do something to create a struggle. (And there were many more great quotes from him, which I’m sure will inform future posts).

Well, I definitely do struggle in my process; sometimes I’m sure it really shows; other times, you can’t even tell. It’s become far more rare for me to just breeze through a painting. (Dagnabit!)

“Jetsam-Flotsam”
Encaustic, Oil Pastel, Rice Paper and Ribbon on Panel
12″ x 12″
© 2010 Marilyn Fenn

___________________________________________________________

There may be several stages in the course of working on the painting where I think, “Oh, this is good.  Maybe I’m done.”  And then I do something else, and ruin what I had and have to go further to make what I’ve now got into something else good.

“Ship of Fools”
Encaustic on Panel
12″ x 12″
© 2010 Marilyn Fenn

___________________________________________________________

Sometimes I fear that I have lost the best stage of the work, but once I’m done, how do I know whether I did or not?  I really should document more of the transformative process.

“Emerging”
Encaustic, Rice Paper and Ribbon on Panel
9″ x12″
© 2010 Marilyn Fenn

___________________________________________________________

These four paintings are four of my latest struggles; one is a reworked painting from 2008; another I’ve changed since I took the photo; no promises that they won’t continue to change, including the orientation and the titles.

How about you? If you’re a creator, do you struggle to achieve your final result, or does it come easily? Is your best work the result of a struggle or not? Under what circumstances do you create your best work? Let me know in the comments below.