Marilyn Fenn Studio

  The idea behind this series was inspired by ecological succession, a natural sequential process in which there is a gradual supplanting of one community of life forms by another, each stage building upon the previous stage. This first final work is a large painting made up of twenty 12″x12″ panels. The process of creating [...]

Find out about the encaustic painting process, the qualities of encaustic and how to care for a work created in encaustic on this page.

Organics The E Word The Tornado Series Hot Hot Summer Succession Series Abstract Oils & Acrylics Abstract Encaustics Mini Paintings

“My Alien Friend” Oil on Canvas 6″x6″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn “Planet’s Edge” Acrylic on Canvas Paper, mounted on Masonite 6″x6″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn

This is that time of year when I think it’s natural for us to look back and see what we accomplished (so we’ll know what to focus on next year, and what to pat ourselves on the back for). This has been a really good year for me, artwise, and I think–even with this sucky [...]

“Painting on the Train…in Vain” acrylic on canvas paper, mounted on masonite 6″ x 6″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn We took the train to LA and back last week, and I brought some small art supplies, and tried doing a few tiny paintings on the train. Nothing much great happened, painting-wise.  Ostensibly, one could say [...]

Today I mapped out about 4 different exhibits I wanted to get to, and they weren’t necessarily that far from each other (Westwood, Hollywood, and Santa Monica); but we got going too late, and had to return to Pasadena too early to be able to fit in more than one of them, especially considering LA [...]

“Soaring” Acrylic on Canvas 36″ x 36″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn This has been a very busy month — the month began with transporting our paintings up to Fort Worth to prepare for hanging in the “Real and Imagined” show at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, which took two trucks to transport all the [...]

Five Austin Painters Show in Fort Worth Jill Alo, Kathleen Claps, Linda Anderson, Bill Wahlgren andI had a big show at the Fort Worth Community Art Center on October 3rd (the day the Dow fell 777 points!).  A lot of people came for the opening, though perhaps not as many as we had expected.  But [...]

“Succession Series #42” Oil on 20 Canvases 48″ x 60″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn I finally finished my 7-month Succession Series project of 20 interrelated paintings, painted individually, but with connecting edges and related ideas. I painted these in oil, after spending the past 2 years painting primarily in encaustic. It felt like coming home [...]

“Crossing Over” Encaustic on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn I’ve been working on a complicated 20-panel oil painting for most of the year, which is getting close to completion (for an October show in Ft. Worth). On Friday, July 18th, I had the need to loosen up, so turned back to [...]

“Succession 01 #3-1 (Life Forms)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn

“Succession 01 #2-3 (Arabesque)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn

“Scenic Route” Acrylic on Canvas 5″ x 7″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn Donated to Arthouse

“Solar Breach” Acrylic on Canvas 5″ x 7″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn Donated to Arthouse

“Waterfall” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn Another green painting. I have been working on the most recent batch of about 7 paintings below throughout February; they will be more to come in the next few weeks.

“Spiral Jetty” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn Inspired by the…Spiral Jetty by Smithson, of course.

“Ice Floes 01” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn This one may or may not end up as part of the succession series; it was inspired by more ice floes.

“Jovian Landscape” Oil on Canvas 24″ x 24″ © 2008 Marilyn Fenn Inspired by a huge yellow painting I had done years ago, I was wanting to play a bit with a mild push-pull in the yellow ground, and then some other stuff happened.

“Succession 01 #3-3 (River Courses)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn

“Succession 01 #4-1 (Molecular Motion)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn As you can see, the ice-floe-like forms in the previous painting extend into the bottom of this one, and then start to flop over, and – well – you can see what [...]

“Succession 01 #4-2 (Pancake Ice)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn The idea behind this series is similar to the idea of ecological succession, which is a sequence of gradual supplanting of one community of (life) forms by another, each stage building upon [...]

“Succession 01 #4-3 (Space Dancing)” Oil on Canvas 12″ x 12″ (part of 20-panel series, O.D. 48″ x 60″) © 2008 Marilyn Fenn The first painting in the previous post below was inspired by an aerial photograph of cracks in an icy lake. This second painting evolved from the top edge of that painting, and [...]

This was my booth at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar.  I love the way they organize this show.  You set your stuff up, and they man the show, take the sales, and sent you a check when the almost month-long show is over.  Al you really have to do is make sure your keep replenishing [...]

The tour this year was great. Even with a little rain on Saturday, over 110 people did make it to my little home studio for the tour. I believe most of the people who came had specifically picked out my work to come see. Considering there were about 210 artists and over 100 studios on [...]

“California Burning” Encaustic on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn

“Tocharian Vignette” Encaustic on on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn

“Nebulous Nebula” Encaustic and Beeswax on Paper on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn Our vacation interrupted my rhythm of painting, and shooting pictures, and blogging…so here it is late September, and I have finally gotten the paintings I finished before vacation shot, and am just now getting them posted. This one [...]

“Field of Artists’ Dreams” Encaustic with mini-encaustic paintings on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn I seemed to need to do a landscape; this one is called “Field of Artists’ Dreams” and combines fresh encaustic with pretty little patches of paint – little mini-paintings.

“All the Way from Africa” Encaustic on Paper on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn This started out as my first Cel Animata painting, and after much work, turned into another painting; but I wasn’t satisfied yet, so today, I scraped the whole thing down and started over; after months and months [...]

“Behind the Wall” Encaustic and Beeswax on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn This is the first encaustic I’ve painted directly onto the plywood panel, with no intermediary watercolor paper.  There is so much visual depth to this that cannot be seen on a computer monitor!

“Number One Campfire” Encaustic and beeswax on paper on Baltic Birch 12″ x 12″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn Brand new abstraction.  This feels like a new direction for me.  I gotta say, I like it!

…or so. I love the idea of doing a painting a day…whether or not I can is another story. Here’s the first in awhile: an abstracted landscape in oil, 10″x10″.  Not sure if I’m done with it or not… “Green Day” oil on canvas 10″ x 10″ © 2007 Marilyn Fenn

Painting by Karen Jacobs “Hope Ridge” mixed media on canvas 30″ x 30″ Here’s another really gorgeous abstract landscape — makes me wish I were there (kind of like Robin Williams in “What Dreams May Come” or that bit in Akira Kurasawa’s movie (I think it may have been called “Dreams”) where Van Gogh wanders [...]

Painting by Cheryl McClure “Little Pieces of Land IX” acrylic on canvas 36 x 36″ Favorite painter of the day: Cheryl McClure, whose beautiful abstract landscapes I found online at the Jezebel Gallery. This is my favorite! Gorgeous colors, and I love how it works as a landscape and also as purely abstract shapes. I’m [...]

Painting by Scott Barber title, medium, size, date unknown I stumbled on an exhibit by Scott Barber while taking a few days off in Galveston for our anniversary. Very keen abstract work, a lot of which had a very topographical look, was manipulated from photographs using PhotoShop into unrecognizable beautiful forms which then make their [...]

Copy After Leonora Carrington’s “Juan Soriano de Lacandón,” 1964 at the Art Institute of Chicago Pencil 7″ x 5″ © 1991 Marilyn Fenn Class notes from SAIC, 1991 The image must communicate something special which appeals to the senses through the way they are presented. Abstract concepts help to provide visual meaning (aside from subject [...]