Coming soon... A Leap Into February... a painting marathon!

All of the paintings, 112 in total, will be published here on the blog.  If you'd like to see the daily activities and art, please follow my blog by signing up with the email link to the right of this post.
Details to follow in mid January...

'New Fluff'

'New Fluff' - oil on linen - 8"x10" 

©2013Marc R Hanson

SOLD

Some recent paintings from Utah and Colorado.

In October I went on a painting trip with 14 other painter buddies to Utah.  For a week we explored places like Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, Monument Valley, and the Colorado River canyon as it flows into Moab, UT.  The weather greeted us with some beautiful days, some extremely windy days with gusts above 50mph, and a little snow on the last day.

Below are some of the field studies from my portfolio.  

'The Precipice, The Wind' - oil - 11x14 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'The Point' - oil - 10x8 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'Canyonlands Vista' - oil - 11x14 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'Canyonlands NP #1' - oil - 8x10 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'Arched' - oil - 8x10 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'Arches NP #1' - oil - 8x10 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'Along The Colorado' oil - 8x10  Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

'From Their Home' - acrylic - 8x10 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

The next few paintings are some recent winter studies from Colorado. 

'New Fluff' - oil - 8x10 Marc R Hanson 2013

'Frozen Golden Ponds' - oil - 9x12 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

Available at Mary Williams Fine Art... Boulder, CO ... http://www.marywilliamsfinearts.com

'Old Fence, Old Tree' - oil - 11x14 Marc R Hanson copyright 2013

Available at Mary Williams Fine Art... Boulder, CO ... http://www.marywilliamsfinearts.com

2013 Workshop Schedule

Freddy, Age 25 - oil - 20x16

(A recent painting that I did of my oldest son)

This is the general outline... for more information please click on the link directly below...

Marc Hanson 2013 Workshop Schedule

I start in April 8-12 at Scottsdale Artists' School for a 5 day 'Field To Studio' workshop.

From there I will be in Petosky, MI for a 4 day OPA workshop June 24-27.

Next up is another 'Field to Studio' workshop at the Madeline Island School of Art in northern Wisconsin... July 15-19.

BOTH THE AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER WORKSHOPS ARE FULL... THANK YOU!

Thank you.

7th Annual Landscape Painting Workshop - August 2013

7th Annual Landscape Painting Workshop

With Marc R. Hanson

BOTH THE AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER WORKSHOPS HAVE FILLED... THANK YOU!

I'm sharing a poem that is a new one to me, that's no surprise, but I'm surprised that I've never run across this beautiful poem in my years as a bird painter.  It would have helped... Jacques Prevert addressed the poem to Elsa Henriquez who illustrated the front jacket of his book of poetry.

"To Paint a Bird's Portrait"
Jacques Prevert

to Elsa Henriquez

Paint first a cage
with the door open
next paint
something pretty
something simple
something lovely
something of use
to the bird
then put the canvas near a tree
in a garden
in the woods
or in a forest
hide behind the tree
say nothing
don’t move…
Sometimes the bird comes quickly
but it can just as well take many years
before deciding
Don’t be disheartened
wait
wait years if need be
the pace of the bird’s arrival
bearing no relation
to the success of the painting
When the bird comes
if it comes
keep very still
wait for the bird to enter the cage
and once it has
gently shut the door with the brush
then
paint out the bars one by one
taking care not to touch any of the bird’s feathers
Next paint the tree’s portrait
choosing the loveliest of its branches
for the bird
paint likewise the green leaves and fresh breeze
the sun’s scintillation
and the clamor of crickets in the heat of summer
and then wait until the bird decides to sing
If the bird does not sing
that’s a bad sign
A sign the painting is no good
but if it sings that’s a good sign
a sign you can sign
Then you pull out very gently
one of the bird’s feathers
and you write down your name in a corner of the painting.

February 17, 2013

I'm still exploring the acrylics, and mixing it up with some oil/alkyds too.  I don't mean that I'm mixing alkyd/oil and acrylic... I mean I'm painting with them all at different times!  I've had some great comments on the previous post and plan to reply to those soon.  My brushes have been smoking from the friction of painting so much.

Here are a couple of the latest pieces... One oil that I painted wanting it to dry fast so that I could add some milky glazes and over painting.  So I used some alkyds, in addition to my normal mixing of Griffon Alkyd white with my Utrecht Titanium white in a 50/50 mix to aid in drying.  But it still took two days to dry enough to be able to do what I wanted to do to it... hence the acrylics that I posted in the previous post.  I could use all alkyd paints and I'm sure it would dry right up.  But I only have a few, and alkyd white by itself, is weak in it's pigment strength.  The only way for me to get enough opacity from it is to mix it with my normal titanium, as mentioned above.  And then it doesn't dry fast enough!

It finally did dry, and yesterday I finished it up.  Then I decided to do a little larger acrylic, the painting below, a 12x16.  This is painted on a SourceTek panel with Claessens 12TS acrylic primed cotton.  I really like the weave of this cotton compared to most cotton canvas.  I coated the factory prime with a coat of Golden Matte Medium, to help cut the absorbency and to help keep the paint on the panel wet longer.  Seemed to work pretty well.  Once again, the only negative in working with this acrylic, is the flattening out of the paint as it dries.  I take great pains to build a painting from thin to thick... and love that contrast of dimensional quality when the painting is on the wall.  With the acrylics... that's a moot point.  I even tried using some Golden heavy body White, and some molding paste.  On the weave of the cotton, I still can't get the effect that I'm looking for.  On primed board, it's better.

With that, I'll post these latest two... thanks for looking.

On The Front - oil on linen/bd - 8x8 ©2013 Marc R. Hanson

No Goats! - acrylic on canvas/bd - 12x16 ©2013 Marc R. Hanson