| Hawaiian Skies © Marian Fortunati 12" x 12" Oil on RayMar Panel |
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| Click on the above link for additional information. |
Tyler will be out of school soon and this year in our Los Angeles school district, the summer will be very short. They are changing the calendar so that school will start again in mid-August and not early September. Supposedly it is better for breaking up the semesters and for high school testing schedules. Right now all it means is that the summer will be very short this year.
The family had been dreaming of going somewhere on vacation. Hawaii was an option, so I decided to paint a Hawaiian scene. I like Darrell Hill's work a lot. He is a wonderful artist from Hawaii who is not only a skilled draftsman, but can imbue his paintings with unique and lovely color. His skies are often yellow.
I tried to make a yellow sky like his. Didn't come close... but I will continue to experiment with colors in places I don't usually think they should go. I also used my imagination and added in the far shore in order to make the water seem more like a bay rather than a huge stretch of ocean. We are, after all supposed to be designing these paintings, not copying from photos or studies. I'm sure there will be more yellow skies in my future.
We probably won't get away for a Hawaiian vacation, but at least I can pretend by painting more tropical scenes.
© Marian Fortunati
9"x9" Oil on Hardboard
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Ordinarily I spend most of my time creating. I paint every day. I do it because I really enjoy painting -- especially outside en plein air. I suppose if I had a "day job" it wouldn't matter whether I have a heavy heart. I would just get up and go to work. But I've discovered that in order to create a joyous painting, I need to feel joyous inside. Right now I'm finding it hard to paint.
I know my Dad would say that I should be celebrating him by enjoying my own life's journey. So I'm trying. Most days I do okay. I'm spending lots of time with my daughter and son-in-law and my husband and Tyler as we watch our almost two-week-old grand baby thrive. Life does has its wonderful warm and sunny spots doesn't it?
Because I've been thinking about cycles, sunsets and sunrises... deaths and births... I decided to try to paint another beautiful sunset from a series of photos I took a few summers ago. It's interesting how beautiful sunsets can be. A small goodby touched with the knowledge that in a little while we'll greet a new day again.
One summer my husband and I were visiting down in Venice Beach.... Santa Monica, CA.