New Painting - Seclusion

Final painting completed this week: Seclusion, 36 x 60 x 1.5 inches,
Oil on Canvas, Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle aka MaryRae Rush

I completed my newest painting this past week.

I love this painting. I have been experimenting with painting with tools other than brushes to get the painting started, finishing it off with brushes as needed in more detailed areas.

I like the finished areas juxtaposed with the lesser evolved areas on this painting. I also love surprises that show up when I allow the painting to be what it wants to be, like the blue shape lower right.

What do you think? What do you like about this painting?

Below are in-process shots. Enjoy. Please leave a comment below.

Photo reference credit goes to Nick's Nature Pics Blog. He graciously permitted me to use his photo of the Turkey Vulture as reference while painting. Thanks, Nick!

Seclusion in-process photo of the under layer.

Seclusion in-process photo of the under layer detail.

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes, Fluid Expressions Workshop for Empowerment, Igniting Your Intentions, and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made via email to MaryRaeStudios@gmail.com.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

My assistant, Sir Kitty

Vibrant Painting For Your Home or Office – Red Subtlety Triptych Yellow Red Purple

Left to Right:
Red Subtlety on Yellow, Red Subtlety on Red
and Red Subtlety on Purple

Triptych Painting: Vibrant, Energetic Impact for Home or Office

For the interest of art lovers and art collectors, I will explain my process and theory behind this triptych.

Idea

This was the last in a series of triangle paintings. The idea behind this triptych was to see if I could "bury" the triangle.

Theory

If I paint over the triangle with enough layers, the triangle shape will disappear.

Process

I began with painting each panel a different color for the background with the idea of being a graduated value from light to dark. The first panel was painted yellow; the second, red; and the last panel, purple. Then I used the same three colors on all panels for the top layers.

I made many stencils out of oaktag, which was leftover from my dress designing days. I drew various triangle sizes, differentiating them from solid to outlined. I then cut them out with an x-acto knife. 

Vibrant and energetic impact to your home or office.

Paintings - Tryptych

Acrylic and Oil on Oak Panels

Each panel measures: 48L x 24W x 3D inches

Hung together with 6 inches apart, they measure:

48L x 84W x 3D inches

Silver City, New Mexico

I worked with all three panels laid down on a table surface, painting the same color on each panel as I progressed. I laid selected stencils on top of the panels and proceeded to paint thinned-down acrylic washes over the panels. With the thinned acrylic paint, I wanted the background color to show or shine through, thus giving me the graduated colors of panels with the final product. Where the stencils lay, it would leave its shape behind. I proceeded in this fashion alternating yellow, red, and purple layers over various stencils. I kept at it until I could barely recognize the triangle shape as part of the composition. 

At the end of the process, I realized that it was next to impossible to entirely "bury" the triangle. It is a part of me as it is part of the infinite.

Red Subtlety on Yellow

Red Subtlety on Red

Red Subtlety on Purple

These handsome panels are made of oak wood construction (my own construction), each panel measures 48 x 24 x 3 inches. Hanging them six inches apart, gives a full wall width of 84 inches x 48 inches tall x 3 inches deep.

The final painting result is a non-objective, monotone effect. They have a rich luster. They are painted with acrylic. I completed them with final oil glaze layer. They make a vibrant and energetic impact to your home or office.

Red Subtlety Triptych on Yellow, Red, Purple

For inquiries, please contact me, Mary Rae, at MaryRaeStudios@gmail.com.

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes, Fluid Expressions Workshop for Empowerment, Igniting Your Intentions, and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made via email to MaryRaeStudios@gmail.com.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

My assistant, Sir Kitty

New Plein Air Painting from my Deck

Plein Air Painting From Deck, 7 x 14 inches, Oil on Canvas
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle.

When the power goes out for a few hours midday, it's a great time to get outside and paint.

All troubles soothe as paint flows across the canvas. The cares of the world fade away as the beauty before my eyes takes center stage. I never tire of this view. Sir Kitty doesn't seem to mind it either as he sits in his blue chair. It's the first time he has hopped up into his beloved blue chair since we moved here. That simple act makes my heart flutter. He's home too.

Back to painting, the landscape takes on a personal relationship as I paint. After all the times I have admired this view, I feel more connected to that land now than before I painted it.

This painting is 7 x 14 inches, oil on canvas. For purchase inquiries, email marylovespainting@yahoo.com.

Sir Kitty and Brushes

Oil Painting Supplies on Deck

Finished Plein Air Painting with a View

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made via email to marylovespainting@yahoo.com.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

My assistant, Sir Kitty

New painting Salt Mine Plein Air

Old Salt Mine Landscape, 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Canvas
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle

Here's a quickie plein air painting I did last week.

I was testing out a new logistical approach for carrying my paintings. I found a neat plastic container at Michael's Crafts and Art in Prescott. I'm trying to stay away from using plastic, but, this worked perfectly. Now, to find something similiar in cardboard.

It was a flat container with a lid. I held the canvas down on the top part of the container with putty that is used for hanging stuff on the wall without leaving a mark. Then, the mixing palette was on the bottom of the container lined with disposable palette paper, held down with the same putty. I could close the lid and the wet painting was fine as it traveled back home in my backpack.

The other new thing I used for this painting was a canvas already prepared with black gesso. I love it! This speeded up the process as I left the black to act as lines.

What do you think?

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made through the contact page.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

My assistant, Sir Kitty

Plein Air Painters - To Paint the Land is to Save the Land

Courthouse Butte trail maker, showing the way to one of the Sedona Art Hike locations.

I originally wrote this article for my Sedona Art Hikes website blog. I think it is also appropriate for my art notes. As an artist concerned about the safety and well being of our environment, I think that by standing on the land in appreciation enough to put paint to canvas in celebration of that land is to save the land. Read on for more of my thoughts on this subject.

To Paint the Land is to Save the Land.

To stand on the land, our glorious, magnificent natural wondrous land in appreciation, is to save the land in that moment in time. As artists who paint it, we do what we can to preserve it on our canvas. While standing in nature while painting, something happens deep within us. The beauty captures something inside, our eyes take note with visual memory. I have to believe that a symbiotic relationship develops between us and the land. Could we move that experience forward? Could we acknowledge that we must, at that moment, take full responsibility for its protection, to save the land?

To paint something from life, we look deeper into it. We find something that moves us, pulls us forward into fuller appreciation. It is this full appreciation that has the power of possibility to heal both the artist and the land. Sure, the land is fine without us. The land will remain the land, if we can just leave her alone. Can we stop the destructive tendencies that some humans seem to be bent on doing in the name of expansion and growth to their corporation? Can we find something in the land that is more important than profits?

Sedona Art Hikes logo

At Sedona Art Hikes, it is our mission to do our small part in land conservation as a part of doing business. As we bring clients out onto the land, more and more people become aware of the intrinsic nature to nurture. It is our wish that each client who visits the Sedona landscape will honor the land upon which they stand. By painting what they are seeing and / or feeling, they are moving us forward to greater and greater awareness of the treasure that we must protect. We must protect the sacred, our natural resources. If we fail to do this, our very nature will cease to exist. We and nature help each other. What would a world be like if there were no more natural land to stand upon, only manmade structures? I shudder to think of such a horrid possibility.

“For those of us who paint [the landscape]… there is a visual memory quite different than those who snap a quick pic on their phones and hike on. We stand, in the moments, recording that space and time in a much deeper and more meaningful way. There is a part of our souls that opens up and spills out while simultaneously drinking in the world around us. We become partners with the land, and when we leave a piece of it remains inside of us.” – Lori Putnam

Joan Carra, a private painting client, is having fun with paint, honoring the land as she paints.

Each client who paints during our art hikes takes home a piece of divinity in the creation that they have made while here. Most of our clients are tourists who have come to experience the grandeur of our landscape. I imagine that their experience in painting on the U. S. Forest Service trails here in Sedona will impact them when they return. I hope it opens up a channel within them that when they return home, they will honor the land in which they live in new ways. And just perhaps, they will become new stewards with a newfound sense of a mission to save the land around them.

Links to mentions in this article:

Sedona Art Hikes

Psychic Joan Carra

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made through the contact page.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art

The Gift of the Landscape - New Southwestern Landscape Painting of Camp Verde, Arizona

The Gift of the Landscape
Oil on Canvas, 14 x 7 x 0.75 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle

This painting was painted en plein air. The location is near the old salt mine in Camp Verde, Arizona. It's still winter here so the landscape is mostly brown and tan. The mountains in the distance are green and blue. The clouds were in the shape of angels. I think the cloud that I painted ended up looking like a rabbit. That makes sense since I have had an encounter with rabbits and their baby bunny nest in my garage with a dirt floor this week.

It's always a pleasure to paint outdoors. I'm still working out the details of painting in oils versus acrylics. I had just gotten the hang of painting outdoors with acrylics so they didn't dry too fast while I was working. With oil paints, it is the opposite. The painting will still be wet when I leave. More logistics to figure out. Also, I seem to be one messy painter getting paint on my clothes, hands, and hat, not to mention my equipment. I hear that baby wipes work great so I will give them a try next time to keep myself as tidy as possible. :-)

I loved this view of the landscape with the way the curves of the mountains were situated. I was facing the sun, but the visor on my hat kept the sun from my eyes. This is probably the first plein air painting that I finished in one outing. Yay! This is a small painting, 14 x 7 inches. I love it.

It will be available for sale as soon as it dries and I varnish it. I'm thinking 2-3 weeks for this one. If you want to purchase it beforehand, let me know via email at Mary@MaryFineArt.com. I would love to reserve it for you.

Below is a photo from the scene on location.

Painting on location near the old salt mine in Camp Verde, Arizona
The Gift of the Landscape
Oil on Canvas, 14 x 7 x 0.75 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made through the contact page.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art

The Soft Approach - New Southwestern Landscape Painting from Camp Verde, Arizona

The Soft Approach, Oil on MDF, 12 x 24 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle.
The painting does not have the green background around it.

One of the first things I did when I moved into my new place in Camp Verde, Arizona was to paint. I have a fantastic 360 degree view of mountains that seem to reach into eternity. Every window in this place offers inspiration for many paintings to come. I set my easel up to look out my kitchen window.

I painted The Soft Approach with oil paints using my fingers. I have not painted in oils for many years. I found it was easier to put on a latex glove and just dive into the paint full strength. I had forgotten the joys of mixing paint directly on the canvas. I had forgotten the joys of painting wet on wet. I used a lot of paint!

I call this painting, The Soft Approach, for a several reasons. First, the oil paints, being painted with my fingers made it impossible to get straight, crisp edges. I was seeking this new approach. My acrylic landscape paintings seem to have harder edges. I wanted to try something different. The landscape itself looks soft with its rolling hills sitting at the foot of the taller, large, looming mountains behind them. It's like a gentle invitation to the imagination of expansion within oneself. The other reason for this title is the final result of the painting. It looks soft in the way the paint is laid on. It looks soft in its application of colors and shapes compared to most of my vibrantly hued landscapes.

The Soft Approach, Oil on MDF, 12 x 24 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle.

This oil painting is still drying. It will be available for sale in about a month. Once it is dry, I will varnish it. Then, I'll put it up for sale on my website. I will let you know when that happens. If you want to pre-buy it, just let me know! Email Mary@MaryFineArt.com. It would be my pleasure to reserve it for you.

Below are a few in-process photos.

In-process photo
The Soft Approach, Oil on MDF, 12 x 24 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle.

My paint pile after completing this painting.
The Soft Approach, Oil on MDF, 12 x 24 inches
Copyright 2017 Mary Gravelle.

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made through the contact page.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art

Moving and Storage of Paintings

I just hung this painting in my bedroom.
Number Six: High Minded, 24 x 24 inches,
Mixed-media on Wood
Copyright 2009 Mary Gravelle.

I moved into a new living space a few days ago. I'm happy that I was able to move out of all but one storage unit. This means that most of my paintings are with me now!

I have hung a few. Most are still in boxes waiting to be hung. The paintings that I don't hang will be safely stacked up in a corner somewhere.

Moving requires that your paintings be packed well for the journey. They need to survive storage if that is where they end up.

Packing Your Paintings

I have found that UHaul carries the perfect boxes for my paintings. They usually are referred to as mirror boxes. They come in a few different sizes that seem to fit most painting sizes. For large paintings, use 2 or more boxes. Cut and tape them together to fit. You want the entire painting to be boxed so you can tape the top securely so it will lie flat.

Two or More Paintings

This painting hangs in my bathroom. It's just the right size.
Sun Fire, 9 x 12 inches, Acrylic on Canvas.
Copyright 2008 Mary Gravelle

If you are placing two or more paintings in a box together, use foam core or cardboard to protect the paintings from scarring the surface from rubbing against each other. Place the face of the painting toward the outside of the box with the backs of paintings facing each other in the box.

Transportation

When transporting your paintings, you can stack them on top of each other if you managed to keep the tops flat. Be careful in the UHaul trucks or other trucks that they are secure from falling down. Usually, if you are like me, there is plenty of other stuff to keep it all together.

I think you will find that if you take these preventive measures in packing your paintings, they will arrive intact and just like new.

Resources for Painting Boxes for Moving and Storage

UHaul Boxes
ULine Boxes

Let me know if you have anything to add the conversation.

About the Author

Mary Rae Rush (Mary Gravelle) is an artist, author, and creativity catalyst and consultant. She resides in Sedona, Arizona with her loving and efficient assistant, Sir Kitty. Her other services are Sedona Art Hikes and Wisdom Painting.

Contact her today with painting commissions, requests for creative work, consultations, or one on one coaching sessions. She is happy to paint something just for you. Or she can help you delve into your creativity and come out with your own unique expression.

Inquiries

Inquiries can be made through the contact page.

And, as always, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

Until Next Week

• Appreciate art
• Buy art
• Create art