new greetings cards…

Posted on 31/08/2011 by Mari French RI

art cards © Mari French 2011

I’m now pleased to be able to offer 3 quality printed art cards showing my work … a chance to own a little piece of my art or send as greetings cards or notecards.
Two landscapes and one of the ever popular purple tulips paintings.
Each is blank inside and cello wrapped with envelope. (The back of each card has a small printed image of the cover print).

Currently retailing at £2.50 each I’m offering a set of 3 for my blog readers and facebook followers, for £6.00 inc p&p.
Paypal accepted or cheques, please ask me for details.

art cards © Mari French 2011

Six Abstract Artists at Halesworth…

Posted on 31/05/2011 by Mari French RI

Six Abstract Artists, Halesworth Gallery

Friday saw the Preview of the ‘Six Abstract Artists’ exhibition at the Halesworth Gallery in Suffolk, which I am delighted to be a part of. Artists Jazz Green, Geraldine Carratu, John Midgley, Anthea Eames, Joan Hickson and myself have come together to show a wide range of styles and work, ranging from abstract to semi-abstract, and includes geometric, textured, bold, subtle, vibrant, lively and flowing pieces.

Six Abstract Artists, Halesworth Gallery © Mari French 2011

It was an enjoyable evening with a great buzz about it as a good number of people turned out to view the work and talk to the artists. I’m really pleased to be showing at this gallery – not only is it a long- established venue, showing work from established artists such as sculptor Elizabeth Frink and painter Mary Fedden, since 1966, but it is also a beautiful space – medieval, atmospheric, – and its ancient walls and timbers work with contemporary art surprisingly well. It is also a non-profit making charity, run by artists.

The general consensus seemed to be that the work of the six artists, while varied, sits very well together – thanks largely to the friendly and supportive staff – Alan and Jan who helped hang the show, and Paul Cope who worked so hard behind the scenes on the publicity.

Jazz Green's work at Six Abstract Artists, Halesworth Gallery

My own work filled one wall opposite that of Anthea Eames who uses the materials of the earth itself – a fabulous deep blue from Norfolk woad, Australian red earth, Suffolk chalk etc – to create her striking abstract landscapes.

I also love Jazz Green’s square pieces – from the tiny ‘i-cons’ which quietly draw you in, to her large works which seem to hum with restricted but singing depth of colour. For a more in-depth blog on the same show, with more photos showing all the artists work (which I didn’t manage to get on the night), I can recommend Jazz Green’s blog post ‘six abstract artist – a private view’.

Six Abstract Artists, Halesworth Gallery

purple obsession…completed!

Posted on 22/05/2011 by Mari French RI

…as promised here are the final stages of the tulip painting, described in my previous post.

Below you can see how I added purple to the lower foreground to tie it in with the flowers themselves, knowing I would be painting over most of it, but allowing enough to show through to create depth and interest.

I then brightened the foreground up again loosely with pale green (actually lemon yellow and white), wiping it back in places to allow the lower layer colours to show through. I was after an impression of these wonderful tulips bursting through spring foliage in the May garden, in sunshine.

I next added dioxazine purple and quinacrodrine carmine to the flowers to bring out their colours. I’m grateful to Elaine Phipps, a fellow artist and friend, whose recent description of tulip petals as being like ‘plumage’, is such a brilliantly apt description of them.

Once thoroughly dry, I covered each bloom with pieces of easily removable self-adhesive brown tape so I could refresh the upper background with a layer of brighter paint – you can see this in the detail image below. Tearing the tape into small pieces makes it easier to pull and push them into the natural shape of the flowers.

When I was happy with that area I removed the tape – a moment I love as the colours now sing out against the brighter background.

As you can see in the two lower detail photos (which I really wish were actually large final works- how happy would I then be!), I then worked into each bloom with watercolour pastel in shades of light purple and carmine, to bring a liveliness and light to the flowers, giving them more definition.

You can also see where I earlier splashed fine drops of dilute purple paint to enliven part of the work, and again to tie in the rich purple with the background.

The last two images show the finished piece and the work in position at the Norfolk Open Studios group show at South Acre Church near King’s Lynn, a lively and varied exhibition which I spent all day on friday, along with 11 other artists, hanging (more of which in my next post).

South Acre show, Norfolk Open Studios © Mari French 2011

Mari French RI : contemporary artworks

distilling the landscape: creating abstract art

Tag Archives: painting

new greetings cards…

Six Abstract Artists at Halesworth…

purple obsession…completed!

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