Please join me on my Joy of Colour blog

I am closing this blog, as I have two other blog sites - one for my florals and one for my daily paintings and it is difficult for me to keep them all up to date. I am now combining my smaller and larger paintings into my daily painting blog, which I have renamed "Joy of Colour".
Please pop over and have a look http://artbymariondailypaintings.blogspot.fr/
 and sign up for email updates so you can see my latest works and works in progress.

I am going to continue with my "art of flowers" blog, specifically for my florals.
http://artofflowers.blogspot.fr/

Autumn Light - palette knife oil painting

Autumn Light 

40x50 cm (16" x 20") on boxed canvas

Oil palette knife painting by Marion Hedger

I am always captivated by the way light filters through woodland. The yellows and golds on these birches are so rich and vibrant, what a lovely time of year.

I blocked in the major masses in pure colour and gradually laid in the autumn colours using a palette knife. My palette was mainly cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, diox. violet, carmine and ultramarine blue. Because the paint is quite thick, I used Liquin as a drying medium. It has just come off my easel, hence the slight glare on the bottom.

Quiet Backwater Reflections Oil painting

Calm backwater reflections

Oil on board by Marion Hedger

35x27cm (approx 14"x11")

This painting has now been varnished and is for sale by auction

Click here to purchase

The varnishing has brought the colours back to life.

Abstract in pinks and blue oil painting

Abstract in pinks and blue
Original oil painting by Marion Hedger
30x30 cm (12"x12") oil on stretched canvas
FOR SALE in my ETSY SHOP 95€, shipped international

This is a bit of a departure for me. I don't normally paint abstracts but I have been thinking about abstracts a lot just lately. This one actually started out as a way of using left over paint - but then the painting took over, and needless to say, I had even more paint left over at the end.

I like the effect of these colours together and for me - especially with the square format - it works. Sometimes it reminds me of a cityscape, and at other times of a waterscape and reflections.

Bluebell Wood in Dappled Light Oil Painting

Bluebell Wood in dappled light, Rufford Park

Oil painting by Marion Hedger

30x40x3.5cm boxed canvas with sides painted black

Can be framed or hung as is.

Every summer in May the old woods of England are awash with blue. These tiny bluebells give such a beautiful colour to the woodland floor - sometimes blue, sometimes purple, sometimes pink, depending upon how the light shines on them.
It is truly a wonderful sight. The dappled light of the woods in early summer really lifts the heart.

Shepherd's Huts Haute Alpes Pastel Painting

Shepherd's Huts Haute Alpes by Marion Hedger

40x50 cm (16"x20") 

Pastel Painting on sanded card

This idyllic scene is of the Haute Alpes in Provence, France. The shape and position of these remote huts caught my eye. We took off on a whim one day in September and spent a week touring around. It certainly is a remote area, one I would love to visit again in the spring for the spring flowers.
I am considering redoing this scene again, but in oils.

Distant Shores Oil Pastel Painting

Distant Shores Painting by Marion Hedger

Oil Pastel on beige Ingress pastel paper

A reworked painting of one I painted as part of the landscape challenge on wetcanvas.com. I added a closer headland and worked some more on the sky.
Here is the original painting

I hope you think I improved on the original.

Colourful Reflections, pastel painting

Colourful Reflecions of Vases by Marion Hedger

Soft pastel on sanded card

30x35cm

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

 I painted this after finishing a virtual course given by Charlotte (Charlie) Hertzfeld on wetcanvas.com. Charlie kindly gave us her time to teach us how to use colour to paint light in a painting. This was my final painting on the course.

Quiet Backwater Reflections

Over the past year I have been participating in some on-line landscape classes presented in the form of webinars by Johannes Vloothuis. Johannes is an American landscape painter who is a wonderful teacher - taking time to point out the essences of what makes a good landscape painting. Here is one of my paintings after listening to the course on water and water reflections.

 Quiet Backwater Reflections by Marion Hedger

Oil on canvas board 35x27cm (14"x11")

Although still primarily a floral painter, I have been dabbling in landscapes more and more. I started landscapes a couple of years ago, using pastels. I really enjoyed pastels but had to stop using them because of the dust, and landscapes never worked for me in acrylics. I now enjoy using oils so have once again I have begun exploring landscapes.

The Loup Gorges Oil Painting

The Loup Gorges by Marion Hedger

Oil on gallery wrapped canvas

30x40cm (12"x16") 

This is the second painting in my 'Gorges' series. This is very close to where I live and I often visit here with my granddaughter who loves to paddle in the water and catch the fish fry.

This was started before my 'Tarn Gorges' knife painting posted earlier but only finished today. In fact, the painting was almost finished but I didn't realise it. It took me just 10 minutes or so to add some final touches. Funny how those final touches bring it all together. Can you see the old man in the rocks?

Tarn Gorges - Oil Palette Knife Painting

Tarn Gorges

Oil on Canvas panel

35x27 cm (14"x11")

This is my first all knife painting from a very old photograph I found in the back of the drawer.
Unfortunately I got so carried away with painting that I completely forgot to take progress photos but here is a brief descripition of my progress:

I first drew in the large masses using a watercolour pencil and then blocked in the lights using warm colours and the darks using cool colours. I used a light yellow for the lightest part to make sure that this area would look nice and sunny. I then gradually added colour wet into wet, in an extra 3 to 4 layers. The first to make the colour look 'real', the second to break up the masses into 3 or 4 areas depending on the light, the third to refine the colour in the masses and the fourth layer for the refinement. I used only pure colour, mainly mixing it on the painting as I went along. I also worked to keep the shadows not too dark but just dark enough.
I am not sure about the look of the sky, and for my next knife painting I may blend the sky a little more. I have also had a suggestion that is needs to be warmed up a bit and have more recession on the left side. What do you think?
To contact me about this painting click here