Hello from Brighton, UK

Marina Dieul · 04-13-2006, 10:26 AM

Hi Mary Jane,
I loved your painting, and I went to see your site : I'm very impressed by the quality of your work!!! I just looked quickly cause I have not much time today, but as soon as I can I will go back for the pleasure of my eyes and my mind.
A warm welcome to this forum, and I wish you a nice show ( I don't think you need luck with such a beautiful work).

Mary Jane Ansell · 04-13-2006, 12:09 PM

Thank you Patricia, Garth and Marina for the warm welcome!

Patricia to answer your questions about my background: I originally took an illustration BA Hons... graduating about 12 years ago now and since then I've been a more or less full time practitioner.

There have been a few periods where I holed up in my studio and reassessed or took illustration and design work to help with the bills but for the last few years I've been able to complete concentrate on my portraiture and figurative painting which is great...

But it is isolating sometimes as I'm sure others out there might agree... another reason I will value this forum is so I can practice a bit of social interaction ;-)

Claudemir Bonfim · 04-13-2006, 01:22 PM

Hi Mary and welcome.
I enjoyed browsing your web site a lot! You do a very creative work.
I loved your etchings.

Mary Jane Ansell · 04-14-2006, 04:44 AM

Thanks Claudemir! Glad you like the etchings - I've only just started to get back to printmaking recently and am loving the exercise of such a different discipline - it has really opened up a seam of ideas that thankfully is feeding back into my painting... so its doubly useful!

Sympathies with your artists block Garth, I hope it passes soon, I know how horrible it can be - is it unusual for you to get a blocked phase or is it that its lasting longer than normal?

I get them as pretty regular phases and have to remind myself to ease off on trying to push through them... (that way madness lies I think!) last time it happened for me I was pushing too hard trying to come up with ideas for a show... luckily starting etching again moved my focus and freed things up.

Marina, I know you mean it in the sense of taking too much time but there's nothing "dreadful" about your technique by a long shot!!! Has your extended break from painting left you with plenty of ideas for what you now want to do or is it hard to "get the juices flowing" as it were?

Mary Sparrow · 04-14-2006, 07:54 AM

Hi Mary Jane, your working is amazing, I hope to learn lots from you! Welcome.

Marina Dieul · 04-14-2006, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mary Jane Ansell

Marina, I know you mean it in the sense of taking too much time but there's nothing "dreadful" about your technique by a long shot!!! Has your extended break from painting left you with plenty of ideas for what you now want to do or is it hard to "get the juices flowing" as it were?

Mary Jane,
by dreadful technique I mean that I painted my trompe l'oeil with a very very thin brush, filling a square centimeter until it was finished and then beginning another square centimeter. It finally worked because some of them are not too bad. ( I know it's a success when people don't notice it in the beginning, and then go closer and closer and finally try to touch it )
I prefer to think that I didn't lost my time during the years I didn't paint, and that I needed to acquire some maturity...(sometimes difficult to convince myself)
Finally during those 6 last months, I feel more alive than ever. And discovering this forum helped me not only technically but I don't feel too much isolated in my studio. I'm just beginnig to be able to control my brush enough to express what I want, and I regret that my days are so short because I have too many ideas. I never had an artist block yet (Garth, I hope you will go out from yours soon...) I always thought that my best work is the next one, and I generally lose a little concentration at the end of a painting because I 'm impatient to begin the next one. And seeing some work like yours give me a hundred ideas!

Mary Jane Ansell · 04-15-2006, 07:17 PM

Marina,

It's very interesting to hear you talk about picking the finest brush and finishing each tiny area in turn, that's what I do when I'm focusing perhaps too hard on detail... but I'm not surprised your viewers wanted to touch your beautiful paintings!

I couldn't agree more with your regret about the days being too short for our ideas and your feeling that the next piece will always be the best and the temptation to start the next before the last is even finished, I think that's the spur that keeps us striving to be better, I hope I'm still feeling that urge when I'm a dodery old artist pottering around in my 80's;-)

Linda Brandon · 04-15-2006, 11:12 PM

Mary Jane, I had a wonderful time looking through your website just now. I love that you paint both figuratives and portraits and that you are succeeding on both counts. Good luck on your show and welcome to the Forum!

Alexandra Tyng · 04-14-2006, 09:46 AM

Welcome, Mary Jane! I hope we will be seeing more of our work. The one you posted here and the paintings on your web page are just tantalizing glimpses. Hope you have a sold-out show! I'm going a little crazy myself with a couple of collaborative shows looming up and landscape work to finish for a gallery. It does get crazy!

Looking forward to your participation in the Forum,

Alex

Paul Foxton · 04-14-2006, 07:50 PM

Greetings from Epsom Mary Jane, great to see another UK member.

You're perhaps too busy with preparations for your show, but a few of us are planning to meet up at the RP exhibition on the 29th April, there's a thread here:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=6866

If you can spare some time from producing those jaw dropping paintings it would be nice to see you.

Paul