Tag Archives: acrylic painting

Working With a Horizon Line

Winter is almost over and here in New Mexico, trees and plants are starting to pop with color. Instead of browns and greys in the landscape I am starting to see a few patches of green, orange and even yellow all over the scenery.

Here is another painting that I just completed using a rather limited palette of raw sienna, cobalt blue and red oxide. This combination allowed me to mix interesting pinks, greens and oranges. Once again I have painted a high horizon line. I am still somewhat preoccupied with the horizon line.

New Mexico Winter #5, acrylic on paper,10 x 3 inches. Ann Hart Marquis

Horizon Line

The horizon line is thought to be one of the foremost visual components or clues of perspective in a landscape. It’s the thing we immediately use to interpret the perspective in a painting we are viewing. We do it almost instinctively.

So if the horizon line is too high or low in a painting we lose the brain’s ability to interpret and perceive perspective. Instead, the viewer has to first struggle to deal with where the horizon line is, to see it for what it is and put it in relation with everything else in the composition.

Too high a horizon line, with only a tiny sliver above it and the brain won’t instantly register that area as sky. If it is too low, the sliver below the horizon risks not being perceived as land.

In most cases, a low horizon line works for emphasis on the sky. A high horizon line emphasizes the landscape.

In any case, I hope to be able to abstract the horizon line more in the future.

Artist Retreat

This past week I spent 4 days in Phoenix playing with paint and experimenting with new surfaces. The occasion was an artist retreat with fellow artists that I painted with at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the summer of 2011.

The first day we experimented with a technique that called for a first layer of acrylic paint on any gessoed surface, then an isolation layer followed a top layer of paint. Each layer needed to dry before adding the next layer. We only used red, yellow and blue paint. I enjoyed the process. Here are 2 examples:

Acrylic on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, Ann Hart Marquis

Acrylic on paper, Lorna Filipinni-Mulliken

On the second day we experimented with Yupo paper and light molding paste. Yupo paper is the 100% recyclable, waterproof, tree-free synthetic paper. It is super-smooth, bright white and durable. Here are some of our Yupo pieces:

Acrylic on Yupo paper, 13 x 20 inches, Diane Huff

Acrylic on Yupo paper, 13 x 20 inches, Ann Hart Marquis

Acrylic on Yupo paper, 13 x 20 inches, Gail Suttelle

Acrylic on Yupo paper, 13 x 20 inches, Connie Hoogerland

Light molding paste dries to an opaque, matte finish. It is designed to hold stiff peaks for highly textured surfaces and it blends easily with colors. Molding paste can also be used to create foundations for painting either to create texture over a smoother surface, or to smooth out a textured surface.

The last day we reconvened and made more interesting creations, each of us choosing what interested us. It was a wonderful get-away and we plan to do it again, perhaps in Chicago.

A History of My Art

Sometimes when I am rummaging around in my studio I come across a painting that I haven’t seen or thought about for a while. When I look at the date of the painting I am sometimes surprised.

One such painting is a small work that I did in 2008. I do remember that I painted it in the winter and that it was a New Mexico scene. It is cold here now and at this time I am working on a New Mexico abstract series depicting how I see the winter landscape. It is interesting to me that I painted one lone winter scene about seven years ago and now I am doing a series. I like this little painting.

Ann Hart Marquis-Road Home, January, New Mexico

Except for what I have sold, I have kept all of my work since I started painting 15 years ago, including my drawings. They remind me of where I started, how I tried new things, how I endeavored to be a better draftsperson and how I experimented with color. They provide a history of my art. Above all, my older work reminds me that I have produced many images in a variety of styles trying to figure out how to create an interesting painting.

What I didn’t do when I first started painting was to paint in series. Art schools and marketing concepts suggest that to be successful, an artist “should” work in a series. That is because supposedly the best way for artists to get recognized and develop an identity, is to cultivate a distinct style. It is said that here is no better way to do that than to begin creating art in multiples.

I have done several successful series, but I still like to paint something totally quirky and enchanting to me that goes with nothing except the fact that I consider it a good painting. Here is one of my favorite paintings that just stands on its own. It is part of a collection in Phoenix.