Garden on the Drive

 

This is a beautiful tropical garden at the street of a large home on Indian River Drive. I've been wanting to paint it since I snapped the photo several years ago. So I decided to do a little watercolor sketch of it in my tiny Moleskine watercolor sketchbook. 

This garden caught my eye with its perfect combo of pink Bougainville and periwinkle plumbago. I just love how these flowers play off each other. And the beautiful yellow greens of their foliage make the flower colors pop.

It's rare to see blue flowers in nature, so being the blue lover that I am, I'm especially fond of plumbagos. 

 

One Lily - Watercolor by Marcy Brennan

One Lily - Watercolor

Today, my husband and I toured through McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach, FL.  The water lilies were on display in all their glory in every pond at the gardens.  We also caught the Dinosaurs exhibited throughout the gardens.  They're incredibly life-like and are on display through May 1st.  It's a great place to take the kids!

Here's a short video of the main pond with it's beautiful stone bridge and huge amount of water lilies and lily pads:

While the original is not for sale because I painted it in my little watercolor sketchbook, prints, apparel and lots of other items may be purchased with this image on them at my Red Bubble and Fine  Art America sites. 

Here are some of the fun items with this image on them:

Here are some of the photos I took at the gardens to:

See the dinosaurs on the log?

Heathcote Hanging Flower Baskets, Plein Air Painting by Marcy Brennan

Heathcote Hanging Flower Baskets - 5" x 7" mixed media

This is a plein painting I did in February in the the Heathcote Botanical Gardens. The weather was set to "perfect" that day! I tried something a bit different. I usually paint en plein air using oils. I was inspired by the art of Loriann Signori, a Washington DC artist who works in watercolor and pastels. The underpaining is in watercolor with pastel on top, then ink and charcoal. This is a very impressionistic style and I'm liking it a lot!

Buy original and prints here.

Paintings for My Nephew by Marcy Brennan

Paintings For My Nephew

I was recently on Long Island for a National Juried show at East End Arts in Riverhead.  I stayed at my nephew's house for the week I was there and in return for he and his wife's hospitality, I got busy painting a few things for their home.  They didn't really have any art on the walls, so hopefully, this will get them going!  His wife is a certified framer at Michael's, so she will have fun picking out frames for all these, I'm sure.  They are all acrylic 11x14 on canvas.  I had quite a fun time doing these paintings for them and I hope they enjoy them.

Blue & Green Abstract

Orange and Blue Abstract

Path near the golf course in their community

A Tiny House in Port Jefferson, a city near where they live

The beautiful garden at the entry to downtown Port Jefferson

A colorful window box in front of a little shop in Port Jefferson

Secret Garden 6 by Marcy Brennan

Secret Garden 6 - Acrylic on 16"x20"x1.5" Gallery Wrap Canvas - $350

This is part of my Secret Garden series of abstract paintings.  I was thinking of a summer garden full of roses, bouquets for weddings and tall vases of flowers and glorious scents when I was painting this.  The 1.5" canvas edge is painted white.

Buy the original here

Buy a print here

Secret Garden 4 by Marcy Brennan

Secret Garden 4 - Acrylic on 16"x20"x1.5" Gallery Wrap Canvas - $350

This is part of my Secret Garden series and much more abstract than the others.  But it has lots of movement and colors of a summer garden.  The 1.5" deep canvas edges are painted white.

Buy the original here

Buy a print here

Secret Garden 3 by Marcy Brennan

Secret Garden 3 - Acrylic on 20"x20"x1.5" Gallery Wrap Canvas - $350

This is another in my Secret Garden series of six paintings.  While it is an abstract painting, it has lots of yummy flower and foliage colors of a summer garden.  The edges of the 1.5" deep canvas are painted white.

Buy the original here

Buy a print here

Secret Garden 2 by Marcy Brennan

Secret Garden 2 - Acrylic on 20"x20"x1.5" Gallery Wrap Canvas - $350

This painting is part of six Secret Garden series of paintings.  It's full of the beautiful colors of a summer garden filled with flowers.  While it's still an abstract painting, the viewer can envision light and dark pink roses in this painting.  The 1.5" deep edges are painted white.

Buy the original here
Buy a print here

Monet's Garden by Marcy Brennan

Monet's Garden - 8"x8" oil on canvas panel - $100

This started as a total abstract painting with a limited palette of yellow, purple and green using a palette knife.  I was actually painting it one way, and when I turned it 90 degrees, it looked like Monet's garden.  So I added a little red for flowers and a few finishing touches, and voila! It's an abstracted Monet's garden.  That's what they call a "happy accident" in the art world. ;-)

Buy this painting here

Souvenirs of Downtown Day Two

Day two turned out pretty nice, especially since there was a 60% chance of rain predicted for this afternoon!  The sun actually came out.  Got a tiny bit of rain this morning, but we continued painting and it went away.  My friend Judith and I painted Colleen Becht's little Love Shack on N. 2nd St this morning - well a vignette of one of her bougainvillas.  Here's my 8 x 10 oil on canvas panel of it:

Here is my friend Judith Sharpe Levy's 12 x12 acrylic on canvas rendition of it:

This afternoon, Judith went to Art Mundo and finished this painting and the two she started yesterday and got hers framed.  I went a bit farther north on 2nd Street and painted a section of the O'Connell house:

Here's a reference photo of the house - I struggled with all the angles, but I sure love turquoise and pink, so this house called to me.  Just as I finished, I notice a little bird perched on top of the chimney and so I painted it in as a final touch.

I had no time to add the palms and other greenery - this little sucker took me 3 hours to do.  Then I did something I've never done before -- I sat on the sidewalk and framed both paintings -- awkward, but it's required as we have to turn our paintings in at 4:00 so they can be hung.  But the weather was perfect and it was peaceful sitting on the road behind my car facing this cute house and painting all afternoon.

Here are Judith's two that she did yesterday.  I LOVE her style and use of color - so free and painterly - oh to paint like this!!!  The first painting is of Cobb's Landing Restaurant and the second painting is of Palms Health and Wellness backyard. 

There was a wonderful artist's reception from 5-8 pm tonight at the Backus Hosue with music, drinks and great food.  If you didn't make it tonight, be sure to come out tomorrow night, same time.  It's a real treat, and tomorrow will bring lots more wonderful art.  A number of pieces sold tonight - my friend Lori McNamara's painting she did today sold.  Judith and I are looking to paint something close-up at the PP Cobb building - something with the colorful flower boxes included - some sort of vignette, not the whole building.  Signing off for now - pretty worn out - but in a good way.  ;-)

Rosy Faces by Marcy Brennan

Rosy Faces - Abstract Expressionist Acrylic on 24" x 24" x 1.5" gallery canvas - $500

The first few layers on this painting started out as a total abstract, but I decided to develop it into a fantasy rose garden and submit it to the February 2014 "Sweet Art" show at Art Mundo.  I used all my favorite colors in this one:  aquas for the pond in the bottom right corner, pinks for the roses and bright greens for the grasses and leaves.  It was such a joy painting this one!

Buy the original here
Buy a print here

Happy Garden by Marcy Brennan

Happy Garden - 5" x 7" watercolor and ink on paper

Love the gardens at Hackberry Hammock, a homestead west of Fort Pierce.  The owners open it to artists once a year to come out and spend the day painting.  This was a little watercolor I did from photos taken there.

Purchase this painting here

Country Lake & Garden by Marcy Brennan

Country Lake & Garden - 5" x 7" Oil on Gessoed Paper

Abstract landscape painted from photos of my day at Hackberry Hammock.  This is oil on gessoed Bristol paper done with palette knife (no brushes).  My goal was to make this as bright and colorful as I remembered from the wonderful day I spent there and I think I managed to do that!

Purchase this painting here

Garden at Hackberry Hammock by Marcy Brennan

Garden at Hackberry Hammock - 5" x 7" watercolor on paper

Painted from photos taken while at artists' day at Hackberry Hammock, a homestead in the western side of Fort Pierce, FL.  The colorful flowers inspired me to paint this scene.

To purchase, click here

Future Paintings

Future Paintings

Until I am lucky enough to retire and paint full-time, I'm always on the lookout for great reference photos when I'm coming and going to show houses in my real estate business.

My husband and I always take the road along the Indian River on our way south from Fort Pierce to Port St. Lucie called, you guessed it, Indian River Drive.  There are no traffic lights, and you can make pretty good time.  But I'd take it anyway for the sheer beauty along the way!

I'm always torn between looking at our wonderful river and the gorgeous homes along "the drive."  I've passed this one home hundreds of times wishing I had my "good" camera to get this incredible bougainvilla and plumbago in bloom.  It seems they are always in bloom!  Last evening, I finally remembered my good camera and stopped along the small spit of land on the river side of the street to snap this photo on my way home.  I may go into my studio this evening and paint this scene!  It's really calling to me. ;-)

Here's a photo I took on Easy Street on the way to show a house to my customers.

It's another gorgeous magenta bougainvilla in bloom.

While sitting in my car waiting for my customers, I zoomed in on this pink hibiscus bush in front of the house.  It was the only "pretty" thing in the yard ;-).  I like the clapboard look to the house - it makes it look kind of cottage-y, even though it doesn't look that way overall - but it will be nice in a painting.

Another "lazy" shot from my car of the foliage at the house next door to the one I was showing.  Love the chartreuse bushes again the magenta bougainvilla and the cute turquoise house.  I will need to work on the composition and short of "pretty" it up in my painting of this little scene.