Completed MagelssenArt Video-Jazzy Java!-The Coffee Cup Series in Acrylics

It sure has been fun to work on my MagelssenArt video's! I am learning much and having a blast! Here is "Jazzy Java"! I just completed it and am now working on the 4th coffee cup in acylic. These paintings are acrylic on 24"x24" canvas. I hope you have fun painting along with me or just sitting back and taking a look inside my studio as I work. Either way, I hope you enjoy this new video. There are more on my website or You Tube Channel. Just visit my website or Google, "MagelssenArt Videos" on You Tube. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.

Happy New Year! 2010

Happy New Year to all of You!

It never ceases to amaze me how each year I start out with so many things I want to get done! I love that I can start new, and reflect on what worked, what didn't, what if? Questions to be asked, solutions to be solved, challenges to be overcome and goals to be met.

Looking back, I am happy that I accomplished a good many of the intentions and goals that I wrote down in my "Dream Book". There are some things that were not accomplished and I will re-evaluate those, but I never look at the "unfinished" things as negative. Like an unfinished painting, unfinished wishes and goals are just another thing that will come into completion in time. I don't worry about it.

This past year was quite busy. I developed my curriculum for my workshops and classes and launch those mid-spring at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. I am gearing for more venues to teach and will continue to expand my calendar. I find that when I teach, my heart is enthusiastic and I have a ton of energy. It is another way that I can pay it forward and help others with their artistic journey. My dream is to be able to get a group together and travel various places on the globe and explore new "vignettes" that stir our hearts. Wouldn't that be fun?

I also painted more each day and that was a challenge, especially running a household, organizing Exhibits and Shows, being on art society boards such as ISAP and Minnesota Watercolor Society, marketing and promoting my art and also this year, teaching my "Expressive Workshops and Classes", marketing my husband's business-and so much more. My calendar was full!

Now as I ponder this year, I want to work on getting more cohesive works of art. I have several series that are ongoing and I want to push to complete several for upcoming shows and festivals.

I have also opened more online store's such as Cafe Press, ImageKind and Simply Licensed which are all wonderful opportunities to sell my art. These sites are fairly new to me and I post specific images to those venues and the rest will be on my website. Speaking of websites, I will be continuing to update and tweat my website month by month. I love having the availability of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and many other online sites. I have met some wonderful people online and will continue to explore Social Media for more marketing and promotions.

As always, I will paint from my heart. I paint what I love-nothing more, nothing less, and that is all I want to do. I will continue to paint those aspects of life that cause me to feel deep emotions and express those emotions in my art with bold, bright beautiful colors. I plan to have fun adding more pieces to the Sister Series, make more Mountain Messages, continue on until I complete twelve large Crosses of Hope, will goof off making Art Deco Dogs, and whatever else this year will unfold that will be an inspiration to me!

Blessings and love to all of you who stop by to read my blog. With all the information on the web-it's a wonder that we get anything done at all! Happy New Year!

Minneapolis Skyline- "Sweltering Summer"

I call this painting, "Sweltering Summer". It is a 16"x24" acrylic-a fun cityscape. I had a blast painting it! I was going to paint the sky red, but decided at the last minute to paint the buildings red. It is from a photo I took of the Minneapolis Skyline while I was lazily enjoying myself at the Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival last summer. I love going to Art Festivals and this particular one is a favorite of mine. It was June, in the morning, I had stopped to have coffee and croissant, and had my camera with. While I walked along all the booths, I decided to walk along the Mississippi river behind all the booths and there across the river was an amazing scene-the skyline was lit up with the rising sun and the colors were fantastic! WOW! I shot a few photo's, came back to my studio, and started to paint. The painting became alive with color- I tweaked it several times until I was satisfied with the shapes, colors and mood. The dark sky is gradated from blue to darker blue and looks better in reality. This painting was in the Minnesota Watercolor Society's Fall Show.

Mountain Messages-"Mountain Secrets"

Here is another phase of Mountain Secrets. I added more color and worked on the composition creating a lake and pushing the mountains back further into the background. Adding more lights and darks. I am not happy with the stark edge of the lake and the line it creates in the lower 3rd of the image. I love the atmosphere of the sky and the mountains. I also need a focal point and will create that where the two horizontal lines of the lake and the lower shaped mountains converge. I also am thinking of adding clouds and softening the mountains even more. The colors in the foreground are too strong and there are no shapes that make your eye travel throughout the piece. So, I continue to ask, "What if....?" and search more of what I can do to make it better. I let it sit for weeks and let it "cook" hanging in my studio. I study, look, listen, let it be...

So, here is the finished piece! I added a river instead! Ha! I am happy with this one. It looks very colorful in reality and with the added 3 coats of gloss varnish, I must say, it looks pretty cool!

I am working on another one for this series that is coming along nicely. I will post that soon, too! Thanks for visiting my blog!

It's a Beautiful Day

It has been awhile since I've blogged. It has been 6 months since my sweet mother passed away and the tears and grieving are becoming more sporatic. Missing her still at night seems to be happening. Night time is the time when we all settle down and ponder, make lists, and do our creative thinking.

My painting process has been going well. I am doing the "Mountain Messages" series along with others-"Sisters Series, Dance Ballet and Hidden Treasures". They have all been keeping me very busy. I am presently working on 20-40 paintings all various sizes at this time. It is wonderful and challenging. I love going from one painting to another. Painting parts here and there where I feel the need to touch with my fingers or brush. It is very rewarding and fun to do. The painting on the left is called, "Slide into a Dream" and is from the "Mountain Messages" series. These are all done on 2"x12"x12" canvases. I am finding I prefer a more ethereal feel to these paintings bringing more fantasy and dreaminess to them. I will continue to paint until I find other challenges and pathways to "fall into" as I ask "what if?" while I paint. Look for more paintings to be posted soon or check my website at www.DebMagelssen.com.