"Marble #3"

4" x 4" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
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Back to my marbles!  After the little Traveling Chicken's visit, getting some paintings shipped out and catching up in my office, I'm finally able to get back to my marble series.  This is just a common cat's eye probably from the 1950's.  I'm still looking at some of the really spectacular handmade marbles on Ebay but I just haven't been able to bring myself to pay the price needed to score one.

Next I'll probably try a painting with multiple marbles in some sort of set up.  I have some ideas but we'll see how they pan out once I actually start playing around with them.  Lighting is tricky with these little gems.  Stay tuned!

"Marble #2"

4" x 4" oil on gessoboard
- SOLD -

The second in my series.  Again I messed around for a long time selecting which marble to paint and then with placement and lighting.  I discovered that setting it on top of my magnifying light so it was lit from below really showed the inside of the marble at it's best.  Then I added some purple paper so the color would reflect up under the marble.  I nearly went blind trying to look at it but the effect was pretty cool!

Update:  Ugh...!  I struggled to get this photo correct.  In my original post I explained it didn't look quite right.  Well, I took some new photos today and I have replaced the original one with this new and improved photo.  It looks pretty accurate now on my monitor anyway.  The background should be a soft grayish purple.  

I've been asking around to see if I can locate and borrow a really spectacular marble but no luck yet.  I placed a couple bids on ebay but have not scored anything I can afford yet.  My gosh there are some beautiful marbles with things like "double ribbon" and "latticinio" in the titles.  I'm not sure what all of it means but I know a pretty marble when I see one.

"Marble #1"

4" x 4" oil on Ampersand Gessobord
- SOLD -

This is the first time I've tried painting a marble.  Fun!  I love gazing into these shiny little orbs with all their beautiful swirls and ribbons and colors.  They mesmerize me.  So, this is the first in a small series I'm going to do so I can learn about painting them and decide if it's something I want to pursue further.  It's ridiculous how much time I spent trying to select which marble to paint first, trying it out in different settings, figuring out the perfect angle and playing around with lighting and shadows.  Good grief!  So finally I just picked one, plunked it down on a plain piece of paper with a bright light shining on it and dove in.

I've been doing the craziest mixed-up things lately.  I ordered a whole pile of 5" x 5" panels by mistake instead of my usual 6" x 6".  Now I'm out of 6" x 6", I don't know why but I don't want to paint on 5" x 5", so I'll use some 4" x 4" panels until my new order gets here.   And this is just one of many silly mistakes I've made recently... so, today's subject is appropriate.  I really think I've lost my marbles!