Marcia's Blog
Next - 'A Lei For You'
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/27/17This one is simple and fun! Most of the plumerias are showing the back sides. I have combined a photo I took about 5 years ago at the Coconut Martketplace where someone was stringing a lei and the other photo was taken at one of the May Day lei making tables at the Kauai Museum. So it will be just the lei and the hands stringing the flowers. First layer of back striping was done today.
Radiance is Done
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/26/17'Radiance' 22x30" is done and is off to the photographer today for future prints. I liked painting the white flowers after the leaves and background. It allowed me to see how dark to make the shadows on the petals.
Three Pages of Small Prints
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/22/17I have updated and added more pages of small prints and have purchase buttons for 5x7s or 8x11s on this website. I will be adding a few more to the paintingsbymarcia.etsy.com store but everything I have available in on this website. Some prints for newer paintings will be available in a week.
Fairs So Far for the Rest of 2017
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/22/17
Radiance Continued
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/22/17I have first layers of shadows on the flowers, have darkened the background, and am working on the lower stems.
Radiance Starting the Flowers
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/18/17
Radiance Getting Ready for the Plumerias
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/16/17I will come back to the background after the flowers are in. It should be easier to get the petal shadows in dark enough in the first layer now that I can see how dark the leaves and background are.
Radiance More Leaves
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/15/17I decided to put the two background leaves on the right where I want them rather than to carve them out of a dark background later. I am probably going to keep the bright backlit leaf in the center because that is what attracted me when I was taking photos. I like the accidental shadow on the bottom left leaf so don't plan to cover that leaf with a dark background.
Radiance (Plumerias)
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/12/17I am painting this one from bottom up and leaving the flowers till later. Shadows will be added further on.
Photographs Taken and Prints Made
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/10/17I have added the 'Yellow Plumerias' (Celadines) , 'Waimea Canyon,' and a professional photo of 'Cattleyas Sitting Pretty" to the galleries on my website along with giclee print information.
Back to Plumerias - 'Radiance' 22x30"
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/09/17Instead of moving on to another landscape, I am excited to start some white plumerias in brilliant sunlight. The background will be dark in this one. Most of the leaves, except for these two, will be in the shadowy background.
October and November Fairs
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/08/17
Waimea Canyon - More Green
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 10/01/17A little more definition on the left side and this one is ready to be professionally photographed. The orange of the cliffs is back and I have made the vegetation more obvious. I intend to finish this today and will post the final photo after my photographer has captured it this week for accurate colors.
Waimea Canyonn - Details
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/26/17I have been adding more vegetation, toning down the orange and working right to left. Will concentrate on the middle of the painting today.
Waimea Canyon Topo Map
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/22/17
Waimea Canyon Needs Refinement
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/22/17I grayed down the background hills and adjusted the bottom left rocks. There is a hint of another stream on the left side of the scene as well. I will be going in to refine details.
Waimea Canyon Making Changes Late in the Game
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/21/17I decided to put back some of the landscape I had cut out to accommodate the waterfall on the left. This is around the center left of the painting. I also did not like what looked like a rock wall at the bottom left. You want people to get to the lowest part of the view easily and that red wall seemed to block that eye movement. I will put details into that area with more orange to lead the eye to the waterfall. The sky is bluer without much detail. I don't want that sky area to compete with the canyon. One of the 2 streams is visible now and another will appear in the bottom left portion.
Waimea Canyon Home Stretch
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/18/17I will make the sky more blue and tweak a few areas, especially the bottom left of the painting. One more hint of a stream will go in the valley on the left and the bits of the stream in the middle will go whiter. As you can see, I have made the hills as red and orange as they were in my last visit up to the Canyon last week. The painting becomes more exciting with these vibrant colors. This is our 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific.'
Waimea Canyon Defining
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/17/17I am starting to define the background, right to left and added a little gray glaze to push the hills top right further back. I will have to do the same to the low green hill in front of it so it looks further down since you are looking down at the scene.
Another Drive Up to Waimea Canyon
by Marcia Minnichhofer on 09/12/17I left early (7:42 a.m.) this morning, driving against traffic from Lihue, for the hour drive to the Waimea Canyon to view it again for a more thorough analysis of the colors for the painting. The hills are redder and more orange than in my photos from 2014 for one thing. They are even redder in person than in the photos I took today! It was quite bright and that probably washed out the colors or I should get a better camera. There was also a lot more vegetation on the hills than in the older photos. The waterfall which can be seen from the lower viewing area off the parking lot was barely visible compared to a month ago but I was excited to see some segments of the streams in the valleys this time around. It will be fun to add those!
