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  • Gallery Two – Pond in Bloom
  • Gallery Three – Hats on Broadway
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  • Gallery Four – Artist in Residence at Pepperwood Preserve
  • Gallery Five – Seasonal Paintings, A Pepperwood Sonata
  • Gallery Seven – Pastel Landscape and Still Life
  • MEET SONOMA COUNTY ARTIST MARSHA CONNELL by Satri Pencak

Marsha Connell Studio

Marsha Connell Studio

Tag Archives: expressive

Petits Bijoux Small Painting Jewels

10 Thursday May 2018

Posted by Marsha Connell in Art, En plein air, Exhibits, gallery, Healdsburg Plaza, Landscape, Oils, Painting, Pastel, Upstairs Art Gallery, Healdsburg

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Tags

artists, bouquets, brushstrokes, California, dance, expressive, flora, flowers, France, gallery, garden, inspiration, Japan, nature, small works

Upstairs Art Gallery, 306 Center Street, Healdsburg

Please join May’s featured artists
MARSHA CONNELL and DAN SCANNELL
Saturday May 12, 2-5 pm for our artist reception

Petits Bijoux  Small Painting Jewels  by Marsha Connell

Plein air painter, Marsha Connell, is exhibiting a collection of Petits Bijoux, Intimate Scale Paintings from France to California, in the Upstairs Gallery’s Small Works Showcase. The Showcase is uniquely situated to be viewed as you climb up and down the staircase.

These “Small Jewels” celebrate encounters with wild and domestic landscapes, and traveled home in suitcases to tell the story. Marsha’s expressive and rhythmic brushstrokes are a dance of color, in oil and pastel.

Reaching the top of the stairs, you can meander in Marsha’s larger scale garden paintings, from the coast to tabletop bouquets.

Picture
Creek at Bowling Ball Beach by Marsha Connell, oil, 12 x 12″

Upstairs Art Gallery is on the Mezzanine above Levin Books on the Healdsburg Plaza, across from the Gazebo.

Stop in anytime to view this month-long show, open daily 11-6, hosted warmly by the dozen plus artist/owners.

PictureSnow and Wildflowers 1 by Marsha Connell, oil on canvas, 12″x12″

I’m a new partner and will be hosting the gallery:
Saturday May 19, 3-6; Sunday May 20, 2-6; Sunday May 27, 11-6.

Picture
Renoir’s Bridge 1 by Marsha Connell, oil on canvas, 7 ½”x 9 ½”

Flora and Fauna in Silver and Gold  by Dan Scannell

Dan Scannell’s new series was inspired by Japanese screens from the 19th century.

He became interested in the highly stylized nature scenes, and thought it would be interesting to create paintings based on Sonoma county flora and fauna. He then finished the backgrounds of these paintings using gold and silver leaf as Japanese artists did when making screens.

Picture
Gold Magnolia by Dan Scannell

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The Pastel Society of the West Coast, Featured Artist: Marsha Connell. E-Blast

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Marsha Connell in #PACE15, Art, Art workshops, Drawing, En plein air, Landscape, Mendocino Art Center, Oils, Painting, Pastel, Watercolor, Workshops

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

abstract sensibility, art, brushstrokes, California, Coastal, colorist, demonstrate, drawing, en plein air, exploration, expressive, gallery, gesture, interior landscape, landscapes, Mendocino Art Center, nature, oils, painterly, paintings, scumbling, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor, workshop

Thank you Jan Thomas for this excellent interview and introduction to members of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, which I recently joined while attending #PACE15, the Plein Air Convention in Monterey, CA. As it is only available by email, I am republishing the interview here, with Jan’s permission. I’ve added information about the Pastel Society from their website at the end .

Featured Artist: Marsha Connell.
The Pastel Society of the West Coast, E-Blast

Across from Mendocino Art Center, I dream of what might take place in these studios . . . the camera would show them in their richly dark brown grey wood.

 Featured Artist

 Marsha Connell

My paintings are about the spirit of place. Painting on location, en plein air,
 I observe the place: mood, shapes, color, and spatial relationships.
 I reflect on how the sense of place affects my own interior landscape.
 I am attentive to nuances of color and value, but do not require fidelity to local color; expressive color often feels more true. Watching, listening, trusting intuition and gesture, infuse my painterly representation with an abstract sensibility.
–Marsha Connell

Taking back roads to Occidental, I was smitten with a hillside of wildflowers and waving grasses, changing colors and shapes in the wind, like rising and falling music.

When looking at one of Marsha Connell’s expressionist paintings, in both pastel and oil, one can almost see the dancer that she is moving across the surface leaving behind rhythmic nuances of gesture and color.

A plein air painter, Marsha developed a deep connection to the land as a child. Her grandfather, Samuel Riss, a farmer in upstate New York, was also an artist who influenced Marsha’s love of drawing and encouraged her to pursue her craft with diligence and courage. Today, she has shelves of sketchbooks saved from years of sketching outdoors, filled with energetic drawings of landscapes. She says these drawings are dialogs with nature, creating an attachment to the living world, and birthing paintings that portray mood and feeling. Her plein air forays always include sufficient time to roam and to do as many sketches as necessary to get a sense of connection with a place. When she begins to paint, this energy is translated directly to her surface; rarely does she start with an initial drawing. Instead, she relishes the immediacy of putting pigment to paper with a “get it before it’s gone” intensity. Her colors are “responsive to nature”, but she relies on intuition to provide what she feels the painting needs.

Marsha’s first and ongoing love in painting is pastel, for its natural connection to drawing, the immediacy of pure color, the shimmer of its layering, and the convenience of carrying into the landscape. Her natural voice in pastel comes through in her oil and watercolor paintings, especially in the soft edges, visible brush strokes like drawing, and scumbled color over color.

A mile hike to an overlook of Mendocino's Big River distilled on the spot and in memory in the studio to this shimmering many layered pastel.

Marsha is a long-time Adjunct Professor of Art at Santa Rosa Junior College and also teaches workshops throughout the year. Her goals as a teacher are to offer people tools and working processes that give them comfort and confidence to explore and create with joy. She supports people in finding their own context and path and their authenticity as artists. While she is happy to demonstrate technique and supplies, she also offers a broader artistic scope, introducing students to the work of other artists, current and past, and inviting dialog that stimulates creativity and expression. She encourages students to take advantage of the workshop setting to try new things, to approach many subjects courageously, and to allow their paintings to be unfinished works in progress.

Connell_Pastel_1_L9K1438E-Mail                               River Passage, 16″ x 20″ – Pastel

Artists at any level seeking to energize their work, or refine their artistic direction, or to simply learn how to use pastels, will want to checkout “Lively Pastels: A Bridge Between Drawing and Painting,” a workshop that Marsha is offering in Mendocino, California, July 31 – August 2, 2015 at the Mendocino Art Center. A charming seaside village, Mendocino offers a wealth of inspiring painting venues: quaint cottages, lush gardens, dramatic bluffs and, of course, the ocean, all within walking distance of the Art Center. Marsha has led workshops and given presentations in many California venues, and also in Mexico, New Mexico, Oregon, New York, Tennessee, Alaska, and France. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows regionally and internationally. More information about the pastel workshop can be found at www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer15/Connell.html

I sit near cliff edges, awaiting moments of sudden illumination. What emerges on the page is a distillation of moments, and an invention, a response to an often fleeting rush of feeling and visual event.

Marsha will be a celebrity artist, and give pastel painting demonstrations, for the Mendocino Art Center’s Mendocino Open Paint Out, September 7-12, 2015.

http://www.marshaconnell.com

 Submitted by Jan Thomas

Want to be a Featured Artist on the eBlast? In an effort to get to know you, PSWC will feature a member artist every month in the eBlast. If you would like to be the featured artist in the newsletter, submit your name, telephone number and a photo of your recent work to president@pwcs.ws You will be directed to the website, click on Contact.

Pastel Society of the West Coast
P.O. Box 4518 · Stockton, CA 95204-0518
www.pswc.ws

Welcome to the Pastel Society of the West Coast

About Pastel Society of the West Coast

PSWC was organized in 1984 to promote pastel artists and the soft pastel medium.

We offer opportunities for pastel artists through “pastels only” exhibitions in

Highlighted itemMembership, International Open Shows
Highlighted itemInformative demonstrations by recognized pastel artists.

An emailed Newsletter for pastel artists is included with PSWC membership and all pastelists are invited to join. Pastel workshops, classes, exhibitions and pastel related editorial articles can be found in the newsletter.

PSWC members are from all around the US from New York to California.

The Pastel Society of the West Coast is incorporated as a non-profit organization. The PSWC is run completely by volunteer Board Members and others.

Pastel Society of the West Coast | 7251 Baldwin Dam Road | Folsom | CA | 95630

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Meet Sonoma County Artist Marsha Connell by Satri Pencak. Published: January 29th, 2015

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Marsha Connell in Drawing, En plein air, Exhibits, Landscape, Lecture, Oils, Painting, Slide Show, Watercolor

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

art, colorist, drawing, exploration, expressive, farm, gallery, gesture, Hokusai, interior landscape, landscapes, luminous, nature, observation, painterly, paintings, place of the heart, Santa Rosa, science, scumbling, seasons, Sonoma county, upstate New York, view

A conversation with the artist by Satri Pencak has been published on the Sonoma County tourism site, perfect timing for a reminder about my upcoming lecture and slide show with biologist Shawn Brumbaugh
Art & Science: Views of Pepperwood Preserve
Monday Feb. 2, noon to 1 pm.
and exhibit Pepperwood Preserve: Paintings by Marsha Connell
January 15 through March 26
Santa Rosa Junior College, Petaluma Campus,
Herold Mahoney Library Gallery, Building 700
680 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma

Meet Sonoma County Artist Marsha Connell

IMG_2234
Photo credit Lizbeth Hamlin. Marsha Connell and “River’s End, Day’s End, 3”_o/c_36”x36 at Fulton X Gallery’s Art Trails Exhibition, October 15, 2014

Thank you, Satri!

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Gesture and Stillness Watercolor Workshop

07 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Marsha Connell in Art workshops, Workshops

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

abstract sensibility, brushstrokes, colorist, exploration, expressive, gesture, glazing, landscapes, Marsha Connell, open studios, Pepperwood Preserve, Sally Baker, still life, stillness, tabletop, watercolor

Marsha and Sally

GESTURE and STILLNESS: 
Watercolor Workshop
with Marsha Connell and Sally Baker

November 2 & 3, 2013, 9:30am-3:30pm
Pepperwood Preserve,
Santa Rosa, CA

Two painter friends, one known for expressive “painterly” landscapes, one for elegantly rendered still lifes, both passionate about color, offer a unique weekend of watercolor exploration.

Visit Sally http://www.sallybaker.com/ and
Marsha http://www.marshaconnell.com online and
during Open Studios October 12, 13, 19, 20
http://www.artrails.org

Explore skills including:
soft-edged wet-in-wet forms, layering marks and shapes, painting seamless transparent washes as meditative practice, and delineating sharply focused objects. Approaches: abstract to realist, spontaneous to methodical.

Your instructors bring many years of painting and classroom experience to guide you—Marsha at Santa Rosa Junior College and Sally at Healdsburg High School, as well as workshops and classes for students and teachers across the country.

The focus is teaching watercolor skills in the context of the special Pepperwood environment. Pepperwood can speak through the artist’s brush and paint, and get inside the painter, through interaction with the landscape and its smaller forms, ie a tabletop landscape or still life. We are the teachers; Pepperwood is our muse. We will be teaching observation, technique and expression, and hope to inspire both artist and naturalist in each person. 

Participants of diverse backgrounds are welcome! Class is structured around group exercises and individual pursuits. Beginners will find guidance for basic exploration. Experienced painters will find support to develop technique and expression.

Materials: Use what you already own or consult our list, sent upon registration. Snacks provided. Please bring your lunch.

Sign up early! Workshop limited to 25 participants. Complete registration, including $195 fee, by mail or email to marsha@marshaconnell.com or knsbaker@yahoo.com

Mail checks to Marsha Connell, 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 or Sally Baker, My Daughter the Framer, 637 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Phone in credit cards or ask questions of Sally 707-829-0396, or
Marsha 707-527-7754.
—————————————————————————–
GESTURE and STILLNESS Watercolor Workshop with Marsha Connell and Sally Baker. November 2 & 3, 2013, 9:30am-3:30pm

Name
Address
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Phone
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Payment: cash____, check_____, or credit card______(include numbers on front and back, or phone in)
Art interests and experience

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Marsha Connell Studio

  • About
  • Contact and Social Media
  • Gallery Five – Seasonal Paintings, A Pepperwood Sonata
  • Gallery Four – Artist in Residence at Pepperwood Preserve
  • Gallery One – Lakes and Gardens
  • Gallery Seven – Pastel Landscape and Still Life
  • Gallery Six – A Murder of Crows
  • Gallery Three – Hats on Broadway
  • MEET SONOMA COUNTY ARTIST MARSHA CONNELL by Satri Pencak
  • Gallery Two – Pond in Bloom
  • Art Workshops

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Marsha Connell Studio

Marsha Connell Studio

Articles

  • Gathering Clouds Magazine past Issue #2 (3) "Color & Mood" Marsha Connell and others. . .”My paintings are a dance in color, a moving meditation in the landscape,” pages 4-9.

Artist Website

  • Sally Baker

Blogroll

  • WordPress.com
  • WordPress.org

Books

  • A Murder of Crows: Three Artists, Three Objects, Three Images Catalog of an exhibit by Sally Baker, Marsha Connell, Micah Schwaberow. This exhibit has traveled and is available to more venues! *Murder is the collective noun used to describe a group of crows.

Collections

  • Art Talk / The Doyle Collection / Santa Rosa Junior College Libraries Art Talk captures the inspirations and experiences of artists showcased in The Doyle Collection. Click on each artwork to see the full set of videos for each artist.
  • The Doyle Collection, Santa Rosa Junior College Library I am honored to have three paintings included in this permanent collection: “Dissolve – Three Tree Hill”, “Salmon Barn”, and “Dusk at Duncan’s Landing”. They can be viewed on the 4th floor of the Doyle Library.

Fundraising website

  • Amy's Healing Journey: A Fund- and Spirit- Raiser Fundraising website for Amy Connell

My Art Website

  • Marsha Connell Fine Art Expressive Landscape Paintings, Dream Vessels Collages, Workshops

Nature Preserve

  • Pepperwood Preserve

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