Long Shadows - Provence

This gorgeous oil painting by Maryanne Jacobsen is called Long Shadows - Provence. The scene with its subtle and skilled use of blue and orange arrested me as soon as I glimpsed it unexpectedly – for it depicts the side of our property and the track that leads up towards the road into the village.

There, on the right is the fountain and what was once a drinking trough for horses and other animals; to the left is the side of the main farmhouse. It is astonishingly true to life, but what Maryanne has captured better than any photograph is the depth of colour and the way the flames of sunset in the west are thrown against the rising land. The contrast deepens the indigo and purple as evening sinks into darkness.

An ex-dancer and artistic director of a ballet company, Maryanne Jacobsen lives in Florida and is rapidly building a reputation as an artist. Her work has been juried into the annual exhibition of The American Impressionist Society, and she received the People’s Choice Award in the Venice Art Center’s fall exhibition, among many other accomplishments.

One of the wonders of the world now is the way we can all connect, across continents and seas, at the click of a mouse or keyboard. I discovered Maryanne’s enchanting art blog Paint Dance a while ago when I was searching for paintings of Provence.

We corresponded with a view to featuring one of her pictures on this blog. She asked me to wait a while. Meanwhile, she watched the three-minute film I made with family and friends last summer - and here, wonderfully achieved, is one of the scenes in that film. For somehow, she has read the true atmosphere from the patterns of light in a few frames of video.

With a true artist’s eye she brings a mysterious and romantic quality to the perspective through superb mastery of colour. The bumpy track seems to lead the eye up the path. Flecks of bright light suggest that even now there are still patches of heat on the dust.

Is writing or art more effective if you already know the place that the painter or writer describes? Possibly, that issue is double-edged both for reader and writer. How disappointing if the creative work failed to capture the very essence of a place! Alternately, when a portrait in paint or words succeeds – or exceeds expectation - the place in life will always glow with an extra dimension of understanding.

To find out more about Maryanne Jacobsen’s art, click here for her Paint Dance blog and here to see Long Shadows - Provence in the context of her site.