“GREEN FISH”

This stone dictated the subject matter,  

it appeared as if this school of fish 

was swimming inside the rock.

Mexican alabaster, bronze 

and mahogany base.

Marianne Lerbs

“MAUU”

 Momma cat had a litter of six kittens. 

The runt was the sweetest one of them all ! 

He is stuck with being called “Runt”, 

but when I call him he answers back 

with his cat name, MAUU!

White ash, oil paint and silver leaf. 

Tiger wood base.

Marianne Lerbs

“CHESS HORSE”

I have made a lot of sculptures and paintings of horses.

Sometimes I have rendered them realistically and sometimes stylized.

They have been part of my imagery since I can remember. 

My father taught me how to play chess. 

Spalted white ash wood, acrylic paint,

gold leaf and butter wood base. 

Marianne Lerbs

At the end of this disastrous hurricane season, some gorgeous days have come with great weather to go work outdoors. 6 of us gathered at the State Park in Anastasia Island, Fl., for a good plein air session. I did a 2 hour quick loose study of the south view from the ramp.

This year (2017) I decided to carve the wood blancs that I inherited from Thomas, when he passed away in 2012. 

These nice sized wood blocks had been quarter sawn and dried for at least 25 + years. The only time reference I have, since that’s when Tom moved to St. Augustine, FL, from Frederik, Maryland (1992). As far as I can tell these blancs could had been harvested way before that date, when he still had his tree business, which served the dual purpose of providing income while gathering good fine woods to carve his awarded sculptures, both in competitions in Canada and the US.

When we got together, circa 1998, Tom started sculpting in marble and steatite as his materials off choice, for a couple off reasons: people preferred and was willing to pay more for stone sculptures than fine woods - even though the wood pieces he carved where astonishingly detailed, creative and beautiful.

I started slow, just using some general construction saws and not very sharp Swiss wood chisels and gauges. Very soon I found myself looking for more aggressive tools to do the job, specially for the rouging process. I remember being him using some of his old tree business chainsaws to do this. I din’t want to deal with the fumes, gas, oil and noise and opted for an electric 16” Makita chainsaw and couple of Galahad grinder  and cutting wheels. Great tools! I can work indoors, though I do recommend you work outside, it is messy, - and specially the chainsaw - will spit oil all over the surrounding areas of work. I had to cover some old sculptures with a canvas cloth so I din’t soil them with chain saw oil and wood dust.

I am very much a supporter of everything women… and animals. So my subject matter, one way or another is going to have either one or both. Since I live in the St. Augustine, the Oldest City (short for Oldest, continuously inhabited by European descent in the continental US, North America…) I also have the Spanish factor in my inspiration. At any rate, The Spanish people lived here, same as my native land, Venezuela. We have streets that look just like St. George St. (La Calle de Los Lanceros in Puerto Cabello). Forts just like the Castillo de San Marcos  (Castillo Santa Rosa, Margarita Island, San Carlos de la Barra in Zulia State), and even a Plaza de la Constitution at the center of the town, which became in Venezuela the Bolivar Plaza.

My women right now are Spanish dancers, entertainers just like I am in the present. When I am not carving or painting, I am playing my guitar and singing with my musician friends  in Downtown St. Augustine. My Españolas will be stylized women with abanicos (fans) and even maybe with Castañuelas (Castanets, which I imported a pair a while ago, and drove my step family a little crazy when I was trying to learn how to play them).

I also have a very old love for horses, cats, dogs and a lot of other animals. So, they will pop up every so often in my body of work, being that paintings or sculptures. 

Currently,  one of these sculptural works is a horse head, work in progress being carved out of this light yellow wood block (It was so oxidized on its raw state, that I initially thought it was black walnut!). Once I started roughing it out, I was utterly surprised to find that light spalted yellow toned wood under that obscured greyed brown patina. It took me back to childhood, when I had a light yellow routed wood toy horse in my bedroom. I suspect this was a german made toy and most likely some kind of European pine wood.

I vaguely remember Tom, describing the wood he used to carve a memorial monument to his father, as wood that came from a tree job from the White House in Washington D.C., His father was  the Chief of the Mineralogist Department for the Smithsonian Institute and had connections., Tom referred to the type of wood as what I thought sounded like “Polonia” wood. the Walter White Memorial sculpture  was yellow, with a gentle amber oxidized finish that only years exposed to air and touch can provide, but otherwise very similar to the wood block I am sculpting the horse head out.

Thanks to the Internet, I researched for blond woods, to find out the name of it is actually “Pawlownia” wood, and even though it is native from Asia, it has been cultivated in the South West of the USA. So my horse head sculpture could perfectly be a piece of the same Pawlonia, cut about 25 to 30 years ago, from the White House Lawn.

This is my second version of this composition. South view from my studio on the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine, my friend Bob Bonner's dock with sailboats and motorboats, and some condos in the background along with vegetation. Oil on canvas.

Last week - kinda like Summer cleaning -  I reorganized my art studio, and displayed all  plain air paintings I’ve worked on in the past year on one of the walls. Now at a glance, I can smirk and cringe looking back at some of my efforts. Two weeks ago I took a painting workshop. What learned I applied and painted newer versions of the lest desirable results of my first attempts. 

Here is an example: Aviles St. South Version 1 and version 2.

I have been a fine artist for many years now, and I have done my quota of paintings and sculptures, and my works are on display in some really cool places such as the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, FL., and the Grand Bohemian Hotel in downtown Orlando. I also have some large stone sculptures in the St. Augustine Sculpture Park.

More recently, I decided to go back to basics and started working on plein air painting, or outdoors direct painting. I have in my studio about 20 to 30 attempts laying around in different stages on incompletion. I got maybe 2 or three of the lot that had some merit. Everything else is rather dull.

I decided to take a 2 day workshop at the St. Augustine Art Association by a painter known as Ray Brilli. I have seen his work in local galleries and shows at the Art Association, as well as in private residences on the waterfront. His use of color, loose brushstroke and light, caught my attention. 

He was very clear to understand and his explanations were specific and hands on work. He took the time to work with each individual person in the class.

What I got from this workshop, was a good structure: how to prepare your canvas or primed wood board how to transfer your composition to the canvas, how to layout your oil colors on your palette, how to slow down and layer your paint so it does not get too thick too soon, brighten your colors gradually and add the cheese, the payoff, the accents when you have resolved your shadows and mid tones first. Some people walked away with three good paintings. With the instructor's help, I did one: the one that says what I needed to know and that glows beautifully.

At the end of the 2 day workshop, while packing my art stuff in my cargo van with my art business logo and signs on the sides, a fellow student was a little puzzled that me, being a professional had taken this course. I told her something that has been my mantra for ever; I don't know everything and there is always something to be learned. Not to copy verbatum - though it is a very good way to learn - and then apply your new learned knowledge and make your own thing. 

If you are in the Palm Coast - St. Augustine - Jacksonville neighborhood, I will recommend taking Ray Brilli's workshops to anyone that is interested in advancing their plein air and studio painting techniques, you'l learn a lot.

There are good painters and instructors in this area. Go take a course that interest you: Take a break from your own self art torture and share your happyness and misery with other fellow artists.

Marianne Lerbs 

It’s been fun to see y’all plain air painters / colleagues - some of you all covered with paint over your faces, ears, arms and knees - exhausted and suffering and having fun painting outside throughout the Old City. 

Visitors and locals were curious, and if you where struggling here and there, well, they were sweet and reassuring about your artistic efforts, (maybe this may have prevented you from delicately putting your artwork on the floor and step on it). 

I learned a lot this week, about what works and what sucks painterly speaking. I met other artists from out of town who interchanged with me a gaze of understanding about our left-brain madness, an honest complain of how hard is to block out the victorian architectural features of our buildings, and a new respect for those who can paint a lovely masterpiece on one sitting.

I ambitiously started working on 6 paintings. After some serious self critiquing, I narrowed it down to two entries: one that’s reasonably finished and a second I just started yesterday, just two days before the deadline.

Even though this event is happening within the City limits, it is still country side; I found a tick on my belly, so pack the bug spray, along with sunblock.

One week long event. Painters from St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Gainesville and nearby towns are painiting on various location in the Old City.

I have started three paintings, one tof them an image of Hanry Flagler's Baptist Church dome.