Marybeth Heikes

Paintings in Watercolor & Mixed Media

More Artwork

Orbital

Orbital

September 1, 2015

This artwork was done in conjunction with Velocity, using similar shapes, but with different colors. My goal was to complete an abstract piece without using a preliminary drawing. I concentrated on larger shapes and began with the letter “M.” Basically, I play with the shapes, adding, subtracting and moving elements around the picture space until the […] more »

Velocity

Velocity

August 20, 2015

It is a bit difficult doing an abstract design, having no sketch to work from. I began by choosing some of my textured, hand-painted papers and concentrating on big shapes and colors. It took me a while with the placement of these, adding other shapes and subtracting ones I didn’t like. This is mostly an intuitive process where […] more »

Engine Series Five

Engine Series Five

June 3, 2015

I’m really getting into the abstract patterns of locomotives. In this design, I zeroed in on the rectangular or square shapes with the circular, ovoid shadow patterns. They struck me as I was taking the photos on a bright, sunny morning. Many different warm and cool reds were used in this composition. The dark pieces […] more »

Newborn

Newborn

May 21, 2015

I have been thinking about doing portraiture in watercolor for a long time, and when our goat Zooey had kids, it was the perfect moment. I couldn’t resist painting my husband holding baby George. As usual, I worked from reference photos and edited the background to keep the portrait uncluttered. I feel it was successful […] more »

Equinox

Equinox

April 14, 2015

My goal for this piece was to design an abstract collage in a small, square format.  A lot of my colored paper scraps were accumulating on my art table, and I saw the possibility for an interesting composition. After arranging the scraps of paper on a piece of foam board, I tacked the edges down […] more »

Good Vibrations

Good Vibrations

March 24, 2015

This collage was completed using the leftover paper scraps from a previous collage, Journey. I was inspired by the geometric shapes and the colors. I gravitate to square formats, and did this piece smaller than I usually do, moving the shapes around and playing with the design until I found the composition pleasing. I use […] more »

Journey

Journey

February 26, 2015

I enjoyed assembling my paper scraps for this creation. It began with the background piece and I moved smaller pieces on top of the brown, and also cut shapes to insert papers behind the openings. It started as a rectangular composition, but when I started gluing the pieces, I decided it would be a stronger design […] more »

Compromises

Compromises

February 4, 2015

This is the first small-sized abstract I have completed in collage. It was inspired by Kandinsky’s work — I love the geometric shapes, the triangles, circles and squares. I began by cutting various shapes and assembling the design. Collage is wonderful for being able to move things around before you permanently adhere the shapes. And […] more »

RAGBRAI

RAGBRAI

January 22, 2015

I couldn’t resist doing another bicycle collage, but found this one a challenge working in such a small format. As with my previous biking collages, I used pieces of an Iowa map to add interest to the design. Each of the small circles are pieces of the river on the map. The composition is colorful and […] more »

20%-Off Sale on Select Originals

20%-Off Sale on Select Originals

December 3, 2014

Happy Holidays! I’ve been clearing out my old artwork to make room for new pieces, and in the spirit of the holidays I’ve discounted some originals to 20% off from now until end of the year. This is the last chance to get these originals — once January 1 rolls around, they will be gone forever. Because these are one-of-a-kind, they […] more »