Marybeth Heikes

Paintings in Watercolor & Mixed Media

Cat Lady #2

Cat Lady #2

March 27, 2020

This design is partly a self-portrait and partly an imaginative one. It began with a figure on a large background and I creatively began adding a cat here and there. Before I knew it, most of my cats entered the composition. more »

Willa Cather

Willa Cather

March 25, 2020

This portrait is of Willa Cather, one of my favorite authors. This acrylic portrait portrays Ms. Cather wearing a brocade hat and dark green jacket in the style of that period. For the background I used some of her book titles. more »

Nineteenth Amendment

Nineteenth Amendment

March 13, 2020

This painting is part of my Women's History Month series. I particularly liked the dresses with their sashes proclaiming their right to vote. The yellow roses along the bottom are a symbol of the suffragists. more »

Battle For The Ballot

Battle For The Ballot

March 11, 2020

This acrylic collage is the beginning of my new figurative series highlighting the suffragist movement. This year we are celebrating the anniversary of the 19th Amendment and I thought this was an excellent place to start. more »

Giant Blue Sunflowers

Giant Blue Sunflowers

January 17, 2020

Sunflowers have been a major theme for me over the years. I began the new year thinking about sunflowers in my garden, and planned to make this a large composition with life-sized blooms. more »

Winter Poppies

Winter Poppies

December 6, 2019

Flowers continue to inspire me, and I challenged myself to use an oblong format for this design. After choosing the necessary hand-painted acrylic collage papers, I decided the background would look great using a marbled rose-colored paper purchased many years ago. more »

Gray Barn with Sunflowers

Gray Barn with Sunflowers

November 22, 2019

The inspiration of old southeast Iowa barns continues to pique my imagination with their lively character. This barn had interesting round windows in the upper level and I could not help adding some bright, colorful sunflowers in the foreground. more »

Ragbrai XLVII

Ragbrai XLVII

October 25, 2019

This collage is part of my bicycle series inspired by the yearly RAGBRAI event that happens every July in Iowa. This design is the actual route taken in 2019, and includes the cities of Council Bluffs, Atlantic, Winterset, Indianola, Centerville, Fairfield, Burlington and Keokuk. more »

Cornfields & Purple Barn

Cornfields & Purple Barn

October 7, 2019

I love painting the Iowa landscape with its old barns full of character. I began using a pale pink for the sky and used some geometric shapes for the roof and barn. The foreground was not planned until the last minute. more »