Two of Marybeth Heikes’ original collages have been selected for the 22nd annual Greater Des Moines Exhibition. Her collages, RAGBRAI, depicting a close up of a bicycle wheel and pieces of Iowa map of the Mississippi river towns, and Supreme Sunflowers with Red Stems, a floral bouquet, will be part of this exhibit featuring Iowa […] more »
I couldn’t resist doing another design using our cats as models and the crossword block pattern for the background. The main character here is the red cat with green whiskers and pink-striped tail. His buddy is beige with teal eyes. The background is limited to the colors of emerald green, reds, ultramarine blue and teal. […] more »
This watercolor painting was commissioned by my brother Joe. It is a beautiful Great Dane. He provided the photograph and I began this piece by drawing the design in pencil first. The main purpose of the portrait was to capture her inquisitive and playful expression. The background uses a wet-in-wet method, to keep it simple and […] more »
I have been inspired by bicycles and decided to begin a fourth design in early August. It’s been a busy summer and taken me almost a month to complete this. Drawing is the foundation of all my work and I love doing loose, contour drawings to begin my piece. I believe contour drawing provides a […] more »
This was inspired by our playful and ornery goats. And because the year 2015 is the Chinese Year of the Sheep/Goat, this was perfect! In the past I have done some Chinese zodiac animals in ink and decided it was time to try them using collage papers. Working from my sketch and some of my […] more »
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 »
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 »
My challenge for this piece was to create a large sunflower design in a square format. I used my sketch of a vase in my collection and worked from my sunflower sketches done from life. I worked the warm colors against the cool colors and contrasted light and dark values. I decided early on not to […] more »
This piece was inspired by our garden sunflowers. I worked in a smaller design format than usual because I have been doing the Daily Paintings that are usually done in smaller sizes. It is easier to complete a piece this size in one day, as opposed to the larger pieces that can take up to […] more »
This painting was inspired by the large collection of antique bottles my mother sent me. As I sketched each bottle, I turned my paper in all directions and overlapped the bottles, which made a more interesting arrangement than just standing next to each other on a shelf. more »