Marybeth Heikes

Paintings in Watercolor & Mixed Media

Posts Tagged “Music”

Bebop Blues Guitars

Bebop Blues Guitars

March 22, 2023

This composition was inspired by guitars that we saw at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, a few years ago. There was a display of many interesting musical instruments and interactive displays. more »

Orientale Cadenza for Trumpet

Orientale Cadenza for Trumpet

February 15, 2017

Painting a series of musical instruments has been on my mind lately. This began with a very loose contour drawing in ink and turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I completed the drawing from life and included the many sections of details as I worked. Sometimes I like to begin doing a […] more »

Singing Strings Guantanamera

Singing Strings Guantanamera

December 7, 2016

This design was started back in October and I put it aside for a while to think about the composition and colors. Sometimes the creativity flows easily, and other times I feel unsure what direction to take. The colors were good to start with; I liked the teal, turquoise and reds and ochre. Then I […] more »

Good Vibrations #2 (Guitar Trio)

Good Vibrations #2 (Guitar Trio)

November 7, 2016

My idea was to re-work an old piece with the same title, but I ended up changing the whole design. There was a spark of an idea to add a guitar to an abstract piece and it kept evolving. The colors changed along the way too, which is one of the benefits working with collage. […] more »

Joyful Music

Joyful Music

June 16, 2016

Earlier this year, I wrote down many ideas for subject matter to paint. I intended to do a music series after the guitars and violin. For this piece I used my reference photo taken at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California. Beginning with a very loose pencil drawing and weaving colors and shapes […] more »

Poetic Poppies

Poetic Poppies

April 29, 2016

Flowers are a consistent theme in my work. I work from life, drawing my garden flowers and taking numerous photos. I began with an idea for the design and sketched it out on tracing paper the same size as my paper support; in this case I used 300# Arches watercolor paper. The heavier paper doesn’t […] more »

Flute Music and Petunias

Flute Music and Petunias

October 15, 2015

This painting was inspired by my garden flowers and antique bottle collection. Still lifes are one of my favorite subject matter to paint, and I love the bright colors of summer flowers! I decided from the start to use some of my flower sketches of our larkspur plants and fire engine red petunias. I began […] more »

Rock n Roll

Rock n Roll

January 12, 2015

This particular design of my daughter’s electric guitar has been on my mind for a long time. I worked from some old sketches and photographs, but also did a series of just sections of this instrument. Most of the time I use tracing paper to compile my sketches, then edit during the process of designing […] more »