Marybeth Heikes

Paintings in Watercolor & Mixed Media

Posts Tagged “Number”

Burlington Engine 3167

Burlington Engine 3167

September 16, 2019

The fascination with these train engines continues! I used one of my photos from our Burlington, Iowa trip. Every engine is different, and with collage it's easy to manipulate the shapes and develop a pleasing design. more »

Engine Abstraction #13

Engine Abstraction #13

July 26, 2019

This painting is part of my abstract engine designs that I have been working on since April of this year. The composition possibilities are interesting and seem endless when you take a closer view of your subject. This close-up includes the yellow Union Pacific engine with windows, stripes and numerals. more »

Engine Abstraction #17

Engine Abstraction #17

July 11, 2019

This abstract train engine varies a bit from the pieces I have completed so far. This collage is actually the first design. I did not use a sketch, but rather used a close-up section and began by cutting out shapes and arranging them on the gessoed hardboard. It is a section of the brake and wheel, and I just improvised until the design looked good to me. more »

Engine Abstraction #9

Engine Abstraction #9

June 27, 2019

Inspired by abstract geometric shapes led me to doing a series of collages of train engines, boxcars and others. This design is a gray boxcar with the number five in the top right corner. more »

Biking Six

Biking Six

May 26, 2016

Bicycle shapes are wonderful, and I am continually working on this series. The design possibilities are endless. I love the geometric shapes and the challenge of working on this theme. As the others, Iowa maps are used in the background. I used an archival foamboard for the support. Gel medium and a UV Varnish is […] 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 Nine Zero 45

Engine Nine Zero 45

April 9, 2015

This collage is a continuation of my popular train engine series. I have been doing engines for a number of years now. This one is a close-up of a Union Pacific. I used one of my reference photos for this. The details of the engine caught my eye: the shadow shapes, the numerals and flag, […] more »

License to Paint

License to Paint

March 12, 2013

This is a petite composition done specifically for an upcoming show with size limitations. I found it difficult to crop my reference photo and even more of a challenge to paint a six-inch-square format. So it is just a piece of the larger design I had planned originally — I may get to that another […] more »

Six Four Three Two BNSF

Six Four Three Two BNSF

January 17, 2013

It’s difficult to paint a huge engine on a tiny piece of watercolor paper! I chose hot press paper, so the pigments squooshed around a lot — juicy orange! I had to edit the shapes, like the big bold numerals. This engine was idling on the tracks in Albia. I also mixed in some gouache […] more »

BNSF

BNSF

December 30, 2012

This watercolor is a continuation of my love of train engines.  I took a photo at the yard in Albia as it was sitting there for a while. It has many interesting details. It seems that lately many of my works contain numerals and letters, as well as bright pigments. more »