Painting

The Chair Trees

Everyone always asks, what’s with the chair trees?

What do Chair Trees mean to me? Well, to me, the visual of a chair emerging from a tree represents the imagination. How one can be sitting in a chair, yet their mind is expanding out into the world.  Each thought, a new idea, floating in the current of thoughts.

Recently, I went to South Korea and the imagery there really impressed me with it’s colors and strong graphic elements. This brought out a lot of inspiration and these recent chair trees have a heavy Korean look.

in Personal

Lots of New Dog Commissions

I really enjoy when I get pet commissions, and lately I have been able to paint some really cute puppers.  I have created a whole new website section on commissions to make the process of accepting them easier.

 

Read More›
in Commissions / Recent Projects

Butterfly Girl

This one will forever be special to me.

Ben and I took a day trip to Lake Frierson here in Arkansas. I painted (this) while he did some fishing. After a while, he called me over to ‘look at something’. When I got to the bank, he got down on one knee, pulled out a little white box and popped -the question-. What a moment. This painting is filled with so much emotion, just like that day; very fitting.

Read More›
in Personal / Recent Projects

Red Beret

Little 9×7″ pretty lady in high detail. I started this one a little differently, by starting with a pthalo blue under-painting and featuring the primary colors.

red-beret

Read More›
in Recent Projects

Mustard Queen – New Self Portrait

Oil on canvas 12×24″.

mustard-queen

 

 

in Recent Projects

Painters on Snapchat

For a while now I have been actively showing my works-in-progress on Snapchat. It is a great platform for informal, behind-the-scenes stories that are more personal and real because they disappear to the public.

Are you a Artist on Snapchat?

I have also found it to be quite difficult to find other artists on Snapchat. Typically “snapchat artists” on emerging directories are referring to people who doodle on their snaps with the built-in capabilities of the app. Don’t get me wrong, @Cakes1toDough1 ‘s cute cats are to die for, but I’d love to watch the daily practices of fellow traditional artists. If you draw or paint on snapchat please send me a friend request – mandyatlarge – let me know and I will definitely give you an add back!

Happy Chatting Fellow Snappers!

in Updates

Young Girl Commission

 

I absolutely loved this project.

For this project we did a full photoshoot. From those photos, the family selected a favorite (which was actually my favorite too) for the portrait. The eyes are captivating.. and huge!

Read More›
in Recent Projects

Finally Framed

painting by Mandy Maxwell
11169912_10153093231573404_8341198904528714287_n  11899848_10153093231703404_8057709658334790486_n

Finally got this girl framed. She is very large and hangs at the top of my stairs.

in Updates

MOCA Fundraise Bracelet

360 hand-painted bracelet Hand Painted Bracelet of Downtown Paragould

The new MOCA Arkansas had a unique fundraiser to benefit the contemporary art museum that will soon be located in Paragould, hopefully downtown. They asked local artists to paint wooden bracelets to be auctioned off at a private viewing of their collection. There was also a small contest for best bracelet.

I wanted to do something that would represent Paragould and my miniature paintings, of course the downtown landscape came to mind.

Seersucker and Linen was a unique event featuring big hats, croquet, Bourbon punch and the auction of our bracelets. I have to say a lot of work went into all the bracelets features. Jim Porterfield, an artist from Jonesboro’s bracelet was a particular standout.

I was honored to win the bracelet contest and $100 – thanks MOCA!

For more pics, click the link below.

Read More›
in Awards / Recent Projects / Shows and Appearances

Bathing Beauty, Newest Painting – Step by Step

I am proud to announce my newest painting, Bathing Beauty. Oil on 16″x20″ stretched canvas.

Bathing Beauty by Mandy Maxwell

Bathing Beauty by Mandy Maxwell

This painting felt like a great accomplishment to complete. I worked with a very limited and specific color palette of complimentary colors, plus white. It was quite an experience and I think the result turned out even better than the photograph.

Original photograph taken by me with my friend Jen modeling. We had her in my bathtub with with flower petals and limbs with giant thorn clusters (not in this picture, however).

Bathing Beauty, step by step.

Base drawing of Bathing Beauty

Base drawing of Bathing Beauty

Read More›
in Recent Projects