The majority of my gouache paintings were painted on thick watercolor paper. They were taped down to a Masonite panel when I paint them, but when the painting is finished and I remove the tape, the paper still curls. The paper itself does not sit flat. I had two boxes filled with stacks of these curled gouache paintings. And some of them had not been varnished yet. I use cold wax medium to varnish them (to protect them from any kind of moisture) and then I glued them to rigid canvas panels, to make the paintings flat. Gluing the paintings to rigid panels also served the purpose of making the finished painting a more conventional size: 9 inches x 12 inches. See, I would split 11 x 14 sheets of watercolor paper into two sheets, but that would make each painting an odd size of 7.5 x 11. Adhering them to a 9 x 12 panel allows them to fit in a standard size picture frame. For a more finished look I painted a border around each panel with a neutral color and then centered the painting on the panel. I spent weeks gluing gouache paintings to panels.

At the time of this blog post, I am still varnishing and adhering gouache paintings to rigid panels. I have quite a few more to go. I am a one man show here, so it’s a lot of work and very time-consuming. It takes away from creating new things, but this is a necessary task in order to find new homes for these works. So, I am not complaining.

After I prepared a good number of my original artworks for market, I decided to list them on eBay. So, I opened up an eBay store. I listed 40 paintings in my eBay store, so far, and more will be added in the coming weeks and beyond. Each painting comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, hand-signed and dated by me (see photos in my eBay listings). Paintings will be protected for shipping by packaging them securely and mailing them via insured USPS Priority Mail.

Of course, high-quality reproduction prints are always available in my website store, printed in high resolution with waterproof archival pigment inks on 19 mil, 260 g/m2, archival textured matte velvet fine art paper, 100% cotton fiber and acid free. I sign those too.

I currently have another larger painting on my easel, that I would like to get back to (and a time-lapse video of its creation), and I have more originals to list. I’d like to get back into some drawing also, pencil or ink.

I hope 2026 will be a productive and fruitful year for my art and that it connects with people in a positive way. Thanks for stopping by and reading this. I hope you’ll check out my stores and that you’ll see something there that you like.

Another highlight of our visit was a lone male mallard duck that was hanging around outside by the entrance, greeting people. He didn’t appear to be injured, only muddy. He was hanging out there and wasn’t afraid of anyone. He walked right up to us. He didn’t behave aggressively, as if he was protecting a nest nearby. He just stood there calmy among our group as if he was participating in the conversation. After a few minutes of us talking to him, he walked away back to the flower beds. The museum is right on the lakefront, by the way. He didn’t appear like he was in distress or needed help. Maybe he was used to being fed and was expecting something to eat? It was nice meeting him, anyway.

I have finished at least three pieces of art since that show. I posted a blog entry a couple of days ago called “There’s A Place…” That post is about one of those pieces. And I have created two graphite drawings which I will write about shortly. I’ve also added several new prints to my web store. One is a limited-edition print of 10. You can check it out here.

Thanks for stopping by and taking time to read this! I hope you enjoy the photos. I enjoyed this show very much. I enjoyed the previous one and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy the next one as well.

This bench might be a comfortable place to cast a fishing line. Maybe it’s THE fishing spot. Or it might be a quiet place to read a book or to pray. Or a place to sit privately for a cry, remembering yet another friend or family member that recently passed away. Or maybe one might sit here and ponder what their own life has been, what their future holds, or even wonder about their own mortality. Or perhaps one might solve some current problem in their life right here or ponder about the world’s problems in general. One could sit here with a beloved dog, or a girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband, or child, to tell stories or jokes, make big plans, share some beef jerky, or simply enjoy each other’s presence. It could be a great place to commune with nature, watching the herons land and feed in the water, or the ducks and geese floating down the river with a trail of their babies following behind them. Of course, these woods are filled with all kinds of birds to watch. You might even see the occasional ermine scurrying in and out of the large rocks on the riverbank. I’ve seen all of these things down by the river. To some this bench might be an oasis in the middle of a busy city… one of the few places to escape the steel and concrete, the noise, and the litter. That might mean a lot to someone who needs that.

I created this painting about a week after a friend of mine unexpectedly passed away. I mostly thought of him as I painted it. He appreciated nature and places such as this. He even once helped save a beautiful natural place much like this from being sold and paved over by developers. Perhaps the empty bench symbolizes the void he has left. Because I know he would have told me that he liked the painting. He was always a supportive friend like that, and he enjoyed my art. Or, on the contrary, the empty bench might remind us to continue enjoying life, to keep pondering and planning and enjoying our blessings. To use the bench – to accept the ebb and flow and be grateful for the different seasons of our life.

In my painting the sky is gray, and the dormant woods are bare and colorless and struggle to shake off the final days of another cold winter. Here and there, snow still lies within tiny patches of shade, where the sun doesn’t reach it, but the river is running high and fast from the thaw. The trout and salmon are running upstream to spawn and create more life. Spring is here. The daylight will stick around longer each day throughout the coming months and the air will get warmer. Soon the woods will be green again and rife with life. The sunshiny days of Summer always return and that is when the bench is empty a lot less.

You can watch a time lapse video of the creation of this painting on my youtube channel. Here’s a link to that. If you enjoy the video, you can subscribe to my channel so that you will receive notifications of when I post more art videos.

Thank you for reading this. I hope the painting does something for you.

I’ve named the painting (simply) “Dryad’s Saddle”. For anyone not in the know, “Dryad’s Saddle” is an edible shelf mushroom that grows on dead decaying trees. You will easily find them in wooded areas (obviously). They’re also known as “Pheasant Back”, because the pattern on them resembles the feathers on a pheasant’s back.

The small young Dryad’s Saddle are tender and the most edible. My wife and I harvest Dryad’s Saddle from a decaying tree stump in our own back yard, every Spring and Summer, and she cooks them up in a frying pan. The larger they are, the tougher and woodier they are, so you want the small young ones which are softer. Freshly picked, they smell like cucumber or watermelon rind, and when chopped up and cooked in a skillet with some butter, garlic, and a dash of salt they fry up much like any mushroom does. Its texture reminds me very much of cooked chicken (the tender dark meat) and it has an earthy flavor. I’ve read that they are high in vitamins, protein, and anti-oxidents and are very healthy to eat. There is a lot of information on the internet about Dryad’s Saddle and how to prepare them.

Also in my painting are hosta plants. Did you know that hostas are also edible? You can eat the shoots, the leaves, and the flowers. There’s lots of info about that online as well. Perhaps I should have named the painting “Forager’s Delight”.

This painting has gotten my creativity going again and reminds me that Spring is just around the corner. We’ll be seeing lots of “Dryad’s Saddle” soon, and I have already started working on another painting! I hope we’ll be seeing more of those on a regular basis too!

Prints of my new painting “Dryad’s Saddle” are now available in my store. This open edition hand-signed giclee print is digitally printed in high resolution with waterproof archival pigment inks on 19 mil, 260 g/m2, archival textured matte velvet fine art paper, 100% cotton fiber and acid free.

Thanks for reading my blog post!

Welcome to my new WordPress blog. For my first blog post, I will introduce myself and explain my website, what I do, and what I intend for you to find on this blog.

My name is Mark Allen. I am a 53-year old artist residing in south-east Wisconsin, USA. Marjasall Productions is a business identity with which I create, license, and sell my artwork. Marjasall Productions and I are one and the same individual.

My website (www.marjasall.com) has been in existence for many years now, but I have never utilized a blog into it before. Today I decided it might be a good idea to start a blog, as I would like to ween myself from the dependency of the usual social media outlets. It helps that I already have a website of my own. So why not use it more?

I plan to share my artwork here, works-in-progress, recount stories regarding some of my images, and may also sometimes blog information about originals I offer for sale, as well as open-edition and limited-edition prints. I may also share art techniques and things that inspire me. I don’t call myself a good writer, but maybe something I post here could help another creative.

What do I think I do? I draw and paint images on paper, wood, and canvas, using pencils, inks, charcoal, pastels, oil paints, acrylics, and watercolors. I work with all of these mediums, but don’t necessarily mix them all of the time. I mostly create images of and from my own environment — landscape scenes, animals, still-lifes, and a portrait from time to time. I try to capture pleasant scenes from around me — blessings or objects of beauty, evoking nice thoughts and a good spirit.

The photo above shows a few of my stretched canvas frames, painted in acrylics, These canvases range in size from 5×7, 8×10, 11×14, and 8×16. They will be available for purchase soon, in some form. I am sorting that out.

I think this has been a fine first blog post. Thank you for reading it. I hope that you enjoy the images that you see on my website and that you will check back here again soon for more interesting content.

At the moment, I am in the process of setting up an online store.

~Mark