Tales of Wonder: the art of Marianne Strasser

Tales of Wonder: the art of Marianne Strasser ​Descended from Vikings, pirates, and sea captains, I paint with vivid colours of my tropical home.

As Tales of Wonder, I use neon and glow pigments to tuck "secret pictures" into my acrylics, revealing the extraordinary magic hidden in the everyday.

last week someone said they liked how my palette looked so I flipped it onto an empty page. This week, I added a portrai...
06/12/2026

last week someone said they liked how my palette looked so I flipped it onto an empty page. This week, I added a portrait. I've seen people take this approach and wondered if I could pull it off too.

The Shadow of Mohr (The San Marcos)48"x 36" acrylic on canvas.This was a ship from the Spanish Armada wrecked here on Se...
06/11/2026

The Shadow of Mohr (The San Marcos)
48"x 36" acrylic on canvas.

This was a ship from the Spanish Armada wrecked here on Sept 20 1588 with 450 souls lost. They say the ships are sometimes still seen sailing through the mist.
https://clarelibraries.ie/localstudies/history/battles-and-fortifications-in-clare/the-spanish-armada/?hl=en-CA

My daughter's both wanted one of their grandfather's paintings, so I promised to paint the elder one her own picture. Her only spec was "colourful scene". As she attended medical school in Dublin, I decided to paint her something iconic. These cliffs are frequently shrouded in mist, and appeared in movies she knows (Princess Bride, Harry Potter). I thought a colourful, misty sunset might be fun.

It took a while to work out where the sun would actually set relative to the cliffs so it would all be reasonably convincing. It was also tricky to set up the composition so all the interesting stuff wasn't on the left side of the picture. The ship was a complete afterthought and I chose a tall ship mainly because it would show up well.

It wasn't until I was doing some research towards deciding on a name that I found out about the wrecks from the Spanish Armada and the San Marcos. It's almost like it reached out through time and space to make its presence known. It's a tragic story but I like the mystery and legend of the ghost ships that are said to still sail through the mists at Mohr.

Something wasn't quite right, so I'm making some modifications.
05/12/2026

Something wasn't quite right, so I'm making some modifications.

05/04/2026

"Song of the Great Spirit." with some details only visible under a black light. 18x20 acrylic

It's easier to make one copy than one print.
05/02/2026

It's easier to make one copy than one print.

"Polar Bears in a Snowstorm"....a new take on a very Canadian expression. The bears are only visible under a black light...
05/01/2026

"Polar Bears in a Snowstorm"....a new take on a very Canadian expression. The bears are only visible under a black light. Not the best drawing of a bear, but a fun little experiment.

05/01/2026

Marianne Strasser
​Narrative Artist & Technical Visionary

​Marianne Strasser is a multidisciplinary artist whose work serves as a bridge between the precision of a technical mind and the soul of a storyteller. With a career spanning three decades in graphic design, academia, and specialized craftsmanship, she approaches the canvas not just as a surface, but as a site for engineering and discovery. Her original paintings are held in private collections worldwide, from the rugged coasts of Scotland and England to the vibrant landscapes of Trinidad and the United States.

​Working under the moniker Tales of Wonder, Marianne specializes in "narrative technicality." Her creative identity is deeply tethered to the elements, a connection reflected in her name, which translates to "the girl from the sea." This ancestral affinity for the water, the sky, and the weather permeates her work, manifesting in a fascination with the "invisible made visible." A recent evolution in her practice involves the use of neon and phosphorescent pigments to create secret pictures—hidden layers that reveal themselves only as the light shifts, transforming the painting into a multi-dimensional mystery.

​Marianne’s artistic perspective is uniquely informed by a vast professional breadth that includes award-winning floral arrangements, leatherworking, and astronomical illustrations for museum exhibits. This polymathic approach—balancing the structural logic of a landscape designer with the fluid grace of a playwright—allows her to create art that is as intellectually challenging as it is visually striking. Whether capturing the celestial navigation of the Northwest Passage or the poignant narrative of a piece like Escape Artist, Marianne continues to document the extraordinary beauty found at the intersection of science, heritage, and the human imagination.

Thank you Geminii :)

pastel pencils... 1 hour.
04/17/2026

pastel pencils... 1 hour.

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Barrie, ON

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