Saturday, April 28, 2007

Silver boy or Koi 32 SOLD

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This is my painting for tomorrow, I'm going to be pretty busy, I'm leaving for Wild Acres, its their annual Spring gathering and all types of artists poets, musicians, and generally creative types will be meeting for a week long stay in the blue ridge mountains of North Carolina. I will be of course painting during the day and probably sitting by the fire at night. Hopefully it won't be too cool up there.

I am taking a lap top so I plan to keep you up dated.

Earlier today I decided to go out an take a photo to show you the baby Carolina Wren which is in the bushes next to my fence, well only a few hours ago it was screaming its head off and now its gone... The empty nest syndrome, now I know how it feels!

Koi and their liquid landscape

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I love the colors in this painting and I also really enjoy the look of the water in these Koi paintings.

This is not a small painting it is an 11 by 15 and is on 300 lb paper it is for sale for $250.00. I will gladly ship it to you for an additional 5.50. USD please visit www.dailypainters.com if you wish to use pal pay.

Friday, April 27, 2007

The Oak and the Willow

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Trees have always fascinated me, the different kinds, their bark, leaves and of course the way they seem to be so still but yet in constant movement.

Yesterday I was in my backyard and a small bird fell from a tree and it couldn't fly very well. Before I could intervene, one of my dogs got it and of course must of bit it too hard because it died. I felt bad all day after that. I have these feeders and all kinds of things to attract the birds and to have one of my dogs kill one of their babies really bothered me.
It was a small brown bird and I saw the mother nearby calling to it, it seemed like she had another baby with her and they must have been on their first day of flying lessons. The other baby bird was pretty wobbly too. They are Thrashers, they live in the big Azaleas I have in my yard and seem to raise babies ever year in a big gourd I have placed in among the bushes. Last year they lost a baby to a big black snake which climbed into the gourd. I put out some seeds on the ground this morning, hoping this will help them a little, it rained last night and I wonder what happened to the other little bird, did it make it? I have hope that it did and next year the'll be back. This painting is 8.75 by 11 and is on 300 lb paper. I called it the Oak and the willow because these are two of my favorite trees.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Still waiting

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Still waiting was actually painted several years ago and was a result of watching Zoltan Szabo paint something like this. It was a tree with a yellow ribbon in snow. It reminds me of how things change and yet stay the same. Here we are again tying ribbons around trees waiting and hoping that the troops come home.
I repainted it and decided to put it up for the painting of the day for the 25th of April 2007.
its 11 by 15.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The falls revisited

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketI worked on this a bit and tweaked it here and there, now, I think its ready to sell. This piece is 11 by 15 inches...$100.00 watercolor on 300 lb professional grade hand made paper. Email me if interested. Or you can buy it thru pay pal at www.dailypainters.com I will be happy to mail it to you for 5.50 USD. The beautiful swirling waters and the rocks are a wonderful motif for your home.

The Falls, a painting a day by Shanti Marie

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I had some problems painting the falls because I originally tried to make it a creek with a small set of falls coming off the side, the problem was; that there wasn't enough depth to carry that off as well as the perspective was a bit too high, so after putting in a few more rocks and adjusting some of the background I think it looks pretty good.

11 by 15 300 lb paper

Monday, April 23, 2007

Memories in the mist

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This painting is 7.5 by 11 inches and was painted today. I was thinking about how beautiful the Pacific Northwest really is and how the mist rolls along over the lakes and rivers. I haven't been out west for a few years but I have a definite connection to that part of the country. This is for sale for $40.00 the photo could be a little better, I took it while the paint was still wet and you can see a shadow right down the middle where the paper rolled a bit. I don't tape down my paper usually and I just allow it to do whatever it does. When its dry, I will flatten out the painting by placing it under a ton of books.

My Blue palette

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This is my blue Palette, I wanted to show you some of the paints I use.

I have all of these paints on my blue palette all the time and will use the empty place in the middle for a color which I may only use for a particular painting. I like to have all of my blues, reds, and yellows, separated on different pallets. It seems to make sense to me when mixing and when working with the various colors. I sometimes change a color here and there depending upon what I'm painting, but I find these are the colors I feel I need to paint the variety of subjects which I paint. Many of my paintings only have three or four paints used but I like to have them all out and ready to go, I don't like to spend time squeezing color out of the tube. Especially for these daily paintings, its nice to step up to the painting table and be ready to go in only a minute or two.

The paints are from left to right Paynes Grey - Mimariblue brand(MB), Cyan-MB, Antwerp-Windsor Newton (WN), Ultramarine WN, Cobalt- Cheap Joes (CJ) Permenent Violet bluish- MB, Andrew Turquoise -CJ, Cerulean- Daniel Smith (DS), Sap green DS, Hooker's green DS or WN Windsor green (blue shade)WN
With these blues I can come up with pretty much anything I need. There are reflective colors such as Cobalt and opaques like Andrews Turquoise and of course transparents like Cyan. I can achieve dark darks or the lightest lights, All of these mix well and make wonderful combinations. If you have a question regarding any of these paints I would be glad to help you, as I know them prety well.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Another Koi? yep... ACEO

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This Koi is an artist collector's card and is for sale for $8.50 and since its so small, shipping is FREE! Its a koi fish as you can see, the colors are Purple, blue orange and red.... This card is signed and dated and can be the start of your collection!

Here 's how its painted. Start wet into wet. Wet the entire background all around the fish, then drop in the lighter blue color and allow it to burst across the paper, while this is still wet, place some dark purple or ultramarine blue in areas around the edges of the paper. don't stroke the paint on but drop it in. Then using a thirsty brush, ( ie: a damp brush which has had all the water taken out of it by squeezing with a paper towel ) pull out some of the color in areas to create a little drama and to also allow some of the white of the paper to show. This will help you have three very distinct values. Light medium and dark. If you like the small amounts of white in the background this is actually painted around and just allowed to be white paper showing thru. Some artists call these "little windows" and they are always in their backgrounds. I find I like them in certain situations but don't always put them into my backgrounds.

If you would like to try watercolor a good way to start would be to paint some of these Small collectors cards. They are fast, easy and fun! They will teach you to paint with a big brush because all brushes are big when your painting on a surface that is 2.5 by 3.5!

I sell these on ebay as there are just tons of folks who collect these small cards. Originals bring the higher prices the prints are usually .99 cents. its an inexpensive way to start an art collection and they can be displayed in a number of ways. On an easel, in a frame, matted in intersted groupings, or placed in plastic baseball card sleeves and kept in an album.
ACEO stands for: Atist collector Edition or Original some folks call them ATC which stands for: Artist Trading Card then there are OSWOA Origninal Small Works of ART these are post card size paintings or silghtly larger. I noticed someone even has a book out now on how to paint these and market them. Trends seem to come and go we'll see where this one leads. I only paint a few a week and since their so small I can usually paint them pretty quick with drawing or planning. That makes them fun to paint.
email me shantmarie@aol.com

Rocks, a lesson plan

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I have been working out lesson plans and I had decided to paint something that would teach several things. I love rocks, I love water, gee, that was easy, This is a simple painting yet it allows me to teach some of the various techniques I have learned over the years. I can teach a student several techniques and some color theory at the same time. Also, rocks can be drawn by anyone, their easy and basically boxes, so most people are not afraid to jump right in.

I love these colors, their some of my favorite combinations. Raw sienna and manganese blue also dark purple and burn't sienna. You can see I'm mixing warm with cool and creating some push pull. Also most of these colors also create a beautiful granulation which happens to be one of my favorite textures.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Welcome Home

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Birds are nesting everywhere. In my bird houses, gourdes and even in my Azaleas. Last year we had one little momma in our wreath and that was the inspiration for this painting.

This small painting is 7 by 11 and is for sale for $40.00. If interested email me or go to www.dailypainters.com

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Doves Corner

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This is a small painting of an area frequented by doves and many other birds but we started calling it Dove's corner just because a pair of doves are always in the area.


The weeds are painted using a pallet knife, & the snow is just the white of the paper. I like painting snow and I think students love to paint it too. Maybe its because its easy to get the contrasts needed for a good depth in the values.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Reflection Lake

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This is a quick study of a mountain and lake . The colors are very soft. These kind of colors are typical of most watercolors. Watercolors do lend themselves to the lighter touch.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

"Ritual" An original small work of art

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This painting is part of my "Ancient ritual" series I started last year. This is the third piece I have painted in this abstract series. The series explores the way people use ritual to commemorate time, history, events and significant changes in human growth. It is a spiritual series and yet it is also a comment on our cultures.

This piece is 3.75 by 5.75 inches and is for sale for $25.00 unframed. I will mat it for you if you wish. Neutral or white mats only. This new painting will be for sale tomorrow at: www.dailypainters.com

Monday, April 16, 2007

ACEO Koi 29

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This is an ACEO (Artist collectors card) it is for sale for $10.00 plus $3.00 SH www.dailypainters.com for more information. 2.5 by 3.5 watercolor original on paper. I can't decide what to name this painting. So for now its Koi #29.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Southern Koi an ACEO

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This is an ARTIST COLLECTOR EDITION or ORIGINAL.

This is a watercolor original 2.5 by 3.5, it is for sale for $5.00 and 1.00 SH. This is a fun way to get a signed original with very little Moola.

Art talk

I realize I haven’t been doing one of the things I started out to do with this blog. I always wanted to write a bit more about being an artist and the thought process and such. Like the hows and whys of picking out subject matter and how your stream of consciousness is affeced by seeing other art or just by viewing nature. I went to the annual “Spring into Art” show on Friday night and really enjoyed seeing the other paintings. After seeing what everyone is working on, I realize that we (each artist) are all on this quest, a mission of sorts. It seems like you can see each person’s progression and their Art is evolving almost like we are different roads but they appear to all lead to the same destination. I’m not trying to get too “New Age” on you, but it seems as Artists, we do share an essential lifetime commitment of exploration, experimentation and discovery. Michel Angelo supposedly said at the age of 87 “Isn’t art grand, I’m still learning”. I have been painting for a long time and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t seem to learn something either a technique or new process or more importantly something about myself.
I found one thing that has always been important to me and that is the use of color and how I react to it. Its not the same as other people, even other artists. Yes, most beginning artist are seduced by color but I have been painting for 27 years and I still love bright intense pure color. There was a time I was almost embarrassed to admit it because it wasn’t the trend to paint with color that wasn’t greyed down and I toeing the line painted paintings like everyone else with these greyed down colors and they were OK and people really did like them. But I asked myself, why do I paint and who am I painting for? Am I painting with my voice or the voice I believed to be mine. We all paint for customers and that is just good marketing, but at the end of the day do you ever just create something that you enjoy regardless of its marketability or if your friends will like it? The Koi are “MY” paintings and sometimes some of the other Lake paintings or nature paintings become my paintings when I allow my intuition to paint. As for many of these daily paintings, they are good exercises for keeping your technique up and are also good for exploration. You don’t have the pressure to make everyone of them successful. If you have been reading this blog for a while you’ll see the good, the bad and the ugly. But since its a daily regime they get posted no matter what.

Nature has always been my inspiration, sitting besides my garden or walking thru the woods near the lake I get energized and a sense of wonder and beauty fill my senses so that I feel renewed. Other artists get this same feeling by being on a busy street in New York or wherever. The colors, sounds, smells and of course the light. All artist love light and the way it shapes things. I think most artists feed upon light, they use it as their inspiration. Since most artists are visual beings everything around them can be inspiration, the creative process is a metamorphisis of sorts.

We take in things, they are internalized and mixed in with a jumble of life experiences and a bit of our personality and a few other influences and out of this something new is created. We call it art

Love is in the air

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I finished this painting this morning. I named it and now its ready to show you.

Size is 11 by 15.
Price is $100.00 it will fit into a 16 by 20 frame with mat.

Some sketches from my sketch book

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Birds

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I really rushed this painting today. I decided to stop here and if I want to paint the birds I can do it tomorrow, or ...leave them white. we'll see. I used the saturated wet technique and frabriano artistico paper. I don't think I like it. The paper I mean. You can wipe back to white real well but glazing is almost impossible. My first layer kept picking up. I always use Windsor Newton paper or Arches or even some of the other brands but recently I purchased some of this paper for my ACEOs. I was told this paper is very forgiving. No one mentioned the glazing problem. Now that I know it picks up the first layer, I just won't plan a painting with glazes.

This is 11 by 15 inches and is for sale for $100.00

P.S. I didn't win any awards in the "Spring into Art" show but I felt very good about being part of the show. All the work was really great and we were told 144 entries were entered and only 45 were selected.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Out West ACEO watercolor original

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I thought it would be fun to take a photo of an ACEO next to a man's watch, you can see how small they are. This is called... Out West.

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This is for sale for $3.00 plus $1.00 SH, if interested email me at Shantmarie@aol.com or go to www.dailypainters.com (2.5 by 3.5 inches)

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Reflection Creek

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I really had a difficult time with this painting because of the diagonal branch, I felt I had given it too much emphasis, so I thought I had to play it down and break it up a bit. I do love these colors and wanted the painting to work. I hope you think it does.

The size is 11 by 15 and is for sale for 90.00 + 5.5 SH USD if interested email me at shantmarie@aol.com or go to www.dailypainters.com

By The way, My painting got into the Juried show at The Charlotte Art League. Keep those fingers crossed, never know, maybe it will be a prize winner.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Sunset lane -

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketI have days where I don't have a clue as to what I'll paint for my daily painting. I started out thinking, if I were teaching someone how to paint a sunset how would I do it... Hmmn ... First, I laid down a wash of pink, then added orange, then pink again,going down the paper from top to bottom but I didn't quite think it was right in terms of value, so I added a bit of darker color, it was a wine like color. I blended this into the top portion. The sunset sky was nice but I had no idea what would come next. Of course I thought to myself, If I were teaching someone, I certainly would show then how to lift out an object, so a tree would be a good thing to paint using that particular technique. I waited till the shine had left the paper but it was still damp,& I pulled out the tree branches and trunk with the bottom of an aquarell brush and allowed this to dry. Then, I did direct painting, with brown, and blue, and also grey (made form the blue and the orange). I left some of the pulled out branches to serve as the light hitting the branches.

Next, I laid down a yellow green all around the base of the tree. While this was still wet I laid sepia over the top of of the green, while still wet, I used my pin knife to pull out the grasses which cause the green to pull out of the dark sepia and gives variation to the grass all at the same time. For the tiny tiny grasses, I used my pinky nail. I then used a combination of the wine color and the sepia color to paint in around the grass and the road leaving the original 1st wash to be the actual road. A little more green mixed with the sepia for grass at the top of the road and then soften the leading edge and everythings done but the birds. The birds I painted with a number 2 round thinking about their movement and flight pattern and how their placement would help the painting.

This painting is 5.5 by 11 inches. It's for sale for $40.00 shantmarie@aol.com

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Stephanie, a sketch from my sketch book

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I wasn't well today so I'm putting this sketch up for today. I wasn't able to paint.
I took one of my Koi painting into Charlotte today in hopes of getting in a juried show. We'll see, cross your fingers!

Monday, April 09, 2007

Easter Sunset

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I love Sunsets and if you live by a body of water I'm sure you do too.

This is post card size 3 inches by 5 inches and is for sale for $13.00 Plus SH of $2.50

Sunday, April 08, 2007

My Koi a slide show

Candace, a nude sketch

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At our Saturday life drawing session I was able to get one decent sketch completed. Candace actually had very short hair but I like to use my artistic license to change little things. This is graphite and eraser. It's for sale for $25.00 + SH the size is 8.5 by 11 sketch book size.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Pomegranates

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pomegranates are wonderfully red, Inside and out, they make great subjects to paint. This piece is 7 inches by 11 inches and is for sale for $40.00. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter !

Friday, April 06, 2007

Light house breezes - a painting a day

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I will be teaching a beginner's watercolor class and I painted this painting so I could build a lesson plan around it. The techniques are wet into wet, masking fluid use, splatter, scraping, charging, and direct painting.There are four colors used, cobalt blue, sap green, burn't sienna and lemon yellow. Basic triad color combination.I took this photo a little eschewed, the light house is really straight... sorry bout that! shantmarie@aol.com

Thursday, April 05, 2007

A sketch for today

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This is a sketch of one of the models from our Saturday's life drawing session.

These sketches are completed in 10 to 20 minutes and you must sketch in the entire scene before the buzzer or bell rings. sometimes you make it other times the model ends up drawn with only one leg or a foot missing. Its still fun, and I encourage you to put one of these sessions together for yourself and fellow artists.

This is for sale for $20.00 plus 5.00 SH.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

ACEO tiny Abstract

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This ACEO is 2.5 by 3.5, it is for sale for 10.00 +1.50 shipping.

I love these colors together and I just wanted to create something that was purely abstract. If your interested, plese email shantmarie@aol.com or go to www.dailypainters.com for pay pal information.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Field Flowers, a painting a day

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This little painting of red flowers was inspired by the flowers growing amongst the weeds and grasses of the field.

It is for sale for $20. shipping is $5.00.

With all this good weather we're having, I have had some trouble getting everything done each day. A friend called me this morning because her tire was flat. As things would have it,I ended up taking her to a repair place, missed my open studio time and squeeze in this painting just in time to make dinner.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Peaceful Serenity

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This peaceful scene reminds me of the lake when its quiet and still, only the sound of a few ducks swimming by. This is for sale for $40.00.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Koi in spring

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The size of this painting is 7 by 11. It will be for sale for $40.00.
I'll be happy to ship it to you for an additional $5.00. Today I was working on one of my larger paintings and suddenly thought, Oh Geeze, I have to stop painting this so I can get other work started. Its kind of crazy to have all these deadlines, painting is supposed to be fun. The day was slipping by & I needed to get several commissions completed and also my daily painting. Well, here is the daily painting. I'll try to get the commissions completed and post them soon.
Chio