Angels are among us

This watercolor on gessoed mat board is 5 inches by 5 inches and is for sale for 45.00 plus shipping. $3.5

I did a series a while back using Angels and every now and then I will paint one. This was supposed to be an abstract but the angel kept creeping into thepainting so I had to leave it.

"Koi hide and seek" an ACEO

$13.00 + 1.5 watercolor on paper 2.5 by 3.5

Today was one of those days…. I was so very busy and as luck would have it I also needed to get paintings packaged for shipment. This is a good thing but it’s time consuming, and the record keeping can be tedious. Being an artist is a business too and you have to have records for all your pieces …like where they’re stored or their location in galleries, flat files or in customer’s homes. You have to update these records and sometimes I have to go into town to pick up paintings that sold on the Internet that may be in a gallery. This can be sticky but I usually just substitute one painting for another.
In a perfect world I try to have one day a week to do prep work and organize things but lately, things have been hectic and I’ve let my organization slip a bit.

This little ACEO is one of the paintings I did a couple of days ago when I painted my Koi six pack.

Of course I painted today but I worked on a larger painting and will continue to work on it this week for an upcoming show. All artists have days where they have to do organizational chores or prep work. My studio was in a shambles, piles of mats sitting on top of art books, next to packing materials and a mountains of paintings waiting to be stored. On top of all this my cat was sleeping right in the middle of it all. Leave it to a cat to find a little hidey hole to sleep in in a huge mess.

My husband say I need an intern, like on Seinfeld when Kramer had that intern do his laundry and make appointments for his BS company Kramerica. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just do the art and someone else could do the prep work, and the packaging, and of course clean up the mess afterwards.

A hawk... South Carolina fall

A cooper's Hawk I think... Have I ever mentioned that birds are everywhere I go.. no really...It seems I'm always looking up and there is a big Hawk or A buzzard or crow... But its Ok I like it and today I had my camera.

Sunset Carolina

It was actually nice not to paint a Koi...I painted this landscape


7 by 11 1/8 sheet of watercolor

Koi ACEOs

I woke up at 4 am this morning to finish most of these. Some are painted on Watercolor paper some are on Masonite with Gesso…which tends to make them look like an oil painting or possibly an acrylic. All are standard ACEO size 2.5 by 3.5 I painted them this way ( all at once) so I could have some sort of continuity. Although I have to admit this is very difficult for me and I rather not try to paint them too much alike and allow each little painting to dictate what comes next. I ‘ve had several requests to have them look similar so they can be used in groupings, So…this is my determination: to try to get some painted in the same colors or color family so they coordinate with each other. We’ll see how I do, I hate to say it, but, I have difficulty in following instructions when it comes to my paintings. I’m too used to painting intuitively and can’t seem to remember to follow a plan too well.

The ACEOs on Masonite are a bit more expensive but they can be framed like an Oil

Koi Secrets

$50.00 8 by 6 watercolor on gessoed paper.

It started to rain here this aftrnoon and I'll have to wear my rubber boots to take the dogs to the woods. It can be muddy at times down by the lake but very nice even in winter.

my system

I thought I would show you how I line up the little ACEOs when painting in a color palette. This way I can be sure they actually will match. I get folks who want to frame them together or in groupings and want the small paintings to work as a cordinated piece. So I lay out all the cards on my painting table... usually six ACEO cards sometimes four. I paint them all at once. But since my style is to allow the paint to dictate to me what happens next I can get off track and the six paintings won't have the same colors. I actually have to remind myself not to change the color until I've used it on all the pieces. Its difficult to go back and to try to mix the exact color again once I've altered it. I think most of these sold on ebay last week.

What is Art ?

This cat is so cute I just had to paint him I think he is saying... Hey! What's for Dinner? 15 by 22 watercolor on paper.. don't you just love Andrew's turquoise? I put it on my palette two years ago and can't stop using it!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDo_vs3Aip4


this utube video is so funny it made me laugh out loud. I've had all of these converstions at one time or another and the voices are perfect!

High croma Leaves...

I started this painting on some Old paper I had in my flat files and immediately noticed it didn’t seem to have any sizing, this magnified the way the colors appeared and also caused the color to sink straight into the paper, at first I thought I would just throw it out but then I figured …paint it and see if I discover something new. One never knows how some inventions or new methods are found. But I’m sure its sometimes an accident. Who knows… maybe I ‘m onto something. For better or worse, I finished the piece and it doesn’t look like anything I have ever painted but its interesting. Very Bright, yet soft some how…

DOGs DOGS DOGS

My friend and I planned a trip to see the dogs at our local rescue and take them some gifts, you know…blankets, tarps, bleach, medicines & all kinds of dog treats. We wanted to thank the folks there for taking care of so many wonderful pets.

Last year my friend’s dog was hit by a car and we were both pretty shook up about it. ( I think I wrote about it… check the archives for the story about Dixie ) A few weeks after the accident, she decided to rescue a dog and we went to our local dog rescue. These are some of the photos I took today.




These Cows are obviously not part of the dog rescue… On the drive out we saw these cows. They were just chewing their cud and I had to take a photo of them. This farm is just down the road from the dogie orphanage.






There were so many dogs, but I just posted a few of the photos of some of the REAL characters.

This white dog had a litter mate who was her twin but the sister was very shy. Just like real twins one introvert one extrovert. both were really sweet dogs. We brought them Cheweeze. They threw them in the air and played with them, I guess their not that hungry.






This little girl was really nice and very quiet but not shy in the least. A real lap dog I would assume.
















I think he was asking for a file for Christmas what do you think?


































I can’t remember this dog’s name but he was trying to get my attention the whole time I was talking with Buster.
























Buster was a super dog but he must have a few bad habits. I looked at his tags and he had seven which means he has moved a lot… He can’t be more than three or four years old. He was someones dog for at least three years but then he was put up for adoption, the tags were from five different cities so they either moved around a lot or he was placed several times or more….For some reason he’s now in this dogie orphanage. I hope next year when I go to visit, he won’t be here…& he will find a forever home..






















Last year…there were two beautiful rottweilers that I fell in love with, Big dogs but very quiet and kind…the caretaker said they were just adopted last month. To think they had to wait almost a year. Well I hope their happy.

Lake Wylie Blue Heron

I put this up today for my daily post... it's a painting from my painting a week blog http:h20color.wordpress.com

Thanksgiving day Walk

This morning we woke up at sunrise to a gentle rain. The leaves were blowing down from the trees and made a wonderful sight.

Here are three pictures of our morning walk. Its still very warm in SC… about 60 degrees F and no need to wear a sweater. The dogs and I walked for several miles in the woods and wore ourselves out! It was a great way to start the day. Missy is the black lab and Glock is the blond lab. The little weinerbeagle is Molly.

"Koi down under" G'day mates!

2.5 by 3.5 20.00
This ACEO ia on clayboard or ampersand. I gessoed the panel to give it a bit more tooth and it was painted with watercolor. It has a bright yet soft look. It can be sprayed with fixative or kept under glass (or in a plastic sleeve). This collector’s card, one of a kind original is signed and is mailed to you in its own sleeve for collecting purposes.

Snowy Egret

11 by 15 This was painted in a very bright green which some folks may not like. I love this color and even though it may not be realistic I find that I can lose myself in this wonderful green, Its a bit raw but vibrates and emits such energy its one of my favorite colors. Someone once said all artists are colors slutes... I think sometimes this is very true.

The New Plane

Last week when Art started to feel better he decided he needed something he could do sitting down but also keep his mind active. Lately he has been sleeping away so many days. I’m sure some folks who have pain want to sleep away the pain until another time when they wake up and they’ll be healed. Sleeping is good but too much sleep can be a bad thing. Art sleeps for various reasons. Sometimes its depression, sometimes its the pain medication and sometimes to escape the pain. I know most of you will understand why a perfectly fit adult would have problems being ill, its difficult for anyone to be relying on others. Its been four months since his motorcycle accident and we had hoped by this time he would be more active and more pain free. Of course the reality is that he is still on morphine and vicadine and must sleep upright in a chair. Each person who deals with pain must come up with their own coping device. We thought about all of his hobbies and wanted to come up with a plan for a possible rehab project. Kayaking was definitely out. Mountain biking was also not even considered. Next, we thought about his shooting hobbies and a friend came by to take him trap shooting but of course he just spent the day watching, his broken shoulder is still too tender to shoot a shotgun. He decided building a remote control air plane would be a good activity. He could set up a work table and take a nap whenever he felt he needed it. Its been a week and now & the plane is finished and I really think building it helped him have his best week since he accident.
Just so you know, Art has build a number of these planes ( in the past), I don’t think you can build a plane in a few days if you’ve never attempted it before. I told him I was so proud of his progress, I would post his airplane. He is pretty happy with it. which means we are all doing better because of this project. If you have any questions, email me and I’ll be glad to ask him.

Here is his photo of the finished product and he took it out today for its maiden flight. It was a bit too windy so he was only able to fly it enough to see that everything was OK. tomorrow if their isn’t so much wind he will take it to the air field again. Art’s friend is a pilot and they both build these small planes as a fun hobby. I’m so glad he has so many interests because it has really help get him up and out of the bed.

Blue Serenty Falls

$15.00 plus 1.00 S&H

I woke up last night at 2pm because Art had a problem with his Heart.... his heart rate jumped up and wouldn't come back down. so off we went to the emergency, we got home about 9 am with a promise to come back in a few days for more tests,

This painting is Gesso and watercolor, a technique I really like.

If you like to know more about this technique, let me know and I'll explain how it works.

Emerald Green and blue koi aceo

$13.00 2.5 by 3.5 $1.5 s&h


I know your probably getting tire of all these aceo koi but I sell so many... its difficult for me not to paint for my collectors. Of course, I still want to paint other things too... but today I spent about three hours cleaning up my painting area. Its only about 11 by 11 so you kinda wonder how it could take three hours.


Well I have the reference stuff, the paintings ready to be shipped, the flat files with paintings sticking out here and there, my acrylics, my watercolors, my gesso and supports, water buckets, mat board, tissue paper, pencils, pens, tape... you get the idea, pretty soon stuff is piled up on top of each other and before you know it, I can't even paint. This fact forces me to start at one end and clean until I get to the other end. Now I have a clean studio but instead of painting, I think I'll have a bowl of ice creme.

Blue water ACEO

I kinda love doing these wet into wet watercolor and gesso paintings. this is only 2.5 by 3.5 I also have a new Koi painting up on my other blog... http:

Mid day Koi, a painting a day by Shanti Marie

mid day Koi, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

This little 3 by 5 watercolor on ampersand was inspired by my recent visit to a koi show. As an artist I can't help but be inspired by everything I see and the Koi were so beautiful at the show.

I have some ideas about painting a Koi in a more illustrative way and may expei ment with my idea this week. Also a friend went to a workshop and she is going to show me how they were taught to paint Koi. I'll be interested to see what she learned.

Lake Wylie in Fall

This is Sentenels 12 by 15 watercolor on paper.
























Boy… I woke up tired. I’m sure you know the feeling more asleep than awake. With three dogs, I have to walk them…. so there isn’t many days to sleep in. My friend Karen from across the street brings her two dogs over and we load up the five dogs into my Toyota Matrix and off we go to Mc Dowel nature preserve. Its about a mile from my condo. We let the dogs off leash and walk thru the woods. Usually for an hour from about 7 am till 8 am. I have been in a rush all week and maybe that’s why I’m so tire. I always hope this walk will be enough to give me time to do everything I need to do before they have go out again. But it seems since I’m so tired I’ll only get about half of what I need to do. I really couldn’t get charged up, even after we got coffee at Mc Donald’s I could barely stay awake. I sat at my dining room table feeling like a slug.
I’ll put up my landscape so you can see what I’m working on. I need to make some changes in the background the hills need to be a different shade so they don’t look like the water.
I am not as happy with my landscape as I could be, It was looking pretty good but then I tweaked this and tweaked that and now I feel like it isn’t as fresh as it could have been without the changes. I had a friend over and she kept talking about politics and I’m blaming the topic of conversation on any problems. Its difficult for an artist not to be influenced by whatever is going on in the room while painting and that’s why I never have the news on or anything that may makes me upset.

I put up a couple of pictures for you of my walks.
I thought you might like to see some of the morning colors here at the Lake.

Acrylic abstract...... Ancient Ritual

This is an abstract painting from my ancient ritual series, which is exploring the way we use ritual to mark the passage of time and events in our lives.

I'm also painting larger landscapes, I'll try to put one up tomorrow.

Queen's mountain large

Queen's mountain large, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I painted this painting a few days ago as an aceo and wanted to paint a full size painting. This is 12 by 18 watercolor on paper is available for sale.... www.dailypainters.com for pay pal information or if interested in purchase.

pink roses

pink roses, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I painted these flowers Friday night and since I painted two ( the red rose also) I put one up yesterday and one up today. I'm going to be busy today and will try to paint tonight... but I hope where ever you are on the planet your having a great day.

A Red Rose for my baby

red roses, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

7 by 12 $50.00 Watercolor on the highest grade 100% rag artist paper.
I painted a couple of flowers last night, this red rose was one of them. I like to paint roses not just the pretty buds the the older ones. The ones which are still beautiful when their opening up to the light and their petals are starting to fall gracefully down.

Lavender magnolia

lavender magnolia, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

This painting was inspired because of a late blooming or confused tulip magnolia tree which I found blooming last week. These trees are usually spring blooming trees and for whatever reason this tree started blooming again in fall. The buds were fewer and smaller but they were definately trying to open. 11 by 15 watercolor on paper

I think this painting could be hung either portrait or landscape since tree limbs grow either way.

" Queen's mountain" ACEO a painting a day

queen's mountain, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I felt bad today because I couldn't make it to the open studio with my TCAL group. I hate to disappoint them. I was all packed and ready to go when as things would have it I got a call... Next week for sure. I havn't done a landscape for awhile and fall is a beautiful time of the year. I call this Queens Mountain, its really just a hill.
ACEO 2.5 by 3.5

abstract 91 by Shanti Marie

abstract91, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I will put up a companion piece for this abstract tomorrow shantmarie@aol.com if you have any questions

Koi Buddies watercolor ACEO

2.5 by 3.5

This artist trading card is a bit out of focus and I apologise... these small works of art are difficult to photograph.

When I went to the Koi show on Sunday, these two Koi kept following me around the tank, it seems the're pets and someone has been hand feeding them. I felt bad I couldn't give them a snack but the way their eyes followed me was amusing.

Red Poppies ACEO

I was so busy today, I painted this little ACEO but promise to paint a larger painting tomorrow.

Update on my husband... He went to the air field by himself today. He didn't fly just hung out with the other flyers and talked. I feel like its graduation day. He still sick but he seems to be getting better and not sleeping all day. The fact that he wants to actually do something still surprises me.

Koi BIG JOE ACEO

I went back to the Koi show and drew this fish. He seemed to be very confident and yet a pleasant fish to watch, looking up at me and swimming back and forth as if to say look at this side, its my best side...

Blue water Koi

I went to a koi show today and had a great time. I sort of had Koi over load. I can only take in so much. You know, sensory overload, if your an artist you'll know what I mean,I felt my head was swimming... no pun intended.

There were little tiny baby koi and some that were so big, like 40 lbs! Wow and everything from pure white to a big grey koi which look like a cat fish in a way.

Lots of people standing there discussing the koi's attributes and pointing out their favorites.

I came right home and painted two koi and drew two more.

Collage mixed media piece

four inches by four inches mixed media piece & companion piece to the collage I put up earlier this week. I made the paper, painted it with watercolor, gesso and acrylic, then covered it with varnish. The reds and the tans are beautiful together. It looks great!

abstract 90b a watercolor painting a day

4 by 6 $40.00 Here is the companion piece to the painting I did yesterday. I could use help with the naming of thee two paintings. I have trouble naming the abstracts sometimes.