Fantasy Lake

5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on gessoed masonite

Wonderful Koi

5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on masonite, by the way,this piece looks good either way.


Reading this morning made me realize how many people don’t read and how they’re missing this great past time. I don’t have to tell you if your a reader, you understand what I’m trying to say. For a few moments you can be transported to another place and see life thru another’s experiences and their eyes. You can speak with an accent, change your station in society or even live as a criminal. Unlike film or tv you’ll be experiencing the story thru the writer’s voice, the details are always wonderful and the very well chosen words and phrases used to describe his or her reality are unique to each individual. My mother never learned to read and loving books as I do, I’m sometimes sad to know this simple joy was not hers to have.

Too Koi

It was so cold walking thru the woods this moring and I couldn't seem to shake it off. During my noon walk, I decided to dress a little bit warmer then my jeans and sweatshirt. First, I put on a sweater and a vest, not just any vest a fur lined vest, then a big starter Jacket. Next camet a red and white snow beanie and a 6 foot scarf. The hat was pulled all the way down to my glasses and the scarf was wrapped up around my nose. I looked a bit like a bag lady, you know the look, too too many layers. As if the person is wearing everything they own rather than carry it. It didn't help that I was walking thru a shopping center parking lot behind our neighboorhood store. Its a wonder no one pulled over and gave me their spare change.
5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on gessoed masonite 50.00

Koi deluxe

Koi delux, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

Watercolor koi on gessoed masonite 5.75 by 5.75.

It rained pretty hard this morning and I took the dogs to the lake, later it turned cold and I had to take a hot bath to warm up. As soon as the dogs hear the water running in the tub they usually head for downstairs just in case I get some crazy idea to give them a bath. Now with the dogs all snuggled up in their beds and me drinking hot tea, the house seems quiet. I like rainy days.

As the dogs watched

5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on gessoed illustration board

This is part of my dog series.

25.00 special of the week

Koi Downstream

 

I painted this Koi today with a media that I haven't mastered, I painted it on clayboard with egg tempra, its a bit tricky but I can see the possibilities.

The two things I noticed that are diffent is the drying time and the consistancey.

This painting was painted in a class situation with instructor, Ashley Lathe. He’s an artist in residence at the Mc Coll center of the Arts in Charlotte NC.

I enjoyed his class and found him to be an informative and easy going instructor. He demonstrated the mixing of the paint with the egg yoke and then proceeded to paint a small painting, explaining the various strengths and challenges of the media.

Before starting, you should used soap and a bit of water on your brushes to coat the brush hairs. Apparently if the egg dries on the brush its almost impossible to get out. So you might want to have your brushes ready to go before you mix up the paint. Also consider using cheap synthetic brushes till you become used to the process. No one likes to ruin a good brush.

We didn’t use dry pigment but took a little shortcut and used watercolor pigment. This was good news for me since I have a fishing tackle box full of watercolor paint. First we separated an egg and kept only the egg yoke. Then we pierced the egg yoke and only used the inside of the yoke throwing away the membrane. We added 2 tablespoons of distilled water to each large egg yoke and mixed it thoroughly. Using an eye dropper, the yoke mixture is then placed on a glass pallet with equal parts watercolor pigment. Then mixing with a spatula to insure the yoke and the paint are completely mixed, your ready to go. Of course, you only make the amount of paint to cover an area you can paint before the pigment becomes too sticky. This is where experience helps.

If you need to make a color from more than one pigment say yellow and blue to make green, do this before adding the yoke.

Ashley explained to us when painting with the egg tempera paint you should always pull paint from a pool of paint and not from outer dryer area of the paint. This will give you more time before the paint dries on your piece. I also chose to wet my clayboard to give me a wet into wet look for the first two layers of paint. This also gave me a little extra time to get a feel for the consistency and the drying time of the paint.

This painting is a bit darker than I usually paint only because the egg tempra does not dry back like watercolor. It holds its luminosity and is very translucent.

This type of painting seems to work well for glazing because like watercolor you can put a second color over the first to create a third color. There is a stain glass look to the finished product because when dry, the paint continues to have a surface sheen. Texture was easy to achieve and you can almost use anything including a palette knife or a scratch tool These paintings do not have to be framed under glass and should last many lifetimes if properly handled.

All in all this was a good experience and I’m sure you’ll see egg tempra paintings in the weeks to come.

Wandering

5 by 5 watercolor on illustration board. $ 35.00 plus shipping.


This piece is a bit surreal and I love the colors. I painted this on illustration board with watercolor.

Velvet Meadows

5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on gessoed masonite.

I really had to paint this fast. I only had 22 minutes and of course when it was done I wanted to touch it up here and there but had to leave for an appointment. Anyway a few hours later, I came back and it was dried so I guess it's finished.

I left it up to my muse... she painted it today because I was having a difficult day.

Meditative Sunset

5.75 by 5.75 watercolor on paper. $40.00

I squeezed this painting in between dinner and errands. I had only one hour so I had to really paint fast. I like sunsets and trees but sometimes I feel that everyone paints them and I should concentrate on other things….but if you think about it.. you can say that about anything.

Work in progress Koi

This is my work in progress, its a koi and it is a commission. It will be cut down to about 18 by 33. You can see I'm standing on a chair because the painting in still wet. I didn't paint a small painting today, things started out badly when I locked my self out of my condo this morning. Agghhh, I had to sit with my neighbors till Art came home from work with the keys. My neighbors are great, its just I hate to waste their time, or be an imposition. Anyway... I'm going to try to get this piece finished this week. I like it already and I hope it will be exciting, fun and beautiful.

Under the falls

Finally got this painting complete! yippee, its 24 by 24 acrylic on panel. I changed the little fish on the upper left hand side and put in some bubbles.

Sunday Koi

12 inches by 7 inches watercolor on paper.


Koi and other fish with lovely bright colors.

I was sick today with a sinus infection. I've been fighting it off all week and it finally got the best of me.

I took some zertec but when I've taken it before it puts me to sleep, so I took some with the decongestion included... so far it hasn't put me to sleep. Now I just hope it doesn't keep me up all night.

Thats the problem with drugs you just end up trading one symptom for another.

I listened to my Ipod most of the day, I'm hooked on short tories. and subscribe to about twenty podcasts a week. Its a good way to relax and also to get some work done. I do a lot of computer work and it can be very boring. With my ipod, I can sit all day and it doesn't bother me. My favorite podcasts are ... The New Yorker, NPR, WYNC, PRI,Librivox, & bound off. I just finished 1772 its not a short story, in fact it is very long... but a great audio book.

If you enjoy short stories and know of some pod casts which are free, drop me an email at shantimarie@mac.com

Koi fantasy

This piece is 2.5 by 6 inches but I think this is one painting that would make an excellent larger painting. Maybe 2 feet by 4 feet.
I also like it turn up this way...

Dragon fly Spring

I wanted to use my mouth atomizer on this piece so I developed this small painting in a split complimentary color scheme and after it was finished I sprayed green and pink in various areas to give it that air brush look. Where the colors mingle its still a lovely color leaning toward green brown.

Evening Snow

5 by 7 watercolor on clayboard.

This was inspired by a single glimpse of some trees as I was driving thru the cold February night.
I saw this group of trees growing on a hill standing in the darkness, it was beautiful but it seemed even more beautiful when the frosty bright white edges of the trees was illuminated by a nearby light.

Winter's Creek

This small painting is only 7 inches by 4 inches but it gives me a wonderful feeling of calm only the kind of calm that comes with winter. The quiet of the snow and the way it muffles all sound except for the birds and the wind.

Lavender Roses

I was trying to mix up a color for lavender roses and I mixed up several combinations but I think this Quin red with Manganese blue is pretty close.


This watercolor on gessoed masonite. 4 by 6

Ancient Ritual # 64

This semi abstract watercolor on masonite is part of my Ancient Ritual series. This series is exploring the way we as humans use ritual to mark the important events in our lives.

H20

4 by 4 watercolor on Clay Board $25.00


I was pretty tired today and this piece is one of those paintings that gives me a sense of calm. You would think flat smooth water would make me calm but perhaps its the circular nature of the piece and the color.

Three times the fun

4 by 4 $25.00


Ampersand or clay board. Three penguins having a great day. I was a little tired today so I quickly painted this little piece. I should have used reference photos but I think I did OK for just out of my little old brain.

Check out my new mac website and a Pink dolphin

http://web.mac.com/shantimarie


It isn't finished yet, but its a work in progress. I thought I would post it.


Also, I have my new 40 by 40 inch Koi painting its finished.

http://h20color.wordpress.com


Is this really an albino dolphin or is it photoshop? I don't care, its beautiful to me.

Pine trees and Water

5.75 inches by 5.75 inches

This is painting in watercolor and is on a piece of masonite which is covered in gesso. I painted it yesterday at our open studio.

Three dogs at the beach

7 by 10 watercolor on watercolor paper.

This is part of my dog series. I've been painting groups of dogs looking out at the skyline for a few months now. I guess you can say its a series. Some things aren't planned but they can be a lot of fun. I've had a bit of fun painting these pups.

Probably its because I like dogs and I "know" their mannerism so its easy for me to see these dogs carrying on a conversation amongst themselves. I can only imagine what they would say. One line that always comes up is.... "do you think we ought to tell him he's adopted?"

I know I have a sick sense of humor.

have a nice day...

The Golden Hour

6 by 7 inches watercolor on 140 lb artist grade paper. $44.00 I was taught to paint snow by Zoltan Szabo and my snow paintings are not half as beautiful as his because in my estimation, he painted the most beautiful snow paintings ever.This little piece of paper was cut from my ten foot roll of paper when I was preparing my large 35″ by 35″ piece. Its an odd size but would look great in a square mat and frame. If you want it framed in a black frame ( 6 inches by 6 inches )with a white mat, I could do that for you for an additional $20.00 plus an additional $3.00 shipping and handling.

River View ACEO

It was warm this morning and I decided to take the dogs to the park so they could get out and hopefully get rid of their cabin fever. They loved it. Missy jumped into the creek and pretty much got wet and muddy up to her chest ( and I just sent them to the groomer) Glock, who is a lab and doesn't like water, hung around on the muddy bank getting even more dirty than Missy. Thank goodness for Sam he is such a good dog, staying clean and still having a great time. He ran up and down the trails and his tail was not only wagging but it was going in circles. What does that mean? I guess you can say he was overjoyed. He wore a big doggy grin for the whole hour. When we got back to the house, I had to clean up the younger two which takes several towels and a little doggie air freshener. I wish they made frebreeze for dogs, they would sell a million bottles the first week.

I painted this ACEO... 2.5 by 3.5 and watercolor on gessoed paper, it's $15.00. I love the lake and I painted this little card because I love water scenes.

Koi bubbles

7 by 6

Watercolor on gessoed paper. The bubbles were made by painting the whole painting then allowing it to dry. I sprayed with water and rubbed it off quickly with a tissue and where the water drops fall it leaves little spots or bubbles in this case.

Koincedence

This is a large piece, 15 by 22.

Sunflower Memories

Yeah, I finished my BIG Koi painting and now I'm flattening it between plexiglass so it will be perfectly flat.

This little painting is 5 by 7 watercolor on clay board.

Family of Koi 4 by 4 " watercolor on textured ampersand

This was one of those days when I had so many things to do that I felt a bit pushed to produce which doesn't usually work for my creativity. I had purchased some 4 by 4 clay boards and I decided I would just paint some koi and not stress out about it. I'm working on my larger piece and I really need as much time as I can get to finish it. Its almost done now. I'll post a new photo of it tomorrow.

These fish are painted in the deductive method: this is where you paint very wet the entire piece then pull out the fish and after it has all dried you glaze in the fish to create form and shape. Its a very easy way to produce an impressionistic piece.