Pink Koi

I decided to create a painting of a Pink Koi, I've never a seen a pink Koi but you never know there could be one out there. Especially since there are red Koi & white Koi and perhaps mother nature has mixed up those two colors and turned out a Pink Koi.

Little Pink

Here is a big pink waterlily… you know the flower doesn’t actually grow on top of the leaf and when you see them like this they are just coming up separately thru the split in the leaf. Often they will be floating near the actual lily pad or standing up on their tall stems above the water.

They do come in millions of colors. blue, lavender, white, pink, & even green just to name a few. I bought a book about these flowers and even bought one small hardy plant. I take this research thing a bit far at times. I’m going to make a small water feature on my back deck and see if I can get it to grow. Two tiny round leaves have already sprouted.



This plant is also the symbol for perseverance very much like the koi or the Phoenix something that comes from the muddy depths and seeks the beauty of the light. Always emerging and surviving. Not only beautiful but strong what a combination.

Blue Water Trio

8 by 8 watercolor on gessoed masonite 50.00

white on white

7 inches by 7 inches
Sorry for the odd size but these are the last of my odd size panels.

Watercolor on gessoed panel. No need to frame under glass. These watercolors are protected with a UV fixative (or varnish if you prefer). I have painted a companion piece for this white flower, also a Pink Lillie which came out rather nice and one big red flower. I painted one last night real late and three this morning because I got up at the crack of dawn before anyone arrived.
There’s a big storm coming in so I wanted to get my porch and deck cleaned up and my flower-beds ready for my annual flower planting.

Usually in the spring I get out in the yard and plant flowers and pull weeds from around the condo and the garden. Today I hired a helper and when we were getting everything cleaned up, two baby opossums popped out from under our deck. They were very cute. They looked like they couldn't’t see very well in the bright sunlight. Sort of like me when I first wake up. They were a bit confused because they got sprayed with a pressure washer, ( we didn’t know they were under there). When they came out they were all wet and looking pretty goofy. I know, I know, everyone thinks their ugly, but baby anything is pretty cute. One had black spots on his head. I didn’t know some had spots I thought they were pretty much all the same, grey and white.

Anyway If I see them again I’ll take a photo of them for you.

Flower power, a painting a day

8 by 8 Watercolor on Gessoed maonite shantmarie@aol.com if interested in purchase.

Ancient Ritual ACEO

This little ACEO is part of my Ancient Ritual series.

Bad hair day

This is a bit out of focus, I'll try to upload a better photo tomorrow. 3 by 5 watercolor on paper


Doesn't this flower look like its saying hey have you seen my brush?

Palm Reader by Amy Kelm

I have posted here today another of Amy's paintings. This was part of her thesis and is watercolor on paper. It about 1/2 sheet of watercolor paper. I don't have the size actually but it is a larger piece.

Monet's tribute #2

8 by 8 acrylic on masonite

$50.00 www.dailypainters.com for pay pal link.
I love the blue and yellow in this piece.

Acrylic on Gessoed Masonite 8 by 8 $50.00
This is a new series I'm painting. Basically a pond and some Lilllie's. I may sneak in a Koi here and there. I will be incorporating my brighter palette ...so it will be a la Monet but the colors will be pure Shanti Marie. I hope you check in with me each day to see what I've painted, I rarely miss a day (Since August 2006) and if I do I have usually painted a painting but then didn't have time to post it. Often, falling asleep fully dressed, paint in my fingernails and at least one lab sleeping at my side. After a long day of work and scrambling to paint only to miss my posting deadline. Aghh! Its all worth it! I hope you enjoy my blog and thank you for stopping by.

Amy Kelm's "Ripples"

I've been mentoring a thesis student and I have posted one of her watercolors for you to see. Its a fingerprint painted over a tree's growth rings. Its message is simply that we need to value nature and understand that our very existence relies on our correct management of our natural resources.

Lavender Roses

Acrylic on wood panel. 8 by 8 $50.00

I have a thesis student I have been working with and today I ‘m pretty sure her project is complete. She has been painting watercolor paintings using parts of the human body ( like finger prints) juxtaposed or layered over things in nature like the growth rings in a tree. This is to convey our connection to nature and the earth. I’ll post some of her paintings tomorrow. Their interesting and thought provoking.

Tribute to Monet

This is my tribute to Monet who love to paint his pond and as you can see I used some of the lavender he loved to use.

When I saw the Monet’s for the firat time....I was very surprised to see the many layers of paint he used. Some of his paintings were at least an inch thick. As an artist I understand this completely. The layering is a meditative process and one that can be difficult to stop once one has started the process. There is a snow painting I looked at for over 30 minutes… its of a village he painted over and over and the white paint is layered with other colors so that you see thru the white and you glimpse the pink, lavender and the blue, it brought me to tears. The beauty of that painting must be seen in person to truly feel the emotion of the piece. I may do a series of paintings using some of the impressionistic techniques and colors. I love water paintings and reflections so check back with me to see more paintings like this one.

Golden Koi

Watercolor on gessoed wood. 6 by 6 Golden Koi is just one painting that I liked because it is realistic but also has a good abstract feel. The shapes, overlap and the color combinations.

Perserverance lV

This is another of the perseverance series. I'm painting the same subjects on a variety of supports and media. This is watercolor on canvas which has been gesseoed. 16 by 20 inches

The watercolor is the easiest media to use so far, it can be lifted, which means... it can dry but still be pulled off, it can be rewet and reworked. Texture can be added. I really don't see a down side to it other than it may be cheaper to paint in acrylic. Oil would be good but then I wouldn't really want to paint right outside of my kitchen if I were painting in oil.

blue water blue sky

3.5 by 7.0 25.00

Spring Fairy

This fun piece is a salute to Spring. The size is 8" by 8" watercolor on gessoed masonite. I think this would make a great illustration for a children's book.

Koi Love

150.00 11 by 14 by 1 watercolor on wood.

Shantimarie@aol.com for purchase information 7.50 shipping

The Enchanted Path Sold

I was really in the mood for some color today so I decided to paint this landscape. 7 inches by 8 inches 45.00

Eagle Koi

This little watercolor is a 6 inch by 6 inch on gessoed masonite. 50.00 www.dailypainters.com for pay pal information.






For the last several weeks I’ve been painting with Acrylic paint…and this is such a change from watercolor for several reasons. The biggest is… 1. The thought process. When painting in watercolor you think in a way that the values go from light to dark and in acrylics it seems you go from dark to light. The other thing is the 2. thickness of the paint, In watercolor the paint moves and there is a constant merging of color that takes place. I’ve learned to use this in my style and it isn’t as easily to achieve in acrylics unless you change the thickness of the paint. Finally the bigggest thing about the difference is the finished look. # 3. Watercolor drys back a bit lighter but Acrylic paint seem to dry back a bit darker. This has been a struggle for me as I already paint with lots of pure pigment and like the dark values in watercolor. I’m slightly disappointed in the darker values in the acrylic paintings. They seem a bit flat and not so complex in their nature. I like to see a lot of variation in the value especially in the darks and what I see is just flat dark color, the nuances are not there. I’ ll experiment with this a bit more and see how I can adjust my painting to get that variation that give my work its voice.

Perseverance ll

This painting is 18 by 18 Acrylic on wood panel.

Its raining here today so I guess its good that got outside yesterday and cleaned up my front porch. It s also a bit cooler and I don't really like cold weather so I'm drinking really hot tea, (Peppermint). I'm also watching "The rest of Everest" and I'm really enjoying it. The statues of Buddha and all the other statues are very inspiring. I love the way they dress the statues up with silks and paint their skin different colors like bright red and blue. I watch it on my computer as I do books or other computer work but late at night I sometimes watch it on my ipod. Its free to subscribe and is listed in Itunes if you would like to check it out.

Start with episode 90 thats the first one and you can see the crew from the beginning.

Evening pond

This painting is on gessoed masonite and is 6 inches by 6 inches. The koi are painted in watercolor.

The temperature today was very warm, about 80 degrees and I took the opportunity to clean my back porch and potted some flowers, oh yeah and some seeds.

I threw away two BIG garbage bags of trash, junk that was sitting outside all winter and stuff that just didn't hold up to the weather. It all needed to be thrown away. Lots of dog toys, leaves and and old broken crockery. It looks better and now I just have to dig up the dirt and re pot the rest of the pots so this summer we have a whole summer of flowering plants. I planted two really large elephant ears, I love their tropical look and usually plant one or two each year. I also planted morning glories and hollyhocks which are both some of my favorite flowers.

I really wanted to get back to my larger paintings, I'm painting several commissions right now and I would like to get them finished because I'd like to paint something for myself. When I'm really working hard outside I do enjoy it but I am thinking of my painting the whole time and what it needs and when I get back to it, what I'll change. I think most artist do this. Often I'll dream about a painting and this drives me to get it finished. It 's like reading a good book and you can't wait to get back to it to see how it ends!

All dogs go to Heaven #8

watercolor on Gessoed masonite 6inches by 6 inches

open water

This is a mixed media piece on illustration board. 11 by 15

I've done several of these paintings. First I used watercolor, then I used gesso and acrylic paint.

AR#121

This is an artist trading card or ACEO the size is always 2.5 by 3.5 for these cards and they are sold widely on ebay and in other venues. Collected the world over and very popular. This card is part of my ancient ritual series which demonstrates the use of ritual to mark the passing of time and events in our lives

Three Amigos

16 by 20 three koi painted in acrylic on canvas $350.00 plus 7.50 shipping and handling.

www.dailypainters.com for pay pal button.

Two Koi

This green reminds me of spring! this is painted on gessoed masonite its a 6 by 6. It can be framed under glass or without glass.

Moonlight Lillie

8 by 8 watercolor on gessoed masonite 50.00 shantmarie@aol.com or www.dailypainters.com for purchase with pay pal.

I painted this a bit daker than I usually paint, especially the water because it is supposed to be at night. I like it ! I think it makes the other colors more vibrant.

Endurance

This is gessoed masonite with texture.

6 by 6

It raining here is South Carolina and a very gray day.

I didn't win anything in my show... but it was a wonderful show and I'm glad to be a part of it!

"Little Bit"

This is painted on textured clayboard. 6 by 6 $40.00 http://www.dailypainters.com/ for pay pal button.

I thought I would clean off mydeck and start getting my flower pots filled with potting soil but when I woke up, it was 48 degrees and raining. It will have to wait a few more days.

Koi Curiosity

5.75 by 5.75
Watercolor on gessoed masonite $38.00, This piece is sealed so it may be framed without glass. I gessoed this and made the texture sort of go in a vertical pattern . I painted it in Brown and Red and a Wine color. Then I pulled out the fish and painted their color back into the spaces. I sprinkled water on the surface and pulled a towel across the surface which gave it a little bit of texture. This isn’t 6 by 6 because my brother was cutting these boards for me and when this one went thru I guess it got stuck and he had to recut it so the edge wouldn’t have a gouge. This artist thing isn’t as simple as painting a picture, there’s lots of prep work. I can see why artists had apprentices. I usually get my brother to do the cutting and sometimes he does the gesso work too. I’ve been out cleaning the yard, its spring and the trees look great with their new buds. I don’t have any excuse ( I hate cold weather) , Now that its warm, I have to get my porch cleaned off and my pots washed, you know the routine. I have a wood deck so I’ll pressure wash it and clean up my Terra-cotta pots, buy some potting soil for my flowers and work in my beds. I bought some seeds & I want to get them started so this summer I’ll have some flowers. It may take me a week cause I also have to clean up my brother’s place. I store stuff over there, he only lives across the street, boy, it seems like I need to get rid of some junk. I give the stuff to goodwill, of course, my accountant says I should get receipts for my goodwill donations but I never do. I guess I’ll take some things over and get one, you know, just to make him happy.

koi blue

This is the the finished painting I started earlier this week. Its painted in acrylic on wood. I didn’t gesso the wood but just gave it a light sanding. I painted the background and allowed it to dry, then I painted the fish. When the fish was dry I sprayed light green and blue from squirt bottles to set the fish back a bit. Last I used white ink and spattered and painted the white specks. I like it. It has a fantasy type look to it. I may give the underside of the Koi a glaze of blue but I’m not sure just yet. I may also repaint his eye... it needs to be moved down a bit so it looks sideways, righnow this guy is looking up or back I can't tell which. we’ll see.