Thursday, July 31, 2008

A koi for Matisse

koi matisse2

Here is my daily painting on a regular size easel. You can see the size a little better. this is 8 by 10

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Koi reunion

koi reunion

8" by 10" 75.00 shantmarie@aol.com for purchase information
watercolor on gessoed canvas.

The white fish is called a Tancho ... now can you guess what the blue grey fish is called?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Lake Wylie Dreams

Lake wylie5

Its very late 11:55 PM and there is a storm raging out side, Good night all.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Little tulip little pitcher

pitcher

6.5 by 8.5 $75.00 This small painting is for sale for $75 dollars & Its ready to frame since its double matted.
This butterfly doily and milk pitcher is after Arlea Pech…. She taught me how to paint realistic still lifes. I love her work and will always enjoy seeing what she comes up with next. Of course, its not for me. I have learned to paint in this manner but I learned something even more important…it isn’t my style. When you first start to paint, you’re really hunting and searching for your own voice. you take classes from all types of instructors. Your learning their techniques and their approach. You’ll keep some of the techniques and you’ll also be throwing out some of it. From all of these great teachers you are learning to find your way toward your own style.
Over the years I have always loved exaggerated color, I ‘ve always been drawn to paintings with great contrast. This contrast may be in color, value or color temperature. I guess I like opposites! After painting hundreds of paintings, I think I ‘ve found my true voice. I like a more impressionistic style which allows me the freedom to change things and to paint loosely with a little more imagination. I love painting from my own mind’s eye. Allowing the painting to tell me what it needs and accepting assistance from my creative muse. Its isn’t what everyone does and that’s really OK. I also allow myself to

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Red buds

tulip buds

Are you getting tired of tulips, I've had a bit of a sinus problem this week so I've haven't painted as much as I usually do.

Thursday, July 24, 2008



8 by 10 75.00 A watercolor on paper






I think these photos just don’t turn out at night as well as those taken in outdoor light. This painting is much more delicate than this photo shows. I think its the flash.
It is 11:54 PM and I’ve just finished this painting and hurried to get it on line before midnight. I’ve really been having a difficult time getting all these commissions finished. I had three this week, and two of them were larger paintings, I’m still working on them, I’ll try to post them later this week if I can

Monday, July 21, 2008

Barb's tulips



Ok let’s see if this is the one, I made sure to measure the painted portion of the piece so that it would end up being 8 by 10. The actual painting is larger but since its just white, the buyer has the option of framing it small or bigger.
This painting is a bit more whimsical. It appears to me that the one tulip in the middle is being held on to by the two smaller tulips.
I guess I’ll hit the hay… its 1:57 am and I have to take the dogs to get their teeth cleaned at 7:00 am.

Friday, July 18, 2008

tulips ll


















9 by 12 watercolor on paper

These colors are some of my new paints I'm trying out.
Its 12:27 and I just finished this painting... kinda missed the deadline by about 27 minutes but actually the photo upload and all probably took that long. I will be painting another one tomorrow as these are for a customer who wishes a companion piece.
This may look familiar to you and it should last year I painted "Tulips" and this is another version of that painting only slighly larger. The flowers are still red but a bit darker.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dolphin Daze

dolphin

6 by 10 $ 75.00 watercolor on paper.

I used to teach watercolor classes and Dolphins were a favorite subject of my students. Dolphins always seem so happy. They convey a sweetness and a wonderful spark of energy which is genuinely curious.
Next month I'm going to be doing a series of paintings which are related to the Earth and specifically water. Be prepared to see some lake paintings because Lake Wylie is a great subject but I may do some under water paintings too. I've been working them up in my mind. Usually I'll walk the dogs several times per day and while on these walks I allow my mind to develop paintings. I see mist rolling across the water in the early morning light with fishermen standing in their Bass boats, also another painting of White Egrets and Heron standing at the waters edge or just taking off from the water. Of course my beloved Koi looking up thru the water to the surface, and then there is always colorful sailboats and wonderful sunsets. I look forward to my month of water paintings, and I hope this month of painting water will remind you how precious each drop of rain and every inch of water is to us and our planet.

Color charts

my cat

I wanted to post this color chart so you can see how I compare the various watercolor brands. Each circle has a light, medium and dark portion so the three main values can also be compared. Thats my cat Chubbs on my flat file. She's my Studio kitty.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Work in progress ...Doitsu Showa Koi




















This is a work in progress... I posted it both ways to see which I like, I painted it as a horizontal piece. This are my fantasy colors, it seems I bring them out to use whenever I want the painting to be whimsical and fun. This may not stay this way as you know if you read my blog these paintings start out one way and eventually evolve into something else.
If you haven't been reading this blog you may not know it but I've painted over a hundred Koi paintings.
I like color so I use exaggerated color and I like to make my painting slightly edgy by using combinations that are personal to me. Like so many other artists I love color, but I do believe Value is the most important element of art and always pay very close atention to the values so don't get me worng , even though I love color, I do not pick color over value.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Nude Mary

nude <span class=


This is a sketch from my life drawing sessions, its difficult to get the beautiful line one can achieve with longer poses because you work so fast... but a twenty minute drawing session is very good practice for learning to see very quickly the shapes and the form of any object.

Friday, July 11, 2008

My little Aquarium


My husband bought me this little present and one of the fish had babies this week, Their (platies) getting bigger pretty fast. This Aquarium is 24 gallons and its stocked with tropical fish. I'm taking the day off from painting today. I framed my large painting which I just finished and that took most of my painting time. You can go to http://h20color.wordpress.com/ if you would like to see it or read the art lesson.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cherries 5


Colorful Koi


This isn't a daily painting but one I've worked on for a few weeks a little here and a little there. Trying to squeeze in the precious minutes to get it finished. Its sitting on my table now getting flat so I can frame it. I'll put it in a white mat with a 5 inch wide flat modern silver frame. I think it will look great! I hope so anyway I love it and I'm very excited to have it finished. You can go to http://h20color.wordpress.com to see my step by step process of the painting.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Baby Lizard


















Here is a picture of the baby lizard that is living in my  Paper Plate Hibiscus plant, he's about 1.5 inches long and is very cute.  I gave him some aphids and I'm not even sure if he eats aphids but he looks interested.   I hope the birds don't get him.  He is kinda cute. 

Morning Glory























This is one of my favorite flowers and I thought I would post a picture of them. Some years I can get them to grow and other years the slugs get them. These are in a pot so it helps that they aren't in the dirt.

Big red Canna











This little watercolor painting is 5 by 7 and is framed to 8 by 10 and ready to hang. $50.00

Monday, July 07, 2008

Field and Stream


11 by 15 watercolor on paper $100.0

Yesterday I painted a little Koi and when I looked at it this morning I decided he looked like he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. So I took that out then of course I darkened the water and basically painted him again. I'll post his new image tomorrow.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Adolescence

Imature Koi
9 by 7

Watercolor on paper $35.00



Another painting from my new paints. This is a quick study of a very young koi, so I’ve named this painting” Adolescence”.

Bell flower by Shanti Marie

Bell flower

Working with some new reds, I have found this red has a bit of grit to it or as they say "sediment" It may be more ideally suited for landscapes or brick walls that sort of thing. Flowers tend to be painted with transparent dye type paints. They usually give very clean clear washes without too much body. I like the pink... it's very soft and would make some great pink roses. I'll have to look up the names for these paints colors for you.. I'll try to do that later today. check back for the updates.

Friday, July 04, 2008

"Little Pinks" a watercolor painting by Shanti Marie


four pinks

7 inches by 8 inches watercolor, on paper $25.00

This little painting was basically painted from my imagination, I wanted to try out some new paints I received as a gift from a friend who is also an artist. Earlier this week a box arrived for me and inside was all kinds of watercolors and inks. It was like a holiday!

I’ve been painting with the same pallet for at least two years so its fun to try some different colors.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Ancient Ritual #133

DSCF2285

8 by 10 oil on wood 75.00

This series seems to never end. I was planning to paint a red sunset over the lake. I’ve been doing a lot of blue water paintings and thought it would be nice to go to the red side of the color wheel.

After I got the yellow, red and gold on the panel one stroke led to another and all I could do was paint this painting. It took me about a minute to see the sunset wasn’t in the plans for the daily painting. If your new to this series it’s about customs and how we celebrate life’s events and the passing of time with rituals.

 

can you find the koi?