Beautiful Earth 05

Today I went to Cramerton ( about 9 miles from my home) with 25 or so local artists and we painted standing in the grass along a winding river. The scene was a small bend in the river with ducks and submerged logs. Really very nice, but of course It was about 96 degrees and that was at 5:30 pm... It didn't take long for the sun to start to set and the temp to drop, good thing too cause I was melting. Painting plein aire is always a little tricky and today wasn't an exception. The warm air kept drying out my paper so the first plan to have a nice wet into wet water scene kinda died as the paper was drying faster than I could paint. Then again the oil painters had lots of bugs in their paint so I can't complain...On to plan B and I decided to do some exaggerated color and see how that would look.

Here is my buddy Marth who was painting to my right and Martha's boys who were very happy to have found a fishing line with a hook and a worm all ready to go.

Some of the other artists

my painting

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.

River in fall a painting a day by Shanti Marie

This little gem is 4 inches by 6 inches and is watercolor on 300 lb paper. Today was our first cool day and I wanted to commemorate this day with a fall painting.

Gentle Koi

This watercolor piece is 5 inches by 7 inches its is on clyboard ( Ampersand) and has been sprayed with fixative.

You can choose to frame it like an oil painting or in the traditional manner of watercolor.

Memories in the mist

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.