Ancient Ritual series

7.5 by 8 mixed media on gessoed masonite.

This is part of my ancient ritual series. It's a series in which I explore the way we mark the passing of time and events in our lives with ritual.   After Art's mom passes away last week I painted this piece

Perserverance 08

11 by 14 Acrylic impasto on Canvas panel 150.00

This painting is done impasto which refers to the thickness of the paint. Its very thick and can give the look of oil without using oil paints. I combined a golden gel medium with the acrylic paint to increase the body of the paint. It tends to paint like whip creme, which is a little hard to control but is very smooth. Also, it gives the paint a slight gloss which is similar to oil paint.
Artist Tip:
When using these gels its best to use a pallet knife and mix the paint into the gel uniformly because if not mixed well the gel will look translucent white. Sort of like dried glue, not a look you really want.

A crazy weekend, hope yours is going well. Its windy here in SC and cool, unusual it seems for May.

Koi, or Follow the leader

I painted this little guy and some folks might wonder why his head is off the picture plane. Well... so many people wrote me to say I often paint the heads and not the tail which is to them the most beautiful part of a Koi. So here is one beautiful tail.

Water plants

This is my little water feature, I have a few plants, The water lily shown was one I purchased from ebay for $7.00 it has three baby lily pads. I was so excited because when I received the plant it was just a cutting from the mother plant. To see the little pads growing under the water and sprouted within a few days, was fun. The plant seems to be getting healthier each day. You can see my reflection in the water, also you might be able to see my red gazing ball which is also reflecting back a little.

Ladies a fine art original by Shanti Marie

50.00

watercolor on masonsite.  This is actually slightly larger than this, I cropped off about 1/4  of an inch off the bottom for the upload. 

I painted this a few weeks ago and decided it needed something and put it aside... I couldn't figure out what it was. Today,  I put in the cigarettes and the headband and voila it's finished!

Koi in the Wild

Watercolor on paper 16″ by 11″ $300.00

I felt very sad today and didn’t think I was going to paint. But after watching an art video of another artist painting, I got the bug and painted this piece. This painting started out very gray and as I painted I felt my spirits lift and it became a bit more colorful. Its funny how my color choices are related to my emotions.
Art’s ( my husband)mom passed away last night and since her stroke twelve days ago we have had some ups and downs. Thank you so much for your notes and words of encouragement.

His name is Jack

Pastel on Wallis Paper 11 by 15  $300.0  www.dailypainters.com  for pay pal button

I loved this little guy, he had such a personality, The one ear up and the other down, he was kinda fun to photograph too.  I love painting dogs, so if you have a dog portrait you want done in pastel, watercolor or acrylics, let me know, I'll give you a decent price and a great painting.

Raccoon Rascals

11 by 15 $300.0Raccoons are cute little guys and very frisky. I’ve raise a few and have found them to be a handful and don’t encourage you to try to keep one as a pet. I just raised them till I could turn them over to a rehabilitator who taught them to get their own food in the wild and set them free.

Blue water lily

This little painting is a real gem at 3.5 by 7 inches. It's unique size makes sit a great painting to place in an unusual spot,or on a small easel. These painting make great gifts too.
$50.00

Blue Water Lily

This painting is a watercolor on gessoed masonite. It is 7 inches by 3.5 inches.

Water lilies bloom for only three days ( there are some exceptions) and so when they bloom you have to make sure you take a picture. My waterlily that I planted lst week already has three little round leaves with two more coming out of the root. The lily pads are only about 2.5 inches across and I assume they will grow larger as the plant matures. I'm very excited its growing at all. I bought it on ebay for $7.00. The seller says it's a very hardy variety so I may have a chance to see it bloom. If it does, I'll take a picture of it.

Calico Cat Standing by a Wisteria Vine

This video is almost ten minutes long. It isn’t sped up and is painted in “real time” It shows the wet into wet techinique needed for fur. This is where you wet the paper first then apply the color leting it float onto the paper, guiding it to create form.

You don’t have to use a chinese paint brush you can use a number 6 up to a # 9 round and get the same effects. Rice paper is used here but regular watercolor paper also works great, use a bit more water with watercolor paper. Isn’t it great… how the artist gives the cat an asian look with the eyes. The slant is exxagerated, you can do this or put them in straight across rather than angleing them up at the edges. If you want a more “fat” western like cat you just think about the body like a bowling pin and that is the shape you need.

RED on RED

40.00 6.96 by 6.96

Lisa

watercolor painting on paper 15 by 22

Sunshine and peace

16 by 20 Acrylic on canvas 300.00

Watching Koi you find yourself calming down your heart rate slows and you become mezmerized by their movement,& the reflections of the water.

Some of the Koi seem to have personalities which I wouldn't have believe till I saw this for myself. They are very eagar to come when called in hopes of getting dinner. They also have a pack type metality with some fish being bossy and others being shy or frightened.

Koi or colored Carp

I love these underwater shots!

Check this out How to draw a rose!

I thought some of you might like to see this video, its a simple drawing. In fact you might like to try this beautiful drawing of a rose.

In the weeds

Impasto acrylic 11 by 14 on canvas

Koi Impasto

8 inches by 8 inches

I'm experimenting here folks. impasto is like painting with whip creme.
Also, I'm making a little water feature in my back yard.

I got my water lily planted today and it looks like its growing. It has two little leafs coming out of the root. It's sitting under about 6 inches of water in a pot. I'll take a picture of it just to show you.

Koi impasto

close up of impasto...

I think she likes me!

watercolor on gessoed masonite 6 by 6 $40.0o
This painting is part of my “all dogs go to heaven ” series… it seems very popular and I’ll always have fun with it. My explanation for this painting is pretty straight forward… I see this little guy from the wrong side of the tracks bringing his goofy sidekick along with him as he looks in at the pretty little poodles on their cushy red sofa.

This has been sealed and it may be framed without glass. It would also look great framed with a mat and under glass .

Koi Pond

8 by 8 watercolor on clayboard.


Now there calling clayboard, aqua board, I'm not sure if this is the new name but since most people won't know what "Aqua Board" is, I'm still calling it clayboard.

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.