Misty Koi pond

This is a small painting 11 by 8 and is a watercolor on artist grade paper.
Its cool here in SC I'm hoping this winter snow will disappear tomorrow. My California blood is too thin for this weather!

Yellow Boy

8 by 8 watercolor on gessoed masonite. 75.00
I gave this guy a little more form by painting his underside a deeper gold, you can’t see it here but it makes him look a little less animated.
I hear a storm is headed our way “Fae” lets hope she doesn’t dump too much water on us. Two years ago we had a pretty good drenching and it flooded my bedroom, hallway and kitchen.
I’m having all the french drains checked tomorrow just to make sure they aren’t clogged. Other than that there isn’t much you can do but hope the winds don’t knock down any trees. I 'm planning to put out my rain barrel and some containers so the following week I’ll water my pots from them. At least I’ll get some free water!

Someone asked me about my fish, well….I know it’s crazy but I named all my fish after famous artists, I have Picasso, Vincent, Freda, Georgia, Mary & Claude. There are more but you get the idea.

Koi Friends

8 by 8 75.00 watercolor on gessoed Masonite.
I use my aquarium water to water my plants because it’s great fertilizer and my plants thrive. Koi are a great example of living within an eco system and being able to be a part of the system without ruining it. They live in the water and yes they dirty the water but as long as all the other things, plants, air, other fish are all in balance they will be able to contribute to the environment rather than take away from it. If only we could do the same.
One of my fish gave birth to about 30 little babies ( platties) and just the other day she did it again. Wow so many babies…. I need to find someone who wants to raise these little guys. At the very least, I’m going to have to separate the parents. Things always get fatter around me. My husband was a tall thin guy when I met him, My dogs were all strays and you could see every bone, now the vets says they could lose a few pounds. Two months ago I bought 10 little feeder goldfish for 12 cents each… now they are about 4 inches long… I didn’t think they would grow so big! They are so big they have outgrown the tank. I considered buying another aquarium but I can’t see spending $50.00 for $1.20 worth of fish. Thank goodness, I did find someone who wants them. Lets home they show up to take them home. People tell me to throw them in the lake and I can’t do that, not only would they be food for a Heron, you should never introduce a fish to a lake, they don’t belong and if they survive, it could hurt the delicate balance that exists.

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.

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.

In the weeds

Impasto acrylic 11 by 14 on canvas

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.

Fantasy Koi lV

This is 16 by 32 on masonite, $400.00
I may tweak this a bit but its pretty much complete.

A koi slideshow

I made this little slide show just for fun. You can make one too. Its easy and its free.

Peek a Boo Koi

6" BY 6" BY 1" WOOD BLOCK

I love these wood blocks and I think I may have some made for me. I bought these from someone on ebay, I think it was called "artboards" they offered them in all sizes and shapes.

Little Ones

$30.00


Three inches by five inches on clayboard. Fixative has been used, no need to frame under glass.

"Turkois" a koi painting

6′ by 6′ watercolor on gessoed wood panel, with a very light coat of varnish.
SOLD
The great thing about this piece is that is has painted sides.. so… it looks like galley wrap. I love the color turquoise and when I told my husband I was painting a koi in turquoise colored water he said “call it turk kois ” so another play on words but its better then Koi #110. Which by the way is its number in the Koi series.
LESSON

OK.. so here is how you do this. You buy wood cut into 6 by 6 then you gesso the wood with either acrylic gesso or watercolor gesso, both work well.
Put on at least two coats using a sponge roller, a sponge brush or a bristle brush, allowing the gesso to dry between coats. Sand it down a bit if it’s too rough for your liking. I actually try to give it a bit of texture by criss crossing the brush and dancing the brush across the wood . I feel it gives more movement to the water.

Once it’s dry you can paint with acrylic or watercolor. If using watercolor you have to have the paint as thick as creme but not tacky, other wise it will not appear wet. Once dry spray with fixative for watercolor or spray varnish for acrylics. If using varnish for watercolor, brush on with as few strokes as possible as the watercolor will tend to lift with too much back and forth movement of a brush. You can thin the varnish and pour it on, tiping and tilting the painting to get the varnish to coat the painting, then finish up with light brushing.

Upstream Koi

SOLD
I love the way the yellow koi look with the blue water!

Four inches by nine inches.

I spend the afternoon packing up paintings and getting them ready to mail out. I will be makinging a video of my studio so you can see my little painting area. Its compact, but I'm able to do everything I need. prep work, paint, mat, frame, pack and of course store.


Tomorrow I have to take Art my husband to get another Cat scan. He still has a drainage bag connected to his side and it continues to drain blood. I guess the surgeon wants to see why before he takes it out. Its hard to believe its been six months since his accident.

Watchful Koi

4 by 6 $40.00 watercolor on watercolor paper, mounted on illustration board .
mat finish

When you watch koi you will frequently see that they are lurking under water liilies or other water plants. Ocassionally looking up to see whats going on outside their watery world. Koi are like people in that they have personalities… some are shy and some are real hams. This little guy is a bit shy and watchful, thus the name for this painting.

"Koi Harem" ACEO on masonite

2.5 by 3.5 watercolor on masonite with a light coat of fixative.

Buy Prints of my work at discounted prices!

I have been selling most of my Koi and if you look thru the archives and find one you like this web site will make of print of my art at a reasonable price. The’ll even mat it and frame it for you. I ordered one myself before allowing them to used my copyrighted material and the images are pretty good. I took one small 5 by 7 print to my open studio this week all of the artist there agreed the quality was very good, and two artists thought they were originals. They send me a small fee for each painting. I feel pretty good about this arrangement since I don’t have to purchase a large volumn of prints I may never sell. If you go to their website and the painting you want is not there you just write me and I’ll sent the image to them. Since I have hundreds of images, I had to pick about thirty for the gallery.


Buy my art at Imagekind!

"Koi hide and seek" an ACEO

$13.00 + 1.5 watercolor on paper 2.5 by 3.5

Today was one of those days…. I was so very busy and as luck would have it I also needed to get paintings packaged for shipment. This is a good thing but it’s time consuming, and the record keeping can be tedious. Being an artist is a business too and you have to have records for all your pieces …like where they’re stored or their location in galleries, flat files or in customer’s homes. You have to update these records and sometimes I have to go into town to pick up paintings that sold on the Internet that may be in a gallery. This can be sticky but I usually just substitute one painting for another.
In a perfect world I try to have one day a week to do prep work and organize things but lately, things have been hectic and I’ve let my organization slip a bit.

This little ACEO is one of the paintings I did a couple of days ago when I painted my Koi six pack.

Of course I painted today but I worked on a larger painting and will continue to work on it this week for an upcoming show. All artists have days where they have to do organizational chores or prep work. My studio was in a shambles, piles of mats sitting on top of art books, next to packing materials and a mountains of paintings waiting to be stored. On top of all this my cat was sleeping right in the middle of it all. Leave it to a cat to find a little hidey hole to sleep in in a huge mess.

My husband say I need an intern, like on Seinfeld when Kramer had that intern do his laundry and make appointments for his BS company Kramerica. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just do the art and someone else could do the prep work, and the packaging, and of course clean up the mess afterwards.

my system

I thought I would show you how I line up the little ACEOs when painting in a color palette. This way I can be sure they actually will match. I get folks who want to frame them together or in groupings and want the small paintings to work as a cordinated piece. So I lay out all the cards on my painting table... usually six ACEO cards sometimes four. I paint them all at once. But since my style is to allow the paint to dictate to me what happens next I can get off track and the six paintings won't have the same colors. I actually have to remind myself not to change the color until I've used it on all the pieces. Its difficult to go back and to try to mix the exact color again once I've altered it. I think most of these sold on ebay last week.

"Koi down under" G'day mates!

2.5 by 3.5 20.00
This ACEO ia on clayboard or ampersand. I gessoed the panel to give it a bit more tooth and it was painted with watercolor. It has a bright yet soft look. It can be sprayed with fixative or kept under glass (or in a plastic sleeve). This collector’s card, one of a kind original is signed and is mailed to you in its own sleeve for collecting purposes.

Koi Buddies watercolor ACEO

2.5 by 3.5

This artist trading card is a bit out of focus and I apologise... these small works of art are difficult to photograph.

When I went to the Koi show on Sunday, these two Koi kept following me around the tank, it seems the're pets and someone has been hand feeding them. I felt bad I couldn't give them a snack but the way their eyes followed me was amusing.