Lake Wylie in Fall

This is Sentenels 12 by 15 watercolor on paper.
























Boy… I woke up tired. I’m sure you know the feeling more asleep than awake. With three dogs, I have to walk them…. so there isn’t many days to sleep in. My friend Karen from across the street brings her two dogs over and we load up the five dogs into my Toyota Matrix and off we go to Mc Dowel nature preserve. Its about a mile from my condo. We let the dogs off leash and walk thru the woods. Usually for an hour from about 7 am till 8 am. I have been in a rush all week and maybe that’s why I’m so tire. I always hope this walk will be enough to give me time to do everything I need to do before they have go out again. But it seems since I’m so tired I’ll only get about half of what I need to do. I really couldn’t get charged up, even after we got coffee at Mc Donald’s I could barely stay awake. I sat at my dining room table feeling like a slug.
I’ll put up my landscape so you can see what I’m working on. I need to make some changes in the background the hills need to be a different shade so they don’t look like the water.
I am not as happy with my landscape as I could be, It was looking pretty good but then I tweaked this and tweaked that and now I feel like it isn’t as fresh as it could have been without the changes. I had a friend over and she kept talking about politics and I’m blaming the topic of conversation on any problems. Its difficult for an artist not to be influenced by whatever is going on in the room while painting and that’s why I never have the news on or anything that may makes me upset.

I put up a couple of pictures for you of my walks.
I thought you might like to see some of the morning colors here at the Lake.

Acrylic abstract...... Ancient Ritual

This is an abstract painting from my ancient ritual series, which is exploring the way we use ritual to mark the passage of time and events in our lives.

I'm also painting larger landscapes, I'll try to put one up tomorrow.

Queen's mountain large

Queen's mountain large, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I painted this painting a few days ago as an aceo and wanted to paint a full size painting. This is 12 by 18 watercolor on paper is available for sale.... www.dailypainters.com for pay pal information or if interested in purchase.

pink roses

pink roses, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I painted these flowers Friday night and since I painted two ( the red rose also) I put one up yesterday and one up today. I'm going to be busy today and will try to paint tonight... but I hope where ever you are on the planet your having a great day.

A Red Rose for my baby

red roses, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

7 by 12 $50.00 Watercolor on the highest grade 100% rag artist paper.
I painted a couple of flowers last night, this red rose was one of them. I like to paint roses not just the pretty buds the the older ones. The ones which are still beautiful when their opening up to the light and their petals are starting to fall gracefully down.

Lavender magnolia

lavender magnolia, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

This painting was inspired because of a late blooming or confused tulip magnolia tree which I found blooming last week. These trees are usually spring blooming trees and for whatever reason this tree started blooming again in fall. The buds were fewer and smaller but they were definately trying to open. 11 by 15 watercolor on paper

I think this painting could be hung either portrait or landscape since tree limbs grow either way.

" Queen's mountain" ACEO a painting a day

queen's mountain, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I felt bad today because I couldn't make it to the open studio with my TCAL group. I hate to disappoint them. I was all packed and ready to go when as things would have it I got a call... Next week for sure. I havn't done a landscape for awhile and fall is a beautiful time of the year. I call this Queens Mountain, its really just a hill.
ACEO 2.5 by 3.5

abstract 91 by Shanti Marie

abstract91, originally uploaded by apaintingaday.

I will put up a companion piece for this abstract tomorrow shantmarie@aol.com if you have any questions

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.

Red Poppies ACEO

I was so busy today, I painted this little ACEO but promise to paint a larger painting tomorrow.

Update on my husband... He went to the air field by himself today. He didn't fly just hung out with the other flyers and talked. I feel like its graduation day. He still sick but he seems to be getting better and not sleeping all day. The fact that he wants to actually do something still surprises me.

Koi BIG JOE ACEO

I went back to the Koi show and drew this fish. He seemed to be very confident and yet a pleasant fish to watch, looking up at me and swimming back and forth as if to say look at this side, its my best side...

Blue water Koi

I went to a koi show today and had a great time. I sort of had Koi over load. I can only take in so much. You know, sensory overload, if your an artist you'll know what I mean,I felt my head was swimming... no pun intended.

There were little tiny baby koi and some that were so big, like 40 lbs! Wow and everything from pure white to a big grey koi which look like a cat fish in a way.

Lots of people standing there discussing the koi's attributes and pointing out their favorites.

I came right home and painted two koi and drew two more.

Collage mixed media piece

four inches by four inches mixed media piece & companion piece to the collage I put up earlier this week. I made the paper, painted it with watercolor, gesso and acrylic, then covered it with varnish. The reds and the tans are beautiful together. It looks great!

abstract 90b a watercolor painting a day

4 by 6 $40.00 Here is the companion piece to the painting I did yesterday. I could use help with the naming of thee two paintings. I have trouble naming the abstracts sometimes.

Abstract 90

I forgot... I was going to put up the other collage I made yesterday and ended up painting two more other small paintings today. I guess in the next two days I will put up the second collage and the companion piece to this abstract. Bear with me folks it was a rough day.

If you like to know how to paint abstracts there are many ways to approach it.

For this painting...I first picked a palette, in this case, browns, yellows and orange for the warm colors to play against the cool of the blue. Usually I work somewhat in a grid pattern, keeping in mind the Elements of design and the basics of good composition while allowing my creativity some flexibity. Some I like and others I paint over with gesso and paint another painting over the failed abstract.

collage a day haha

This is a collage mixed media piece I made I'm also making a companion piece for it. It is four inches by four inches... watercolor, handmade paper, and acrylic on paper.

Koi

8.5 by 12 I was working on this new palette, It has more red and green.


Update about my husband.

Art is doing so much better this week... He stopped taking one of his pain meds (vicodin) and he is awake for more of the day. We went down to the art league today and even went to lunch. Usually he would be too weak to eat in a restaurant.
It made me very happy to actually be out and about with him!

"CHUBBS" Koi ACEO

This is a stout little fish so I named him Chubbs. I like this dark background and may try it for some of my larger paintings. I finished one of the larger koi and it's posted on my painting a week blog http://h20color.wordpress.com

It is painted in my blue and green Vs red pallet. Now I'm going to try a more brown and green vrs orange for my next Koi painting.

"Michelle" a nude drawing from life

This is the five minute warm up drawing of Michelle our model for this Saturday. I have drawn her before and she is very good with coming up with the poses.
graphite on paper 9 by 11
$25.00 for both.

This is a twenty minute pose. I cropped off the feet because I didn't line up the sketch book square with the camera lens. I wanted to show you at least one close up and one shot as you would see it as if you were looking thru the book.

This was the first time in four months that I have drawn from life, I enjoyed it after being out of it for so long.

"Shadows" an ACEO of watercolor figures

Here is my painting for today a bit rushed as I have to jet out to an art show tonight. I helped put it on I hung the show actually,and I'm excited to see everyone come to view the paintings.

work in progress

I started this Koi yeserday and let it sit for awhile, when I came back to it I noticed a blue mark near one of the koi's mouth, apparently I kept switching back and forth beteen Koi paintings and I must of dropped my brush. oh well...I"ll fix it later. i'll be sure to put it up when it is done.

"Little Koi" A watercolor original ACEO

Here is how you paint this
1. You put on the background all at once. Mix up your colors get a brush for each color if you don’t paint fast. I use flats but you can use whatever you think fits your hand. I painted this with a 1/2 inch flat but if this seems big you can use 1/4 or if you like round brushes…a number 6
round.
Without drawing the fish just start laying down the color in a pattern that seems the way water moves. The dark colors against the light colors, warm colors against the cool colors…back and forth. Do not paint he area where the fish will be. Leave this area for last. Also: don’t let the paint dry. Before it starts to dry, paint the fish negatively. This means paint the background around the fish. Now let this dry. Come back and paint the fish once the background has dried and in one or two spots you might soften an edge or two. After the fish and the background are dry take a good look at it and determine if any part of the background seems muddy or messy. Glaze over this area with one of the transparent colors you have chosen and this should help that part of the painting. If it is too light you can put on another layer of color and deepen the color until it is the value you want. Try doing a small Koi first, like this ACEO and then do larger pieces. Good luck!

Dog Island.... a painting a day

There is this little island (well its more of a peninsula)in Lake Wylie that my friend and I take our dogs too... we call it dog island.
I have painted this three or four times. I love the way it looks in the morning with the fog rising off the water.

I painted it again this week and who knows, I may keep painting it.

this is still a bit wet and the background trees will not be as pronounced when dry.

"Fall Trees" ACEO A painting a day

This small card is 2.5 by 3.5 and is my painting a day for today.

Because of the drought we haven't had the usual spectacular fall foliage. All the trees are turning brown, and very few are the beautiful red, orange and bright yellow. Fall has always been one of my favorite times because of the wonderful color combinations. This year it appears we won't be having those beautiful fall colors.

"Open water" Mixed media painting

This is 11 by 15 illustration board, I learned this technique up at wild acres, came home, changed a few things and I think I like it a bit better than the ones I painted in the workshop. I put acrylic over the watercolor instead of ink for the white. I think the acrylic goes a bit further and isn't so spidery.

Koi Circle ACEO a painting a day artist Shanti Marie

This 2.5 by 3.5 card is for sale for 14.00 plus 1.5 shipping and handling.

I hung a show today for the Guild of Charlotte artists and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the local great art. There seemed to be a good turnout of all mediums except one…. There were oils, watercolor, pastel and photography. Most of it was realistic work but some abstract or semi abstract work which I also like to see.

It was rather sad that the drawing award could not be given out. No one entered a single drawing. No graphite, colored pencil, charcoal, or conte crayon. This seems to be the case, folks who draw don’t enter the shows as much as painters. Probably because they don’t think their work will hold up to the more colorful paintings. I would like to remind you, if you draw, there are lots of shows where you can display your work and possibly win a cash award. consider entering a show, even if you don’t like the idea of competicion its a great way to meet the artists in your community, and the networking is very beneficial to all.

"Waiting" a painting a day by Shanti Marie

This piece is mixed media on illustration board. I like the flexiablity of working with different paints. It seems by combining the mediums you can avoid the weaknesses of each and can capitalize on their various strengths.

Have you ever come out of a resturant or show to find the streets wet. The reflective colors bouncing off of everything always make my heart sing.

Koi Trio ACEO

2.5 by 3.5 ACEO

I spend the day cleaning up my studio, trying to get a leak in the ceiling repaired and paying bills. Not exactly your dream day. Finally, I started an acrylic abstract painting but couldn't decide how to finish it. I'll try to put it up tomorrow.

Two Cherries ACEO

This aceo is still wet has has some shine reflecting back on it. 2.5 by 3.5 its an artist trading card. I like the color red and like to paint red things. Since I'm pretty busy these days, I have been painting some aceos (artist trading cards) each week to at least keep my hands on the brushes each day.



Regarding my husband Update:
My husband went to a pain specialist yesterday and they are starting to cut back his doasage of morphine and vicodine to one tab of each every eight hours. He still slept for most of the day, but he was able to get up for about an hour in a half and seemed reasonably happy. The seeping from his chest tube has stopped and we are hoping that is a good sign. His swollen legs also seem to be a bit better. He drove the car to the trash bin without getting in a wreck. which is a good thing... its good to see him trying to be normal. He has lost about 39 pounds since the accident on july 14th. I had to buy him some new jeans for fear his pants would drop to his feet while walking into the Dr's office. Its happened a few times here at home.

"Mod Koi" Artist trading card or ACEO

I helped a friend paint a koi today and in doing so ended up painting this little guy. He is almost an abstract koi but not quite.... so, I'm calling him a Modern Koi.

Valley of the Hawk "A painting a day"

I think this is finished now. I had to get some of that red out of the foreground it dominated the viewer's attention. I still can't seem to get a good photo of it, but this is pretty close to what it looks like.

"Looking In" An absract mixed media

This piece is powerful and colorful.

This is a small gem at 5.5 by 5.5
$50.00 plus 5.5 s& H

Valley of the Hawk

"Valley of the Hawk" is an acrylic on canvas 11 by 15 painting. $100.00

It looks better in person, I had some problems getting the darks and lights to read correctly. The foreground isn't as dark as it appears. The road is a little lighter. This is a work in progress, I'll post it again on the next stage.

a painting a day, lesson in abstract expressionism

This is mixed media (11″ by 11″) on illustration board. $50.00

I guess this piece would fall into the category of abstract expressionism. Its more about how I felt at the time I created the piece then what the piece actually looks like. I started out with a collage of handmade papers I made, then I used some gesso and allowed it to dry, then I painted a full watercolor over this entire piece, then used acrylics to paint over some of the areas. It has texture and some really wonderful passages. Its difficult to photograph because it has a semi gloss fixative which reflects back light into the camera lens.

ACEO "Fall path" a painting a day

This 2.5 by 3.5 is an artist collector’s card. its watercolor on paper and will sell for $13.00 plus 1.0 s& H
I’m reading a lot these days as I seem to be sitting around Dr.’s waiting rooms. I’m like a kid who has to stay inside, I look out the windows hoping for a glace of inspiration. A soft green grassy hill or maybe a beautiful fall tree. Nope, none of those things, just parking lots and cars, sick people and more sick people. Bad health can consume a person or even a person’s family. The appointments, errands and the prescriptions who knew… not me, I’ve always been pretty healthy. If your healthy, enjoy it, it could be taken away in a minute. My husband is getting better, it just takes a long time to heal from such a serious trauma as a motorcycle accident. He has stopped using the oxygen most of the day and only occasionally reaches for it. He even took out the trash last night. It was to me a milestone in his recovery.

Solitude A painting a day

This 5 inch by 6 inch painting is acrylic on illustration board.

The name of the piece sounds sad but to anyone who knows me... they know I like being alone and think the word solitude is more welcome than not. Also I think the name is more about the season change. Autumn is just around the corner, the cooler air today is starting to make me feel the sweetness of this fleeting season. The leaves are falling, days are getting shorter and the color of this sunset reminds me of the fall colors.

"Common Ground" A landscape painting a day

$50.00

This 8.25 by 9.50 acrylic painting on Illustration board was painted several times. I kept painting and repainting this painting.....changing the lighting, intensity,and trying out various color combinations. This is the problem with acrylics, the possibilities are limitless and you must discipline yourself not to be too flexible. You decide on where the light is coming from and the palette and stay with it for the most part. You can waste a lot of paint, painting over color choices you haphazardly tried out on a whim. Needless to say I will have to adjust the highlight on the tree trunks to correspond with the shadow. I originally had the shadow on the other side and made a switch at the last minute.

I do like a change every now and then and may paint with acrylics for a while. You can tell me what you think...

"Tree lined road" aceo -a painting a day

ACEO 13.00 Tree lined road. This Little landscape is for all of you ATC collectors.


This has been a rough weekend and I surely I will get more paintings done this week than last. I have been tired and basically a slug for the last few days. I'm hoping I can get my MOJO back and get into the spirit of life, love and the joy of painting.
This morning I drank a cup of coffee followed by a caffeinated drink thinking somethings got to get me jump started. It worked for about an hour and then it was like.... ZZZZZzzzzz so now what? I guess those artificially highs just don't really last. Oh yeah and its hot.... do I sound like I'm complaining? I am, its Freaking 92 degrees, I mean really, its October. No rain in sight and I have to run the AC. Art keeps telling me he's freezing (79 degrees) and I end up sweltering so he doesn't get sick.
It wouldn't be so bad if it were cool, I mean, if it were overcast at least you could blame your mood on the weather. I'm blaming my mood on the weather anyway.

Last night I went out to pick up some Chinese food and had two glasses of wine while I waited... jeez I could barely drive home. Now that's not supposed to happen, when did I turn into a light weight? Don't get me wrong, I don't drink a lot but two glasses of wine should not effect most people. I guess its cause I hadn't eaten yet. So what if I went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 7:30, its not a crime to sleep in. Then of course I had to take this photograph four or five times and still couldn't get a decent picture....I guess I have ranted enought for today. Tomorrow will be better ... all I can do is hope.

Butterfly Blue

I feel a little better today and painted this butterfly in the wet and pour method. Its a simple method and one that allows the paint to flow across the paper mingling as it goes across or down depending on how you tilt the paper.

You paint the paper first in water then add wet paint to the design & while its still wet you tilt the paper and see the various colors introduced mingle and develop new colors. You don't touch it and just lay it flat and allow it to dry. This is a great lesson for small children or even beginning watercolor students.

Oh yes I forgot you don't paint any water where you want white and the paint will not flow into the dry spots. ( be careful not to use too much water or it will).

Silver Boys / Underwater Koi ACEO

THIS ACEO HAS TWO SIDES SILVERBOYS OR UNDERWATER KOI

I had a migraine this morning and was glad that I could paint these two little guys.

Orange Koi ACEO

2.5 by 3.5

"The Japanese consider it the most spirited of fish, so full of energy and power that it can fight its way up swift-running streams and cascades. Because of its strength and determination to overcome all obstacles, it stands for courage and the ability to attain high goals. The carp is an appropriate symbol to encourage the overcoming of life's difficulties leading to consequent success."

Angel falls

I've been experimenting with Illustration board all week and thought I would try to see if the texture of gesso on the board would work for rocks and water. I think it does well and can think of other landscape textures that might also look good.

this piece is 11 by 15.

note about my husband... He is getter better but it is very slow and he is in constant pain. We saw a pain specialist last week, but have not been able to find a solution to his problem.

The Tree of faith

This watercolor on illustration board is painted with a palette knife, a brush and a sea sponge. The colors are magenta, deep green, sometimes mixed with magenta, naples yellow, burn't sienna, sepia, orange lake & cobalt blue.


You start out painting the background first. The light yellow color at the top and graduating down to the blue and lavender. A little orange was also mixed in but not enough to really notice. You let this dry. Then using a palette knife you put in the limbs, also using a brush whenever you feel the need. The palette knife keeps the limbs from looking too mechanical. You put the tip of the knife down and pull up on the knife very much like a rigger. The paint has to be wet but not runny.

You allow this to dry and then you sponge in the leaves starting with the light magenta and orange going to the darker magenta then finally the deep green. I wanted the piece to be darker around the edges so as to give a feeling of looking up thru the center of the trees to see daylight but you don't have to to this.

Misty Mountains

I painted this using the triad system. It only has three colors. Burn't Sienna, Andrew's turquoise and Naples yellow. The triad doesn't have to be primaries for this type of painting to work. Billy Shellburn instructed us to put water and paint on the paper and allow the colors to mingel watching to see what happens. This gives you an idea as to what it will be. After putting a mat around it and allowing it to dry you comeback to it and take a nice long look, then you finish it. Its a fun excercise and some of the paintings are really beautiful.

Spirit tree a watercolor by Shanti Marie

This is a watercolor on illustration board with modeling paste. The modeling paste gives the painting an actual texture. It looks great and you can almost feel the roughness of the bark.
I like it in this format but also like it on its side.


You can decide which way it should go.