Rough Seas

This painting is not a daily painting but a painting I painted in a day. What’s the difference? I spent a lot more time on this and its a lot larger. about 15 by 20 $200.0
This is a technique I learned from Billy Shellburn at Wild Acres, I thought I would show it to you because the white caps are white ink. In regular watercolor you would leave the white of the paper and in this technique, you use an eye dropper to paint the white ink on top of the waves, then spritz it with water to make it look like its a wave turning over or breaking. The ink is thicker than watercolor and more opaque so it sits on top of the blue color beneath.

Also… Rather than paper, you paint on Illustration board.

This is a picture of the moon at sunrise. It was still out and very beautiful at Wild Acres.

This was sunrise at Wild Acres. A wonderful retreat where I have spent the last two days resting and painting. It was very nice. Billy Shelburn was there and she shared several techniques using watercolor, ink and tissue paper, all of which I will share here on my blog. You can go to the web site http://www.wildacres.org if interested in this wonderful non profit retreat for artists and educators.

Children’s toys

I love the look of glass and marbles offer the painter a chance to paint in primaries which can sometimes be fun!
This piece is on sale $30.00 4 by 6 inches

Southern Koi ll An aceo by Shanti Marie

This little gem is for sale at a very low price of $10.00 this is 5 dollars off the regular price for an ACEO.

1.00 for S&H

Painting ACEOs is a wonderful way to keep up your painting skills and also to work on your design skills. These small works cannot be filled with too many shapes or they easily become cluttered looking. It forces you to think more about the shapes and less about things.

“Koi in Motion” ACEO 2.5 by 3.5

15.00 plus 1.50 S&h

I ordered some new paper and was a little disappointed to find it wasn’t what I expected. After working with a few sheets I came up with this little gem that I felt was good enough to put on my blog. For any artist, their materials are very important and they don’t usually make too many changes once they have become familiar with them.

Non- painting folks think if you can paint on one surface you should be good with almost any other surface. This isn’t always the case.

Since watercolor works with the absorbency rate of the paper, this needs to be consistent or you won’t produce the same result when you go from one paper to the next. When starting out with this new paper, I had to paint another small painting to “test” the paper.
Then I allowed it to dry before checking to see how glazes worked and found it had a few quirks. Usually I try to work with its limitations and explore what it does best, then go in that direction.

This is always a good idea before committing yourself to a large piece. You can avoid a few hours of frustration.

A frosty night, trees in a landscape at night

11 by 7 60.00

I painted these trees using Friskit and waited for it to dry then painted the background, allowed that to dry, then pulled off the friskit and
dry-brushed the trees. Its a great way to paint tress at night or birch trees. The colors used in the background are ultramarine blue with purple and sometimes mixed with green. These colors are mixed in several puddles of color and painted on so that they merge together. The lighter areas of the background are lifted color, while still damp, use tissues to lift off color.

Storm approaching, a landscape watercolor

4 inches by 4 inches $30.00

This landscape painting, painted with colors I love to use. The green with the brown also the pink and the blue, They seem to play off of each other and enhance one another.

Woodland’s Light

15 by 22 $500.00 watercolor on paper.

I have been so busy I haven’t had the energy to paint these last few days. I have posted an older painting I painted earlier last year.
It was part of a series of paintings of woodlands. Specifically the ground cover and flora one finds growing on the ground under the tall trees and in the woods. Its amazing how many wild flowers grow in the woods where ever light peeks thru. This is hot press paper and it gives the piece a look which is a bit different from the cold press paper. The hot press paper doesn’t have any bumps or texture, you can’t really stroke the paint too much either. Yo have to put it down and leave it alone, other wise the paper seems to lose its vibrancy right away. Its a bit more difficult (you have to paint fast or think ahead) to soften edges as you go because the paint sinks right into the paper before you have a chance to go back and change things.

Lost Soul

15 by 22 $200.00

This painting is of a russian woman. Her image kept creeping into my mind and I finally had to paint her. She has these little eyes which are very intense.

“Tiny Acorns” 6 by 9 watercolor on paper

This small painting is for sale for $50.00, the size is 6 by 9. Its a watercolor on paper.

I would like to say I painted this today but I didn’t. I had so many chores and since Art is home now and I take him to physical therapy and take care of him. Then at the end of the day when he went to sleep, I stopped by the art league to talk up the workshop. It was ten PM when I got home and too tired to paint. This painting was painted last year and was not sold. It has been in my flat files and I really like it and may keep it if no one buys it. I think it will look great in a nice mat.

Starched Shirt

$30.00 7 by 9
This little sketch is a 10 minute sketch of a young woman named Michelle. Michelle is an excellent model. Her tattoo is hard to ignore and I find it makes this drawing.

Fall on the River

This little gem is 4 by 6 and is watercolor on 300 lb paper. $50.00

Today was our first fall day and I have commemorated this day with a little fall painting.

“Rolling Hills Vineyard” watercolor 4 by 6

$50.00

4 by 6 painting of a vineyard. Bright green vineyards are a sign of spring.
I grew up around grapes and vineyards, there is a beauty to the vines and the symmetry of the rows. What most folks don’t know is they are full of spiders, lizards and the occasional snake.

Ancient ritual #24 an abstract painting a day

This 4 by 6 piece is watercolor on paper $50.00 Its an abstract painted for my Ancient Ritual series. I’m exploring how we as humans use ritual to mark the passing of time and events in our lives. These abstracts are painted with that in mind and as a means of expression of those events.

I used a pallette knife to paint the bottom portion.

Vibrant Red Flowers

This painting is another in a series of red paintings I have been doing of late. I don’t usually paint with red very much but it seems I can’t stop painting red subject matter. Also If your tired of the flowers, I can’t tell you why I have painted so many lately. Usually I paint a variety of subjects. Maybe there is a color therapist out there that can tell me if the red means anything.
BTW
This red is actually combinations of yellow, orange, red ,magenta, and green. Not all at once but in glazes…. colors built up so that some of the last color shines thru. When one layer dries, you paint another so that you get a glow. Building up the layers this way makes the color look like stained glass. The darkest dark is the magenta and green mixed together on the pallette.
The actual size of the painting is 8 by 12.        
This piece would look great with a large white mat. $200.00

A Watercolor Butterfly, painting a day

I painted two butterflies last night and thought it would be great to offer them to you two for the price of one… both are 4 by 6 and done in the drop in method. This is where the artist paints the butterfly in water then drops in the color allow the colors to run together and to fuse. Its fun to do and gives you very interesting mixes.   $ 50.00 plus shipping 5.50