Lisa

traditional watercolor on paper 11 by 15 $200.00

I’ve been working on my web site….. so… if any of you have been trying to access it…. it is down for now. I’ll try to have it back up ….say this weekend.

Day at the beach

7 by 10 watercolor on watercolor paper $50.00

This is part of my dog series. I’ve been painting groups of dogs looking out at the skyline for a few months now. I guess you can say its a series. Some things aren’t planned but they can be a lot of fun. I’ve had a bit of fun painting these pups.

Probably its because I like dogs and I “know” their mannerism so its easy for me to see these dogs carrying on a conversation amongst themselves. I can only imagine what they would say. One line that always comes up is…. “do you think we ought to tell him he’s adopted?”

I know I have a sick sense of humor.

have a nice day…

Ocean Wave

4 by 6SOLD  $25.00 

I painted two of these yesterday, not that I was overly motivated, in fact I started out the day with no real idea as to what to paint.  I have a commissioned piece  ( a large one) I want to start but I have to cut the paper from my 10 foot roll and that means asking my husband for help and clearing everything off my painting table.   Not wanting to get that started, I decided I would paint my daily painting and get it out of the way before getting out the big roll of paper which will take over my entire small 11 by 12 foot space space. 

Lately I have been painting snow scenes and I thought of painting another one but wasn’t overly thrilled with that.  I decided to clean up my painting area.  You know, sometimes this helps… Its like getting the cob webs clear from your mine… getting organized also makes painting easier once you have decided what to paint.

 

I made a cup of hot chocolate and took a look around…  dog hair dust bunnies clung to the corners of my walls and corners of the room like people at a meeting when volunteers are asked to step forward.  Oh yes, did I mention I love books and as a visual person I love looking at anything with pictures… so of course  there are old newspapers, magazine articles, piles of reference books, art books, and my own photographs all just lying about taking up space, space I definitely will need.

 

  I decided to just dig  in and clean, pick up and throw away so I started in at the bottom… I swept, then I took out the trash…  working my way up… I cleaned up my table by throwing away the used Kleenex, candy wrappers, (yes I like to suck on mints or candy when I paint) and misc napkins or scraps of paper I draw on. I took the wet towels to the washing machine, put away stray palette knives and pin knives, cleaned my brushes, and laid them out to dry… got my water buckets filled,&  squeezed out fresh paint ( don’t ask me why, but this always gives me a bit of a trill) into my palette and got some paper out and of course looked down at the white paper with a “what now?”  

 

This sometimes happens to all artists, especially if you have a deadline to paint a painting every single day. I decided to look thru some books. Hoping for some inspiration. I was looking thru a book a pal of mine lent me about oceans and beautiful beaches all over the world and I realized I love the way water looks… not beaches but the actual water itself, its reflective qualities, color, shape, movement, it all intrigues me. The first surface that I thought of to use was clay board because water on clay board is very slippery and no matter what you do it always looks wet.  After doing one wave ( posted yesterday) I did another using alcohol for the white. Alcohol when spritz on (or dropped in) pushes water away from the surface exposing the surface of the paper or in this case the clay board. It has a very natural appearance and is usually very circular in shape.  I use this natural shape to make the wave look foamy It dries very fast and leaves the white area of your paper for you to reintroduce more color or just to leave as is.

 

If you have any questions about the use of alcohol just write to me and I can explain its application further. 

The Struggle

Most artists struggle. Either they can’t seem to get down their vision of what they want or they don’t know what they want, (they’ll know it, if they see it). I think this struggle is part of the process. Its too bad because of this constant push/ pull it sometimes seems not to be worth the effort. Its why some people give up doing their art. Also, I see people giving up their art because they don’t have enough buyers. Buyers equate “good artist”. No buyers (not counting family and friends) means not a good artist. This definitely is not the case.

We live in an age when people will buy a Persian rug for their dining area, cover their sofa in silks, and import tiles from Italy to decorate their home tastefully and expensively, yet these same people will have pictures of art rather original art on every wall in their house. They will pay more for a custom frame and mat then for an original piece of art. Go into any model home these days, same thing, prints everywhere. (Please, I have nothing against prints.. so don’t write me justifying your print purchases) Most from 18th and 19th century artists. I guess they feel pretty good or safe rather, that this art cannot be denied as good art. It has stood the test of time. The truth is… I think people don’t trust their own judgement when it comes to choosing art. They need someone to tell them what is good art. All they have to do is trust their inner voice that says “I love this” but they don’t trust that little voice so they listen to experts…But who? do you trust Gallery owners? Especially when they are getting 50% of the profits? Do you trust your own decorator who is going to choose a piece of art because it matches a sofa? You have to admit, even I may not pay some of the high prices for some art, especially when it appears to have been painted with a stick or a rag. People don’t like to be taken advantage of and they don’t like to admit they don’t “know” art. The other problem is a simple one, people don’t appreciate original art in the US as much as in many other cultures around the globe. Now as in the past, Art was OK as long as it was something to do as a hobby but not as a career. It isn’t real work. We have a very strong work ethic in this county and some parents often put creativity in the back seat while encouraging productive hard work, left brain thinking.

So, if we don’t buy original art and we encourage our kids to do anything but become artists, and we don’t support the arts in schools what we are we saying?

Its no wonder today’s artists may feel as though it isn’t worth the effort, that the struggle to produce good art is just that, a struggle. As an artist I’ll remind you, of a few important things.

1. Its takes a very long time to become proficient at something as complex as art.
In fact, if it were easy, would you still even want to do it?

2. Don’t take the advice from lay people. They won’t help you, even if they have good intentions.

3. Be a lifelong student, don’t plan to figure it all out right now. It really is about the journey not the destination. Its a journey for one, just you.

4. Do whatever you enjoy doing, even if no one buys it. Hey, its cheaper than therapy.

Studio Tour

Here I am sitting for a minute before I start the painting…..probably wondering what will I paint next. Often, I plan, plan plan, but once I start, I usually forget the plan and just let the painting decide what it wants to be.

 

 Here are some small pieces of paper waiting for me to just get a few minutes to start a painting.    I think I was gessoing these .. I usually do the priming in an assembly line  because it can get messy. 

I don’t like to store all of my seldom used items in my painting area preferring to keep it tidy. Especially since My painting area is small.
Behind all these completed paintings are several things, a big box of mat board, slides, a light box and related equipment ( some things I can’t seem to throw out even though I haven’t used them in years) and framing supplies. Also framed bios which are ready to be hung with my photo for outdoor festivals or street shows.

I have a small TV in my work area that I can watch. Often I will watch DVDs or videos of other artist’s painting or giving instruction. Its a good way to learn and its very easy to trade DVDs or videos with other artists so you can always have something new to see and possibly learn a new trick of the trade.

This is a walk in closet that I keep most of my frames and also larger framed paintings.   Many of these paintings are stored here after being in a show or in a gallery.   As you can see…  I also store my Bike here to keep it dry and clean.

Here is a sneak peek at many of my small paintings just waiting for someone like you to buy.  They are stored flat and by size. I have four big drawers full of Daily painting.

This is my little area that I use to pretty much do everything from painting to shipping.  The green cabinet straight ahead is of course my flat files with all of my stored paper which I buy in bulk, all of my customer information and my daily paintings, also many larger works and drawings.  I got this flat file at a newspaper that I used to work for because as most of you know newspapers now use computers. Of course I’m old enough to remember when back in the day they did something called “cut and paste ” these files were used to store all of their materials for this job.  These flat files became obsolete and if your lucky, you’ll get one for next to nothing from your local paper. These large files are sold for $500.00 in most artist’s catalogs.   On top of the flat files is my mat cutter ( I highly recommend the Logan 650) but from this distance you can’t see it very well… also along the sides of the flat file are stored all types of supports and foam core.  My router is on top of the flat file and my computer is across the room on a small table I use to package the paintings and get them ready to ship out.

This  large cabinet is full of art books, sketch books,  video tapes  and DVDs of art instruction and art history books.  I really love these books and go thru them on a regular basis.  

This is a photo of my daily painting table with my dog SAM lying underneath.  I have three large dogs and there is always one under the table as I’m painting.  
If you go to watch my video on Utube this part of the video is bascically black because it’s evening and a black dog in the dark is a dumb thing to video unless of course he opens his eyes.

This is a table I use for pressing the daily paintings. I also do most of my own framing and matting for the watercolor paintings.  I will usually send out larger works for shows but most smaller paintings I’m comfortable with matting and framing myself if I have time. The square item at the-top right is what I use to flatten out the small paintings. I place the painting right side down in between paper towels inside the little press. Then I use books or heavy objects to keep it weighed down till it drys.. the final result is a perfectly flat painting, ready to mat. All you need are two boards connected with a hinge. This was my brother’s idea, I used to just put a lot of books on top of the paintings which were placed inside of paper towels.

My cat is my best critic… she watches  and comments..  Everyone’s got an opinion!

I had a plan to up load a video with music or some fancy editing but as luck would have it no time… so if you would like to see my work space you can go to YOU TUBE and I uploaded a soundless video of my painting space you can look for it by going to youtube.com and putting in “Shantiartist” and my studio tour should come up. I was really under the gun today so I didn’t have time to really put much together. I hope you have enjoyed this slice of my life and a view of my work area. 

 HERE IS MY PAINTING FOR TODAY….  DID YOU THINK I WOULD FORGET?
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Heron of the South

Special of the week.  SOLD

This small painting is for sale for $25.00 plus 5.5 S & H

Approx. size is 5 by 6 Sale starts at midnight on 17th… go to http://www.dailypainters.com to buy with pay pal.

I hate to throw out paintings and after showing someone how to paint this type of background I decided to try to save this painting and went ahead and painted in the bird and the foreground. Its not the best composition…. but… it will do. Unfortunately my last painting, a koi…was a bit wet when I placed it on the scanner, so those orange spots on this painting are not actually on the painting but on the scanner screen.

  Quick lesson…
Here’s how you do this background, you choose a couple of warm colors and a couple of cool colors like blue, purple for the cool and burn’t sienna, & sepia for the warm…..then you paint the background in various mid values using a flat paint brush in a vertical stroke. This vertical stroke will also create a horizon line, be sure not to devide your painting in half by placing the horizon line high or lower than the middle. When the paper has lost its shine, pull out some trees and limbs with a pin knife or palette knife.
Last, you will darken some areas, and when all is dry glaze over ( yellow) certain pulled out areas to create lighter and brighter areas that will also create interest and posssibly a secondary focal point.

“Wet and wild” Seascape

SOLD

This is the special of the week.

$25.00 plus 5.5 for shipping. SOLD

I think my scanner is dirty so I’ll take it apart and clean the glass, its because I put these paintings up right after I finish them & sometimes the paint is still a bit wet.

This is watercolor and gesso on clayboard. It’s varnished and can be hung without glass.

Abstract by Shanti Marie

SOLD
This is 5 by 7 $ 25.00 plus 1.00 s&h
This painting is from my ancient ritual series which is exploring the way we mark time thru events of ritual in our lives. This is acrylic.

“Koi Buddies” ACEO, watercolor

2.5 by 3.5 ACEO of two Koi $13.00 plus 1.00

When I went to the koi show last weekend there were several Koi which you could tell had been hand fed. They kept looking up at me and following me around the edge of their small tank. I believe in hopes to get some grubb. Of course, I couldn’t feed these show Koi but they didn’t know that. They were very amusing to watch as their big eyes followed my movements.

“Open Water” mixed media on illustration board

SOLD

11 by 15 mixed media on illustration board $50.00

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.

Sailing

3 by 5 30.00

As I was driving across the Buster Boyd bridge today I saw a little sailboat. It made me think of the kids at summer camp and learning to sail. I never went to summer camp but my friends all say they loved learning how to sail, it does seem like a fun thing to do.

Here in SC the day was a bit Hazey and the weather was very hot. I wondered if there was enough wind to actually sail but for the moment there appeared to be just enough.

BIG WAVE

4 by 6 $30.00
I’m still very sick… since I painted beach scenes the last two days, I painted this little 4 by 6 of a Big Wave. One of the good things about being a daily painter, you can paint certain subject matter relying mostly on the intellect rather then the intuitive. Believe me this can get you out of a jam. Most people think you can paint when your ill…to paint and under any condition ….that it isn’t a difficult thing for us artists, but you don’t realize the amount of brain power it takes… if you do, you don’t push it. You paint what you know.
4 by 6 inches $ 30.00 watercolor on paper,

Father’s day at the beach

4 by 6 watercolor on paper $30.00