This painting is in oil on gallery wrap and still wet so it tends to reflect back into the camera, It looks better then this (really). I guess I’ll have to wait till the paint dries and re post it.
I like painting birds and I love these small little hummers, especially when they visit my Heavenly Blue Morning Glories,
I have painted so many hummingbirds over the years. Now, I find myself painting them a little different each time. I guess in hopes of giving them some individuality.
I love these little guys. They don’t usually show up in SC until April but their arrival is always marked by a lot of noisy tweeting or chattering. If you have a feeder you know these guys can be very talkative.
Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time carrying our hopes for love, joy, and celebration.
The Hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life’s sweetest creation.
This little humming bird was inspired by my daughter, Amy. It has the look of her Tattoos. Its 6 by 6 inches painted in watercolor on paper. This little guy is a bit stylized and different from the many hummingbirds I’ve painted in the past. I hope you like it. Yo may use this image if you make sure to give me credit for the painting.
I had a bit of a headache last night and even though I had plenty of paintings to post I forgot to post one.
This is one of the Koi I painted last week. Its painted on heavily textured Masonite and it gives the painting a nice effect which looks like moving water.
This morning I went down to the boat ramp with my dogs and the wind was really blowing, I gingerly stepped along the Rip Rap of rock along the water’s edge, trying not to fall into the lake. while the dogs sniffed the rocks I looked out over the water and saw a small sail boat with a brightly colored sail. I’m not much of a sailor but I do enjoy seeing the boats on the water because they have such a great profile.
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…
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.
4 by 6 watercolor on paper $12.00 Special of the week. 5.0 S & H priority mail
We had a very nice Christmas dinner, (I cooked, call Ripley’s believe it or not). We didn’t even have to call the fire department!
I have been asked about my methods for flattening out watercolor paintings after they have dried. Its an easy process and I think the paintings are so much more appealing.
There are times when your have painted with a lot of water and your paper has buckled. This is easy to fix. I don’t usually tape down my paper especially for these small paintings. Often they don’t need flattening, but if they do, time is of the essence when you’re painting at least one painting a day. I’m like most folks and anything to save me a few minutes helps. Taping or stapling paper is just another chore, so I just don’t do it most of the time. If my paper becomes warped I flatten it back out with a press.
You don’t have to have a press you can just use two pieces of form-core
(or anything flat, like wood, or gator board), but since I’ve been asked about my press, I’ll show you how it works. It can be made rather easily by putting a hinge on two pieces of wood. This one is specifically for small paintings since it only measures 11 by 14. Using piano hinges is also a good idea, this one has regular hinges.
You can see the bottom board is larger than the top board, both are plywood. The bottom board is marked off with tape where the painting should sit. The top is just plywood too, but to make sure the plywood doesn’t stain the painting, I’ve taped mat board to the top board.
You place some paper towels on the bottom piece of plywood, place your painting face down, moisten the back of the painting lightly, place more towels on top of the painting and close the top.
I hope you enjoyed this little explanation .
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?
<a 
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.
SOLD
This is not a daily painting but one I started awhile back. I knew I wanted to put a bird into the scene but wasn’t sure what should go into the water.
I’m really influenced by conversations with other people. Like most artists I’ll let things creep into my subconscious they will sit there for awhile but finally I find the images must come out. When I was packing up my paintings for the mail tomorrow, I saw this painting which I had set aside. Sometimes this happens because I’ll start a painting and I just don’t have the right or complete idea to make the painting successful. Then just when I have an idea brewing I’ll pull out one of these “starts” and the image will fit!
Sometimes you just need the right thing to spur on your creativity. Thank you Barbara! I have a good friend, Barbara and she was talking about blue herons and how her bedroom has blue Herons as a theme, I starting seeing Blue Herons everywhere, of course….I do live near a lake. Anyway, this made me want to paint a blue Heron for her as a gift, I painted Lake Wylie blue Heron and sent it to her last week… but for some-reason, that wasn’t enough…I didn’t want this one to be as realistic. I wanted it to be more fantasy. Not knowing what I was to paint tonight… I was looking thru some reference material of Blue herons and came across a pretty good looking bird that I thought I could exaggerate and it would fit right into this fantasy forest painting. I had painted this painting some time back and never put in the bird or whatever, I wasn’t even sure I would put in a bird. I do love the light and the colors on these types of paintings. They aren’t for everyone but the use of exaggerated color is something that I like a lot. My daughter Amy also likes these fantasy paintings too. What do you think?
SOLD
When I painted this sunset background I had no idea what the foreground would be. I was thinking of making a silhouette of trees because so often as I drive home I look thru the tall trees at the colors in the sky and I love the way the trees look especially the pines with their pointy shapes and needles. But I also love the hardwoods because they glow with the color of the sun and are usually much warmer. For some reason after I painted this one tree…something said… well now the dogs… so here are the dogs watching the birds at the end of the day.
This whimsical piece is still very beautiful with the wonderful golds and lavenders one of my favorite color combinations.
I was out mailing paintings to my collectors and there was this big bird in the tree across the street form the Post office. He seems to hardly notice me as I walked up to him and took his picture. When I tried to get closer, he flew under the scrub and thru the woods. He had brown striped feathers. My Husband says its a Cooper’s hawk… I don’t know what kind of bird it is but if you know for sure write to me.
I laughed out loud when I watched this… Thanks to David Darrow for pointing out this utube video. They have them on other topics too. I’ll never be able to sit with artists and discuss art again without thinking about the dog and his prints.
This is from my painting a week blog http://h20color.wordpress.com
15 by 22 SOLD I thought I would put it up so some of you daily art collectors could see some of my larger paintings.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
