Watercolor on gessoed masonite $38.00, This piece is sealed so it may be framed without glass. I gessoed this and made the texture sort of go in a vertical pattern . I painted it Brown and Red and a Wine color. Then I pulled out the fish and painted their local color back into the spaces. I sprinkled water on the surface and pulled a towel across the surface which gave it a little bit of texture.
This isn’t 6 by 6 because my brother was cutting these boards for me and when this one went thru… I guess it got stuck and he had to recut it so the edge wouldn’t have a gouge. This artist thing isn’t as simple as painting a picture, there’s lots of prep work. I can see why artists had apprentices. I usually get my brother to do the cutting and sometimes he does the gesso work too.
Its been a busy day, I did books or about 5 or 6 hours and then I’ve been out cleaning the yard. Its spring and the trees look great with their new buds. I don’t have any excuse ( I hate cold weather) , Now that its warm, I have to get my porch cleaned off and my pots washed, you know the routine. I have a wood deck so I’ll pressure wash it and clean up my Terra-cotta pots, buy some potting soil for my flowers and work in my beds. I bought some seeds & I want to get them started so this summer I’ll have some flowers. It may take me a week cause I also have to clean up my brother’s place. I store stuff over there, he only lives across the street, boy, it seems like I need to get rid of some junk. I give the stuff to goodwill, of course, my accountant says I should get receipts for my goodwill donations but I never do. I guess I’ll take some things over and get one, if only just to make him happy.
This is a graphite drawing. 9 by 12 30.00 Lots of folks don’t know this but a horses eye has a capsule shape pupil. My daughter used to love horses and of course we had to buy her a white one. She loved it and named it Rosie. Her pedigree name was “Ta Sterling Rose” because she seem to have a lavender caste to her coat and resembled a lavender rose. But that was a bit too hoytie toytie for us so we shorten it down to Rosie. Amy was in 4H for a few years with her horse and believe it or not, goats. Yes I said goats, she raised a baby goat, had it bred and even sold it at market, which is a requirement. Of course after horses….boys came next and bye bye horse.
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.
This little painting is 5 by 5 inches and is painted in watercolor on Illustration board. I’m planning to paint a snow painting tonight for tomorrow’s painting so if your getting tire of all these fish, you can have a winter landscape for a change of pace.
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
This is a 6″ by 6″ watercolor on gessoed wood panel. $40.00 plus 5.5 for shipping.
to paint watercolors on wood:First you paint about three coasts of gesso onto the wood, allow it dry then you paint it with acrylic oils or watercolor. If you use watercolor you cannot use too much water as there isn’t as much absorbancey in the gesso as there is in paper. Finally you varnish it with watercolor fixative or acrylic varnish. It can be hung without glass.
This palette is one I was experimenting with, its a split complimentary more or less.
This is a bit out of focus, you can see it better in the middle of the grouping picture. $20.00 1.50 S & H SOLD
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I woke up at 4 am this morning to finish most of these. Some are painted on Watercolor paper some are on Masonite with Gesso…which tends to make them look like an oil painting or possibly an acrylic. All are standard ACEO size 2.5 by 3.5 I painted them this way ( all at once) so I could have some sort of continuity. Although I have to admit this is very difficult for me and I rather not try to paint them too much alike and allow each little painting to dictate what comes next. I ‘ve had several requests to have them look similar so they can be used in groupings, So…this is my determination: to try to get some painted in the same colors or color family so they coordinate with each other. We’ll see how I do, I hate to say it, but, I have difficulty in following instructions when it comes to my paintings. I’m too used to painting intuitively and can’t seem to remember to follow a plan too well.
The ACEOs on Masonite are a bit more expensive but they can be framed like an Oil or placed on an easel without fear of damage.
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.
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!
$40.00
An Abstract painting (4 by 6 inch Postcard size) of watercolor on paper. This little gem has a companion piece which I will put up soon. I like to paint two paintings at a time because it helps watercolorists to work this way and avoid overworking the paint.
I love this combination of warm colors with the cool colors.
If you like to name paintings, I would like suggestions for these abstacts.
This is 4 inches by 4 inches $50.00 and it has a companion piece, which I’ll put up tomorrow. I made this paper by painting watereddown acrylic over art tissue paper, letting it dry and then putting it in the blender with water till it turns into a slurry. I tore it and painted it onto 100 % rag watercolor paper. Then stained it with watercolor and finally, I covered it with gloss medium for the shine.
This landscape was painted this weekend. I kept adjusting the color combinations and feel now it is finished. At first I had a bit too much rust color in the grass. I love the color but it made the painting have too many focal points and appeared almost like fire. Also that grainy appearance isn’t on the painting, I’m not sure why shows up like that. If any of you have experience with this, let me know what I’m doing wrong.
5.75 by 5.75
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.
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