Angels are amongst us

Mixed media ( oil) on mat board $50.00 plus S and H. I love this series and I’ve always believed in angels or guides or whatever their called in different religions and cultures. It seems I’ve always had someone looking out for me and its a good thing!

Koi Menagerie

2.5 by 3.5 mixed media on masonite, 25.00  Managery

Beautiful Earth 08.08.08

This abstract painting a day is 11 by 15 ” and is a painting in mixed media on gessoed watercolor paper $200.00..

The gesso gives it a bit of texture.

I think it fits today’s date and this months theme.  If you really look you can get the feeling of water drops.
Wow, it feels great to actually have my painting uploaded and on line before midnight.   I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately and I may actually get some sleep tonight!

 

Water Saving Tip: compost food rather than use the water wasting garbage disposal.

Ancient Ritual 125

Size 7 by 8 inches mixed media on gessoed masonite 45.00

This painting is part of my ancient ritual series. It’s an abstract series exploring the use of ritual to mark the passing of time and the events in our lives.  With the events in my life these past weeks, I would venture to guess this piece is in response to those feelings.

 

 

White on White ll

50.00 7 by 7 watercolor on gessoed panel

Obviously this is the companion piece to white on white.

I painted a Koi today and I may keep it around for awhile. So… you may not see it till I’m sick of it. That way it can’t sell. Sometimes an artist likes to keep a painting around just to look at, and with this painting a day blog I never know which ones will sell so if I want to live with a painting for a while I’ve learned not to post it. With my luck the only painting that will sell that week will be the one I want to keep. Go figure. Anyway… Many of you like my florals so I’ll paint a few more. For years I painted flowers and I studied them, photograph them, their shape, the way their petals turn, the light as it passes thru their leaves all that and more.  I don’t usually paint them realistically anymore but on occasion I ‘ll get the old itch to paint some flowers and its usually in the spring.

 

I hope you enjoy them while they last.

Angel Falls ll

3 inches by 6 inches watercolor and Gesso on Illustration board. $30.00

This painting has a sense of serenity and movement.
Happy New Year!

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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collage mixed media abstract

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!

“Open Water” mixed media on illustration board

SOLD

11 by 15 mixed media on illustration board $50.00

“WAITING” a mixed media on illustration board … figures

6″ by 6″  $70.00

Have you ever been in the city and you come out of a restaurant or a theater and its raining? The reflective color bouncing off the street, lights and signs is incredible. It will almost blind you or mesmerize you.

“Looking in” an abstract mixed media

5.5 by 5.5 Mixed midia on Illustration board $50.00 $5.50 S & H
This small abstract has beautiful colors and is simple but powerful.