Spring Flower Fall

Spring Flower Fall

Contemporary Sumi-e by Casey Shannon

This image was created using sumi (ink) and watercolor painted on Shuen Paper (Xuan Paper). What is Shuen Paper you might ask? It is Chinese rice paper. Rice paper is the brush painter's canvas. Mastering the way ink behaves on the different rice papers is one of the essential skills of the brush painter. There are basically two kinds of rice paper -- raw paper and sized paper. Shuen Paper (Xuan Paper) is raw paper and the most popular paper in China among brush painters and calligraphers. It is the most sensitive of the rice papers, cheerfully displaying dynamic strokes and complex shade variations with translucent fluidity and original spontaneity. These tiny pink flowers grow abundantly on the hillsides in Carmel in the Spring and cascade in the wind like pink waterfalls. 

The original sumi-e has been SOLD.
However you can purchase beautiful art prints at

Casey Shannon Fine Art

Casey Shannon Studio

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Be Here Now

Be Here Now
Sumi-e by Casey Shannon

Jon Kabat-Zinn asks 'Can you be here now, wherever you are?' Interesting and very important question. Is this a wake up call for each of us? Zinn says 'the bell of mindfulness tolls in each moment, inviting us to come to our senses, reminding us that we can wake up to our lives, NOW, while we have them to live'.

We live in a very fast paced and somewhat unhealthy world. I find it difficult to 'be here now' in every moment. However, when I am painting I come very close to attaining that divine presence. Or, when I am meditating, I also find myself solidly in the present moment.

There is a Japanese Proverb:
'Now is a gift, that's why they call it the present'

The sumi-e you see above is called 'Be Here Now'. This image was inspiried by my personal journey into art. It was created after my mind preparation for painting. I saw this image vibrantly clear in my mind and needed to brush it to my paper. The original painting is for sale in Gallery Spirit. Fine Art Reproductions are available here. You may purchase an art print only or you can finish your print right on the website with a mat and frame of your choice.

Casey Shannon Studio

Winter

Winter

We are entering the beautiful season of Winter. It can be lovely with it's starkness in colors of black and tones of gray.

This elegant sumi-e is called simply 'Winter'. Media: Sumi (ink) and Japanese watercolor. This image was inspired by the dying of nature in wintertime to make way for the new growth of Spring. Since I was a child, the season of Winter has fascinated me with it's beauty and also frightened me with it's power.

The original painting of 'Winter' was sold. However, you may still purchase Fine Art Reproductions in my Sumi Gallery at Imagekind and art prints from my Zazzle Gallery. You can also professionally finish your reproduction with your choice of frame and mat at both these locations. I would be honored if you would take a look at what is possible. Thank you!

Casey Shannon Studio

Returning to Watercolor--Briefly

Abstract Waterfall

What fun! A little playing with watercolor. I decided the other day to post a watercolor on this blog. Not my present medium but a medium I dearly love and have created with extensively in the past. It's fun to play with paints and colors and just let your mind go! Another way to enter 'a journey into art'.

Sumi-e (my current medium and breath of life) for me is serious business. A meditation and very spiritual experience. Having a little fun with watercolor was very refreshing for me. It was a return to art days past. I will dabble in watercolor from time to time. I enjoyed it. I wonder if the fairies might play and sing by my waterfall?

This image is called Abstract Waterfall and was inspired by the beauty of nature and the spirit of water. Water is ever changing. It is pure. And, it can speak to us words of wisdom, if we slow down long enough to listen and contemplate. A babbling brook is so peaceful. A waterfall is magic. The ocean is power. Rain is cleansing. Water--we can not live without it nor would we ever want to.

A ZEN POEM
A sudden shower-
I am riding naked
On a naked horse.
~ Issa Kobayashi