By virtue of the rational interpolation procedure and logarithmic strain, a direct approach is proposed to obtain elastic potentials that exactly match uniaxial data and shear data for elastomers. This approach reduces the determination of multiaxial elastic potentials to that of two one-dimensional potentials, thus bypassing usual cumbersome procedures of identifying a number of unknown parameters. Predictions of the suggested potential are derived for a general biaxial stretch test and compared with the classical data given by Rivlin and Saunders (Rivlin, R. S. and Saunders, D. W. Large elastic deformation of isotropic materials. VII: experiments on the deformation of rubber. Phill. Trans. Royal Soc. London A, 243, 251–288 (1951)). Good agreement is achieved with these extensive data.