Day 1012  more extreme journaling graffiti 

Update: A lot more white now. I actually colored it a lot with a white neocolor ii to get it this bright. I thought I might have to break out the gesso. So this is it for now.  

I ripped strips of tape off the face on the left when I was at USCA today. Still have to fix that one. 

Odd how it looks like an old peeling wall. 

Update!! The page til after I eat dinner.  
Hmmm this is a page to the ancestors. I used white because that’s the color the Chinese use for death and venerated ancestors which is part of what this page is about. 

 Not done yet.  Who knows where it will end.  It’s already changed since I took this picture. 

I added white paint and stamped some More.  Scribbled and scrapped some more. 

Funny things happen when you do these pages. Call it serendipitous ESP or who knows maybe it’s the ancestors doings?  


My friend Marsha and I were looking at this spread at breakfast this morning.  I was making a list of things to add to the book.  Into my pea brain popped eyes on the house where the three little boys are. Almost simultaneously out of Marshas mouth popped out an evil eye on the house. Strange but true. 

At this point to was just too busy. No focus. No place to rest the eye. I came home and started painting white acrylic on it which was pink.  Not easy to paint over caran dache which is water soluble. 

I also stamped some more.  Can’t get enough stamping.  And scribbled with the 6B lead and scratching layers off with scissors.  

Ttyl mArvaret on the way to Boone. Xoxo Charles Reid here I come. Xoxoxo 

Day 1011 Life Modeling aka Its Saturday 

Life model Andrea 2×3′ today #acrylic #acrylicpainting #allaprima #lifemodeling #portrait #aikensc #augustaga #notquitedone #nude

Forty minutes in. After a restart. Decided to whack her legs off. All the guys joked that I had her most important parts. 😳😕
Second break 80 minutes?


Marilyn Hartley’s lovely sketch. She didn’t get quite done.

 We short people have a problem seeing the model when Al lays her out on top of the plinths.  Like me Marilyn is short. We can barely see anything but a very narrow view. 

Kathe Dennis beautiful crayons sketch. 

Tom Needham’s watercolor

Rachel Millers lovely watercolor. 

Al Beyer A huge oil

Drew Murphys beautiful acrylic


Ilaina Van Pelt our usual models awesome oil. She’s really doing great. Look at Those feet!! Awesome job. 

Margaret madly packing. CHeap Joe’s and Charles Reid tomorrow. Hurrah. 

Xoxoxo

Day 1011 Some Grafitti aka Extreme Journaling

Well let’s hope I don’t accidentally delete this post this time. ROUND TWO!! 

This is the assignment for week five of the Juliana Coles The Book of the Night class.  Based on the Persephone Demeter Greek Myth.  As usual first we journaled. Then I painted it out.  


And I painted collaged and stamped it.  


I added some red paint wiping it off and some purple on the spring side. 


Added the white lettering with caran dache neocolor ii and scribbled on it some of the neocolors. 

I also used my new favorite toy a 6B lead that I bought at Cityart last Thursday for $1.29. They have a storefront and gallery in the Vista. 


The lettering on the leaves was done with the lead.  I also enhanced the skulls in Hades on the bottom right with the caran dache neocolor iis. They didn’t show enough 


Then I added some more red to the wrap on the girl on the left. I was hoping it would add to the flames of hades.  Not sure it did But it’s done for now.  

Ttyl. packing one more day til I leave for Charles Reid class. Margaret xoxoxox 

Day 1010 Bits and Bobs

I painted this a while back and never got around to posting him.  An older gentleman enjoying his kindle or his iPad in the window of the Inner Bean. I have painted that light several times. It alway eludes me. MAybe tomorrow when I meet Marsha there forBrunch?! 

Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

That light. I coated it with Quin gold first. Then cerulean.  Probably the color that got me into trouble. It’s opaque.  I think the shadow is Daniel Smith piemonite with ultramarine blue. Love piemonite.  

Two days til Boone!!! And Charles Reid.  Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1009 Those Bots 

I am just in love with the bots this Clark Ellefson makes. The whole studio was just incredible. It’s like a house on one side and a garage workshop on the other. A junkers paradise of metal bits and bobs oozing off shelves. Evidently he also makes post modern furniture too. 

The Bots at Lewis and Clark just ooze charm. Part of the fun is identifying what they are made up of. Your old lunch box or the gas can everyone had and still does in your garage.  

Even the business card is adorable and so creative.  And he’s on instagram. MUST Folow him. 

This is his wine dispenser. Not sure I would

Ever drink wine out of an old lacquer can but George did and he’s still alive.  

The Altoid bots. $45-90 each. These are also magnetized so they hang around on metal. 

These were my favorite bots with the ET lunch box and light up bottom. I took a lot of pictures of them. This is the front. 

The back.  All those things below them are the paper lamp shades you can see lit on lamps in this photo. 

Did I say I want?!  You can also see the fun funky background of the studio. Aren’t the lamps greatmasses together?! And the lunch box display. So creative. See it up on the wall top left?! 
These are the girlbots like the one on the business  card. Sorry for the bad photo but hard to take one with all the back lighting. These run around $250 each. 

I need one.  😳🤗

Glass robot and a funky lite. 

Robot sketches already framed in what I think are bridge card boxes.  Who woulda thought?! 

More robot sketches.  

Such fun.  

That gas can.  

A side view of my two favorites.  
A fun assortment.  Guess we need to start saving those spice cans.  

Et robot again. 

And again.  I did say I liked it. Right?! 


More bots. 

Details of those above. 


I really want one of these. Maybe I should start a kick starter. Don’t you want to buy one for me. Lol.  

Margaret off to tune her car up. On Charles Reid class at Boone count down.  Four more days. Xoxoxo and dr Sketchys tonite.  YEAHHHHH

Day 1008 Vista Studios and a robot or two! 

The home studio of my favorite Columbia artist Laura Spong. Amazing woman still painting at 91! 

Click on this link to see more of her art. She does fabulous abstracts. Supported herself since the 60s with it. A major coupe in Columbia. 

Heidi Darr Hope I think. Fantastic shrine. Also at the Vista Studio 

Kirkland Smith. He was on these street electrical boxes. 

These were in the Vista Studio. Just made from assorted cheap plastic junk but collages into a picture. 

Up close it looks like junk but from a distance like Marilyn it has quite the impact. 

A few Robot teasers from Lewis and Clark Studio. On Huger. 

This was my absolute fav place. 
I really need one.  Somebody buy one for me please.  

Ttyl book club night.  More robots tomorrow. LOTS More. M in a hurry. Xoxo 

Day 1007 All About the Raisin or is it Horses!?

If this painting of Raisin looks familiar it is. I started her last summer. I had also started a large watercolor earlier of the same photo when Al coopted it for an acrylic for school.  He didn’t like the other photo I suggested. 

Then she hung around the Aiken art studio waiting to have a few problems resolved like the upper corner and th iPhone. 

Before you think I am obsessing over my friend Raisin the third photo is a study for the large full sheet watercolor and I really want to finish it after spending all day sketching it. 

I decided to add the horse her Freisian Harley when I was taking Peggi Habits class in Charlotte and make the painting the Raisin story. She loves to ride and she loves her Freisian Harley.  

I am meeting Harley soon but used a photo of a Freisian I took at the flat track races last month. Friesians are all big black and just gorgeous. Fairy tale horses with big curly manes and tails. 


Here’s what it looked like before the gesso!! 

I gessoed out the whole upper left -the picture frame and the iPhone that was in her hand in the original photo. 

Then Al dissed the horse idea. WHAT?!! Too late. The gesso had done its work. 

The photo from our Knoxville painting trip. 


Here’s the watercolor study. The Freisian is too small. Bigger next time. It’s about 10×15″ Why do big? 

I swore I would never do another tiny horse after doing this one last month. He may look great but he took HOURS ago do. Way too long for an 8×10″ painting. 

What u say next time?! Still have that big watercolor to do. I only spent most of a day drawing it. And I AM going to paint it. Third times the charm right?! 

Margaret whose hungry and going to eat. 

Ttyl xoxoxo

Day 1006 The ArtistaVista!!

The Vista is an artist area down near the old rehabbed train station on Gervais in Columbia SC. Thursday – Friday they had an art crawl and studio open house on Thursday in the galleries including a shuttle bus for those not up to walking. 

All the galleries we visited.  We walked FOUR miles that evening. 

Red Wimmer One of Those Days Mixed Media $2300 

Ginny Bojanowski asked if anyone wanted to go to the vista tonite at luck Thursday something I have had on my bucket list for five years so I said YES despite teaching my first watercolor class the next day. 

Two hours later we were off! We started at City Art on Lincoln which has a wide assortment of eclectic art for sale and Also a terrific art supply store and also online seller. 

Red Wimmer Sideways Glance Mixed Media $600

Loved these!! 

I had to talk to City Art owner Randy who Charles Reid recommends for art supplies for his classes. I told Randy I would tell Charles hi for him next week in Boone.  It always makes them both light up when I tell one or the other he said hi! CHarles does not do any technology. Since he’s a little deaf I doubt he deals with the phone either.  

I didn’t take a lot of photos as we hit every gallery. 


This one gives me food for thought at that price. Have to talk to Randy about my sketches!!  

Risk into Buckhead    Bruce Nehsmith Graphite and Carbon on paper $1000


Tiger Woods and baseball players. Interesting combo. 

Loved these mixed media sketches.

Obviously Alex enjoys altering his drawings as much as I do!!


Huge and a good price for frames large art. 

Alex Powers

Alex Powers 


Alex Powers 

Multiple baseball images and all were great like this one. 

More of his work. Always hard to take pics thru that plastic. 

These are all at Cityart. 

We walked across the street to If Gallery. Smaller but another great eclectic assortment of art. My two favs were Laura Spong and Leo Twiggs both whom I have long admired.  

Laura has supported herself and her children since her divorce in the 60s by painting. She was a housewife with no means of support when she started. Now her paintings sell for thousands. 

Leo Twiggs was an art prof at SC State and a batik artists. Gorgeous work both of them. 

On to the next gallery tomorrow – the Vista Studios. 

Ttyl Margaret packing for Boone so I don’t schlepp everything I own.  

Day 1005 Its Saturday

Been a while since I have been on Saturday and I got off to a rocky start. This is not quite finished. Because I started over after the first forty minutes I ran out of time. 

And now that I look at this one she’s too far to the left. I may just gesso over her. We shall see. 

I still have to finish her hands. I don’t know why I didn’t. 

Maybe I was just having too much fun slathering on paint. There s a heavy impasto on this Emily. And lots of what Al calls goobers lumps of acrylic. 

Earlier. 

After first break. She was still damp so I just wiped her out and started over. 

Colors used Indian yellow, thalo blue, titanium white, liquitex flesh, burnt umber, burnt sienna. 

Al Beyer. Gorgeous small oil for him. 2×3′

Coach’s nice charcoal

Kathe’s scratchy conte and pastel. Love these. 
Another Kathe. 

Tom Needham had a good day with his watercolor. 


Like me Drew had troubles today.


And Rachel’s sweet charcoal. 

And that’s it.  Ttyl

Margaret off to the polo matches tomorrow. 

Day 1004 The Morris and James Michalopoulos

There were three interesting new exhibits at the Morris.  The two I have posted and Hopper like photos of Alabama. 

One was by New Orleans oil painter  James Michalopoulos filled with bright colors and whacky odd ball angles. 

His titles were often funny like the first title I posted. Unthinkin in My Lincoln. Obviously he loves old cars. 

While the cars were great his paintings of the New Orleans houses were my favorites. Lots of Thick paint. 

Definitely an exhibit an urbansketcher can enjoy. 

Enjoy!!