What’s better than hanging out with artists all weekend and painting on a perfect gorgeous spring weekend?? Not much!! I met some wonderful people who I am sure I will be seeing again.

Atlanta Sunday For sale! 9×15″ arches 280 lb cp

Waiting for the judges! 😱

I was pretty nervous when I set up not having come one of these events before. Only two hours to finish a watercolor from start to finish. I did have a sketch I had done the day before that I thought would work.

I have no idea WHY i loved the horizon line up. Since I had bought a frame the day before at Michaels- who knew everybody framed their work!? I was stuck with the size. I think cropping improved this painting greatly. Too bad I couldn’t do it before the judging yesterday but who had time. Two hours from start to finish true. Run set up your easel with the painting to be judged. I am just glad that the judges looked at it twice. And that I finished without messing the painting up!!

my set up for the day My straw hat a definite must for these events.

One of the invited artists relaxing or was she meditating before the quick paint.

Ed Cahills painting that won the blue ribbon, $400 and the right to be an invited artist next year. Evidently this is quite a prestigious event. Who knew?!

Eds painting was directly opposite mine. I spent a lot of time looking at it and was not surprised when he won. A gorgeous oil about two feet long.

Note to self next year try not to be opposite the winner because everyone looked at his painting of course instead of mine opposite his. Lol.

Ed’s a great guy. Be sure to check out his website.

Second place was given to this lovely pencil sketch of one the magnificent oaks in the park. The park is 105 years old so there are quite a few of them. The invited painters hung out a lot under this big oak near the artist village tents.

Vladislav Yeliseyevs gorgeous watercolor that won the invited artist quick paint blue ribbon. OH NO. This is NOT Vlads painting but was done by Richard Jewell. Still a really great watercolor.

Rainy Day by Vlad

Old Trucks by Vlad think this one might have the wrong tag.

Now that Charles Reid and Judy too are retiring I think I would like to take a class from Vlad. he’s Russian and quite interesting. Based in Sarasota I think.

Another invitees paintings. Wish I had taken a pic of the name. Just gorgeous light. Always surprised me all weekend how small Most of these paintings were. My quarter sheet was a BIG painting.

Scott Gellatly the Gamblin Rep from Portlands gorgeous oil. He was very generous with his time when I asked him about what Gamblin products would be good to use with my huge basket of oils languishing in the garage because the smells give me a headache. Thanks Scott!! Scott even told me to be sure to get his card and email him if I had any questions. Most of the artists were so generous with their time answering sometimes silly questions.

Yer Za Vues flower painting. Always tickles me that they painted so many flower arrangement paintings out at a plein air event. And not flowers on the bushes. Flower arrangements on the tables!!

Suzie Bakers lovely landscape of one of the Druid Hills mansions lining both sides of Deepdene Park. Why were they painting flowers!?

Plein air is typically landscape painting done outside and whoever is in them those landscapes.

What I learned!!

• Have a plan before the contest. Forarmed makes a better painting. I did base it on this sketch and should have kept the horizon line.
• Paint on a board and buy one of the JFM frames available at the event. All of the invitees use her wholesale prices frames starting at $23.

• Shade is good. My palette was drying out in the sun. Something that I have never had happen. The paint was getting thick and very sticky adding more stress to my day. You can buy the Holbein metal palette from Randy at Cityartonline. Tell him I sent you! It’s the one Charles Reid recommends for those who don’t want to pay $500 for a handmade Craig Young palette.
• I used Brenda Swanson’s list of outdoor sketching bag tips. Hr “table” and bag were great. I added my rolling bag cart still in my garage from before wheels suitcases were so widely available.
• Food in the bag is a must. I sadly watched the Petit rendezvous creperie truck pull off with my breakfast that I never got because I was too busy.

• Get a better chair or paint standing up line I do most of the time at home. The easel worked well for a cheap easel bought from amazon but I could use and upgrade to one of the fancy boxes the invited painters all had.
• Is This is a great placed tho sell paintings?! NOT so much. The invited artists alone produced 250 or so paintings. So only if you want to sell cheap.
• Paintings are tiny or small. A 16×20 would be a HUGE painting at one of these events. And a lot were postcard sized.
• Going to try this again. The plein air event was a lot of fun. These invited people travel to one or two of these events every month. Susie Bakers Plein Air event schedule Think I will try to doSC watermedia is doing one in Newberry Sc May 15. And Ga is doing one in Athens in June 9 or 10. One day events!

Margaret off to the last class ever with Al Beyer. He’s finally retiring. Xoxoxo

#Olmstedlinearpark #atlanta #pleinair #oilpainting #painting #artists #paint #urbansketching #ink #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #lamy #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #quickpaint #vladislavyeliseyev

Which in my book is time to draw and maybe paint. That’s going to happen a lot at the Olmsted Linear Parks today.

John Brian Guernsey of Marietta did a demo yesterday. I got there a little late and plopped down next to YerZa Vue though I didn’t know it was her at the time and proceeded to sketch James painting.

I knew better than to put that eye in like that. What was I thinking?! Rusty. It only takes a day off to get like that.

Like Yer Za he was very generous in his suggestions on how to do a pleine air painting.

And painted about 45 minutes.

I love he brought a dry erase board to write tips on. How organized is this guy?! I know he’s right about rule one. Not sure about rule two. Will have to think about that one.

A great painting of a rather nondescript house we would all just pass by. He painted from this picture. Obviously this house was not in very upscale mansion Kaiden Druid Hills.

Thought it was a great idea that he taped the photo write below the painting so he could see it. It’s always a problem what to do with the photograph and this is a good solution.

As a NOT organized person I always interested in how other painters set up their easels. Looks like he used a lot of tape on a regular easel. Why didn’t I think to ask him what type it was. Maybe I will see him again today. And I will ask.

Portable easels are always of interest to me. They usually spend a lot of time falling over so a good one is a topic of conversation with my painter friends.

Off I go for another day of fun on a perfect spring day in Atlanta. As Yer Za said if it’s NOT fun why are we doing it. Something I have been known to say to my classes too.

Margaret poking along on this cool Saturday morning. Xoxoxo

#Olmstedlinearpark #atlanta #pleinair #oilpainting #painting #artists #paint #urbansketching #ink #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #johnbrianguernsey #lamy #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair

It has a nice glow to the center. Like it still not sure.

And it pales (it’s the one in the middle) next to the other two smaller ones. Thinking about adding more of the dramatic black but first another road trip to paint pleine aire in the Olmstead Linear Parks Druid Hills in Atlanta this weekend. Should be a mob scene.

Colors used in all three: imperial purple quin burnt orange cobalt teal cobalt new gamboge lemon yellow aliZarin crimson green gold neutral tint cad red light. Oh a a dab of Naples yellow gouache.

Papers right to left richeson cp 300 lb , Fabriano 140 cp and canson art board cp.

Margaret whose getting tired of packing and unpacking. Xoxoxoxo #sketching #iainstewart #aquarelle #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #ink #lettering #dailydrawing #coloringbook #allaprima #watercolor #danielsmith #Paris #france #monmartre

Evidently a lot.

Value Sketch – Montmartre and Sacre Couer

On canton board

Number 1 on canson watercolor board. painting? Loathe the sky. Otherwise not too bad. Not sure I like the really dark buildings on the right and left and darks on the people.

Richeson sketch. Oh never try to erase with a wet eraser. Eekkk what a mess. Grey stripes on the woman.

Number 2 on richeson coldpress 300 lb. I have decided I hate this paper. It absorbs like a sponge taking forever to dry. Can’t paint a straight line on it either.

Only thing I like about it is the sky wash and the Sacre Couer.

Maybe they will grow on me.

Attempt 3 on Fabriano on the easel. Already don’t like it. 😱😢

Margaret xoxoxo whose going to do something useful like walk the dog.

#sketching #aquarelle #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #ink #lettering #dailydrawing #coloringbook #allaprima #watercolor #danielsmith #Paris #sacrecouer #monmartre

#France

Yesterday was using our Stillman and Birn sketchbooks which he and I both love. He likes he hard back ones I like the soft ones.

The picture he gave us to do a value sketch for homework on Saturday night. Hmm Homework on Saturday night. If I had taken this picture I probably would have hit delete. As for the camera he always uses – his iPhone. Like me he has a big Nikon with telephoto BUT also like me he uses his phone.

My sketch. I forgot to put all the heads at the horizon line duh. Even though I knew better.

By Iain Stewart

Like a college kid I went snooping on the internet to see if I could find anything similar to tell me what to do with this not so hot picture. I found this one.

Iains sketchbook sketch.

Eeek. We were doing TWO on Sunday. One in our sketchbooks and the same one on watercolor paper. WHAT? We had barely had time to do one the first three days.

Mine. I promptly got behind because I was yakking and looking at my French photos to paint one of those if I had time instead of drawing during lunch like I was suppose too.

Iains first sketchbook wash

Iains First watercolor wash.

Hmm my first sketchbook wash. That’s right you saw it already. Glad you realized that.

His sketchbook second wash. The spatters at bottom are done by a spritz with a spray bottle right at the end. Not salt. You have to be patient with these and let the colors mix on the paper and not futz around with them.

His watercolor second wash. He uses arches 140 lb cold press.

This is my wc on Fabriano first wash and uh second because I didn’t have time to do both. Oops. And yes I sprayed mine but it didn’t make any dots. Hmmm.

I did get some nice granulation in the sky from the cobalt teal and cobalt mix. Of course I might have been using Cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise by then. They are all the same color.

His third pass in his sketchbook

Third pass on his watercolor. He splattered it with Indian yellow gouache.

My second and third pass in my sketchbook. I may do these over again because I didn’t have enough time to do all three washes. Besides I hater the people because I was in a PANIC to draw TWO SKETCHES. 😱🤢

My whole sketchbook page. I took notes down the side.

You can see the list of colors. Iain’s a Daniel Smith guy. And LOVES neutral tint.

My watercolor. I was in a panic during most of the painting because I skipped the second wash and had to watch a lot of wet edges. I switched by Isabey #2 moo for my Davinci Kohlinsky sable 10 and my black #12 for fine line work.

As for his sketchbooks he draws in pencil not ink. Any old pencil will work. Loves Daniel Smith paint. And uses Escoda synthetic brushes not Kolinskys. An architect by training he loads information into his class. Would I take another ? Probably. He’s a great teacher!!

Margaret packing up in rainy Charlotte. Off to Cheap Joes for one more drool over the art supplies. Getting some paper because nobody matches their prices. Well maybe Blick but nobody supports more charities than our dear Cheap Joe Miller.

Xoxoxo

#france #provence #iainstewart #watercolor #transparent #danielsmithwatercolors #aquarelle #charlotte #nancycouick #sketching #cheapjoes

Stress loomed large over the class. No tears though lol

The picture the object of our attention.

Iains sketch

My sketch that I decided to paint. Oopsey. Try writing in a sketchbook with a wet painting in it.

I will say the glow in these paintings does not show up in a miniature photo on an iPhone.

His first wash. I forgot To take a photo of mine. 🤪😪

His second wash

My second wash. Success finally when I switched to my #2 richeson squirrel mop.

His third wash. And yes there’s another.

My third.

Adding darks and lifting lights.

These things look better in person.

In the pressure of running multiple washes you forget to do things that you wouldn’t if you were home. Like painting the people. And the tree trunks.

Oh and splattering with water. I seemed to have a hard time remembering that one. Lol

So many things to remember while running a wash and keeping the bead going. Eeekkk.

If the bead dries up it’s over. You have a hard edge. Double EEKKK!!!!

Margaret with one more day to do this thing. Xoxoxoxo

What a taskmaster. I don’t know who worked harder the students or the teacher – thinking the teacher.

Homework was to revise this painting into a sketch for today’s painting.

I did three. Well I do like to sketch.

This is Iains sketch. With notes as to tone and and how to rearrange or change it when he does the final sketch.

His sketch on the watercolor paper.

Mine

Iains First pass.

Mine. A little light and oops my spray bottle didn’t splatter right.

His second pass – hmmm didn’t take a pic of my second.

His third and last last pass.

My first third pass. A little light so I redid the darks in the foreground. And lifted some whites.

Done for today. Who knows how lifting complete

I may torture it tomorrow. Think I will lift that line where the dark stats.

Homework time!! Xoxoxox Margaret

At Nancy Couick’s Studio in Charlotte.

Lets just say he’s keeping us VERY busy. Iains a great teacher and I am think his experience teaching at Auburn University probably makes him an even better teacher.

Iains sky wash and his gradated wash.

He’s detailed in his instruction with multiple tasks and brings it all together with a purpose. And he gave us HOMEWORK?!! Omg. Haven’t had homework since I got my last masters degree which wasn’t yesterday.

My sky wash. I forgot to take a pic of my gradated wash. Oops.

Next he showed us how to paint this ok the gradated wash.

I think I got a hmmm FFFFFFF!!!

Next up painting Rossy church in Scotland over the sky wash. Iains.

Laying in shapes. My painting.

The shadow pass. Mine. Finally. With the last steeple.

Way too dark and darned if I didn’t forget one of the towers. OOOPs. Also mucked up the wash at the bottom. Better than the boat but maybe a C?!

Hoping today goes better. Definitely a VERY interesting class. Time for homework.

Ttyl Margaret whose not seeing a career in ethereal landscapes. xoxoxo