Two Friends on Front Street. What a fun place. Chickens AND pigeons. What more could a bird nut like me ask for?! Loved the lady at the next table in her funky hat so I had to draw her. Jan and Tam are so patient with my incessant sketching.

A great place for lunch before we head to the Key West light house. Best thing was that frozen mango mojito. Yummmm. Too cold for one now but give it a chance we will be back up to 80 in a second. Two Friends has such a great menu full of pictures of old Key West that I took pics of it to share with you.

Williams was a BIG supporter of the local library.

wouldnt a Ferry to Key West be fun?! Before the bridges and the Overseas Highway from Key Largo to Key West including a bridge aptly named the Seven Mile Bridge. Only 125 miles of road. So I wanted you to be able to see the prices. $1 for a hotel room. $2-4 for a ferry. Of course how much would that be now?!! $20-4o???

Anyway painted with Charles Reid colors Lamy EF Noodler Eelskin Black and Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook

Hugs. Bingeing Hallmark movies so I will get in the mood to decorate for Christmas. Anyone want to come over and help!? Xoxoxox

Key West!! Two Friends @Front & Ann St #boats #urbansketching #chickens #chooks #keywest #islandlife #hogfishgrill #fluid #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #fodorsontheedge #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #charlesreid #food #restaurant #loveFL #postcardplaces #cntraveler #foodie #iamatraveler #staysaltyflorida

Spent most of the afternoon trying to finish painting the Key West sketchbook. This is our third and final trip to Hog Fish Grill.

I decided it had to be our favorite restaurant since we ate there three times. Have to say their Hog Fish is divinely wonderful. My sister in law is quite fond of their lobster bisque but I opt for the hogfish salad with tiny bits of mango in it. Yummmm

I also painted this one. Our second trip to hogfish. Might need some yellow gel pen around the letters.

And another hogfish salad.

Decided to stick the stickers over a messed up figure in the sketch.

Hogfish has stickers all over it. Did you know you can peel them off and leave others behind?! I even left A Happy sticker from Pork Chop. A hogfish mango salad on another trip. I told you I like them.

A few more stickers from Key West Bite. It was too easy to peel those off and replace them with a Happy Sticker. Think it needs a yellow background don’t you?! Who knew you have to paint the sticker page?! Stickers are good for covering up messes. I couldn’t get all the Jolly Roger on the page this way so I started over. Had to cover up the mess right?!Colors used-Charles Reid colors in my Holbein palette.

A better picture of Kate Marie no shadows!! Hurrah. She’s also painted with my Charles Reid colors.

Now to finish her as well as get an entry done for the Georgia Watercolor Show Due Jan 4. 😵😵😵

Margaret who knows why she’s tired now. Xoxoxox I fell asleep in front of the tv. 😳🍁🍁🍁

Key West!! Hog Fish on Stock Island #boats #urbansketching #chickens #chooks #keywest #islandlife #hogfishgrill #fluid #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #florida #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #charlesreid #food #restaurant #floridalife #yacht #sailing #stockisland

Hmm did I post this. That Skirt steak was DE LiC IousNess on a plate Melt in the mouth. Unbelievable. And the plaintains were crispy and sweet. I do love a good plantain. Too bad it’s 777 miles one way for another plate of this goodness.

Painted in Aiken today. On Yupo which is a kind of plastic. Quelle disaster but it was fun her neck is too short and too thick. Did u know I can just take a damp paper towel and wipe this off. But I think I will play with it some more. I already wiped her lips off. And I can wipe off her neck. Zip zip. Nothing sticks to Yupo.

But doesn’t it give great drips.

Ok back to sleep on the sofa. Zzzz.

Kate Marie. Fluid 14o # hot press. Half Sheet

Not finished-Not perfect yet but lot better than the last few I did of her.

I actually drew this twice. First time she was soooo small. I ripped the tape off flipped her over and redrew her to fill the page. a quick redraw in 20 min got her on the paper in better shape than the first time. If it weren’t downstairs in the car I would post the first awful drawing.

Second break. About a half and hour of painting. I need to work on those feathers some more but they were fun to paint with Prussian blue and burnt umber.

Colors used cad red light and yellow ochre for flesh. Cerulean peacock burnt sienna for shadows. Hair yellow ochre and burnt umber and raw umber. Shoes burnt umber and ultramarine. Ps the shoes aren’t done yet.

Margaret whose exhausted after a five hour drive all over Georgia fro

Buckwheats to east Atlanta to Decatur then lawrenceville and finally home home Home!!!! After a two weeks absence I might not get up til noon. Xoxoxo

HM say the Atlanta Artist Show abstracts and more

Saturday has been laid back knitting and binge watching This is Us.

Time for a break when you rip out two inches of knitting because you messed up the cable.

We did a lot of eating in Key West. One night we did a food crawl on our own. We went to Jack Flats which is a sports bar. Never seen so many TVs. Food was ok. Not terrific. Great service.

Then we wandered down Duval from Jack Flats for drinks and desserts at Le Grande. We were NOT disappointed. Yummiest creme brûlée I have eaten in Key West. Fun Argentinian waitress who watched me draw. Her dad used to do it when they traveled.

These are the other two honorable mentions:

Anyway time to grab a shower and go play with the grandkids.

Margaret xoxo. Or should I binge season 1 episode 14. Be strong walk away from the Telly. Xoxox

Wow where has the week gone?!

Pepe’s the oldest eating house in Key west as they bill themselves. As in all things Key West this cafe is funky. The bar area on the left is little more than picket fencing and a plastic roof on pvc poles. However the right side where we ate is fascinating.

Loaded with all kinds of antiques and ambience.

And a fat cat that they put on all their T-shirt’s. Front and back.

We ate the most amazing key lime pie and coconut cream pie. The later was heaven and former not far from Heaven. Light and fluffy with real whipped cream. Deliciousness.

Their menu My favorite desert on the island. This is the recipe for the coconut cream pie which I searched high and low for on the internet. And it tasted so good when I made it yesterday. Did I say DELICIOUS?!! just be sure to temper the eggs by dumping half a cup of the heated sugar and half and half INTO the eggs SLOWLY not the other way around like I did. Oops. I fixed it and it was delicious despite my goof. Did I say I shoulda known better?!

Margaret xoxoxoxo

Drew this shop leaning against a light pole across the street on Duval. I gave it a face lift – it’s really white. I think the yellow is so much more in keeping w Key West don’t you?!

What else can I say. LOVE the Garden Lights. A great way to spend my birthday.

Margaret who is tired and has to get up and bake pies on the morning. Happy Thanksgiving xoxoxox

#keywest #icecream #islandlife #urbansketching #hyattresidenceclub #gingerbreadgallery #ink #stillmanandbirn

Been painting like a crazy person most of the day today hence the late post. This is an assorment of what we decided was flotsam on a table in the Hyatt Beach House in Key West where we stayed. I painted 8 or 9 pages in my Key West sketchbook today.

WIP Half Sheet HP fluid 140#

I also went to the Atlanta Artist Center and painted the awesome Annie Jefferson. It is her birthday today and she was wide open for fun. She was born in California just like I was. Did I say my birthday is tomorrow.

She decided we were twins. 😂

Anyway a lot of fun this morning. Hmm it lasted til almost 2 because we kept talking.

Of course now I have to decide how to fix her eye that’s TOO high. Won’t be easy to do since it’s hot press.

Bed time. My birthday in 31 min. Hmm maybe I should stay up til midnite. Margaret whose grandkids are taking her to the Christmas lit mechanical (aka Atlanta Botanical) gardens for her birthday tomorrow nite. Xoxoxox

#urbansketching #flotsam #keywest #islandlife #keywestbight #fluid #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #florida #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #charlesreid #food #restaurant #floridalife

Yes a Bight. That is not a typo. A Bight pronounced bite is a small area of water similar to a small bay. A curve or recess in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature. I think this is the beautiful yacht with grey sails we saw during our Sunset cruise. The sketchbook fold does not help the boats lines does it?!

I also drew the Jolly Roger across the Bight from where I sat. Oops. Left the bow sprit off. Going to add a fold out with it because it looks odd without it.

The Jolly Roger has beautiful red sails. Also a cannon like any good pirate ship would have to shoot other boats with so they can rob them. It was actually just aloud noise.

Hoping for handouts

The Bight is where a lot of the locals dock, the party catamarans and activity catamarans dock. It’s surrounded with a large variety of bars and restaurants B. O.’s and Pepe’s Cafe are both on the Bight but not on the water .

Huge 3-4′ tarpons and a nurse shark lurking for leftovers in that water.

There’s no telling who you will see walk by. A party of about 30 Asians following their group leader who had a flag a fisherman cleaning his catch loud party goers heading for their sunset cruise.

The most interesting animal we saw was an endangered HUGE Atlantic Giant grouper perhaps six feet long under one of the boats where the crew was cleaning fish.

Atlantic Giant Grouper

They can weight up to 700 pounds!! If you look carefully in the water in these pictures you will see a HUGE grouper. He was at least six feet long lurking for fish parts as the crew cleaned them and tossed them overboard. Eeekk.

Of course there were chickens. Always a chicken around.

Key West Bight #boats #urbansketching #chickens #chooks #keywest #islandlife #keywestbight #fluid #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #florida #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #charlesreid #food #restaurant #floridalife