Category: Art

Day 713 – might be done?! 

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Oops still one more page to post after this. 

I drew this sketch of Mike when he was sitting on the floor drying his painting. One of my favorite Knoxville sketches. 

This is the entire page with a few notes and a doodle to remind me of an idea for a future abstract perhaps using motifs are puns the city to rift off of. 
Linda


Linda and another ponderer, I never knew her name. LInda was the class teachers assistant all week and volunteered to work diligently to assist John doing whatever he needed to be done. She sold giclees. She tutored people in the use of the atomizer and supervised it’s use. She took photos of all of us with our abstract. 

The second lady could frequently be seen across the room leaning against the wall staring at her painting 20 feet away. I am not much of a ponderer.

I am either painting or it’s sitting around where I can see it as I go about my day or watch tv sometimes noticing improvements or changes to be made, sometimes ignoring it completely. 

Once again painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. 

Thanks for checking by. 

Margaret xxx

Day 712 – It’s Saturday 

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 Been a while since I posted one of these. Been out of town I think for the last two months or sick so haven’t been going to life modeling. 

And did I say rusty?! What happens when you don’t paint regularly. She looked good when I painted her. Not so sure now. Oh well there’s always gesso!! 


Or maybe she needs a good crop?! That’s one good thing about painting on hardboard you can crop it with a table saw. 

Thought I would share some of the other paintings done today. All but the watercolor are at least 24×30. 

This is Drew Murphy’s acrylic, my favorite one today I think. Really like his colors. Drew recently won a blue ribbon for best Abstract at the Aiken Art Guild juried show. 


Al Beyers’ oil hard to top Al but I think Drew did today. Al is a professor at USC Aiken and currently part of a faculty show at Aiken Center for the Arts. 

Tom Needhams watercolor. Tom teaches watercolor at the Gertrude Herbeet Institute of Art in Augusta. 


Fred’s acrylic. His Mondigliani. Love the orange background. He was just to my left 4 feet. And what a difference that made in the view. 

Interesting how different Ilania looks from different angles. 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx

Day 712 – so it continues. 

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Not done yet. 


I drew Donna and Ann as they discussed Donnas abstracr. The conversation went on for quite a while giving me plenty of time to draw them. 


Another sketch of Dinna done during lectures. The shadow under her eye got a little dark. 

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 711  and then 

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There were more. 


Sweet Mary our backdoor neighbor and our new bff. 


Donna. She’s much prettier than this sketch of her. 

Once again these were painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. The notes were colored with Winsor Newton watercolor markers, a caran d’ache watercolor pencil and a Daniel Smith watercolor crayon

Thanks for checking by. 
Margaret xxx

Day 696 – Memories

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Best thing about a travel journal is the memories when you look back through it. 

Raisin and I shared some awesome deserts and a free shot of Jameson’s is always welcome!! 

This was a pretty great strawberry shortcake at Calhouns on the Tennessee River. The view was fabulous. Will post it when I get done painting it!  Riverside is a wonderful place to eat especially when it’s a different river than the one i live on.

The lines on this page are made with a Wonsor Newton watercolor  markers and a Daniel Smith watercolor crayon that I got at Jerrys Artarama during the demo. 

I color with them – draw lines -and then release them with water which let’s them bleed where they want to go. A really fun effect.  
And I started this last nite. Forgot to eat dinner. Must be fun right?! Hmm 🤔 full sheet arches 300# 22 x 30″ eeekkkkk

Thanks for checking by. 

More Knoxville fun to come. 

Margaret xxx

Day 695 – Another Journal page 

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I drew this the first day of class during lunch. It’s the Old Knoxville Business District around the corner from our classroom door on an alley that runs parallel to S Gay Street, Knoxville’s main Street. 

It called my name the Minute we rounded the corner from S Gay to Jackson Avenue to unload for class. 


Here’s a detail. Maybe 2″x 1″. My favorite bit of the painting. If I could just do this all over it consistently. At least I got this bit right. 

An interesting tidbit.  According to a friend of mine who lived in Knoxville thirty years ago the city riff raff used to hang out in this area. 

Lots of hides holes under the bridge down from S Gay Street to Jackson now barricaded and inaccessible because they are covered with bars. 👀 I had  wondered if it was some kind of odd jail til my friend told me this today. 

Our Alley 

 Colors used – well mostly I under coated all the buildings with a grey made with cerulean and burnt sienna. Then adding various mixes of Quin gold and alizarin over the dried greys. The windows are Inathrodone blue and burnt sienna and finally lamp black. Blue is cerulean in the buildings and sky. Dabs of hookers and Thalo green.


The start of another abstract. I have to transfer this 8.5″x 11″ drawing to a full sheet of Arches via a grid. What can I be thinking????🙄

Thanks for checking by!

Margaret who thinks she loves urban sketching or is it a travel journal?! Xxx 

Day 694 – A Few Journal Pages

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In between doing the laundry and unpacking I have been playing painting my class notes travel journal. 
This one has a lot more sketches of fellow students and even sketches of local spots in Knoxville. A GREAT town to visit. Very walkable. Great restaurants and shops. 


This is Mary. She sat behind us and we really enjoyed getting to know her. 

Barbara Jernigan the president of Tennessee Watercolor Society that made all our fun possible. Kept us organized and eating OUT at the delicious local restaurants. 
Thanks for checking in.
Margaret home between the fun. 

Day 690 – Progress I think 

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How it looks now with collage bits glued down at the end of the day. 22×30″ Arches 300# cold press 


This morning. 

After a consult with John the teacher. How it looked after I sprayed it with the atomizer and removed the masking tape. Still to much white.  

Auditioning collage bits by taking pics of their placements. 
Audition number two 


At the end of class today. So much work. So busy.  Calling it Waiting in Line. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who is exhausted from all the fun. And work😳

Day ? – John Salimen

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Oh my what did we sign up for?! Abstract Watercolor. 

Mine so far. OH my oh my. Unlike anything I have ever done. 
The start. Sorry for the bad photo. 

We had to draw four random items on four pieces of tracing paper. Stack them up and trace all of them on one piece of tracing paper. 

Then we gridded the traced objects and transferred them via a grid to a full sheet 22×30″ watercolor sheet. 


First we had to trace of an interesting shape for white space and cut out the tracing paper. Then we painted a yellow line around the tracing paper so we wouldn’t loose our whites. 
My abstract was  ready to paint. 

First layer was use a variety of yellows reds and oranges plus a sprinkle of salt. 
Oh my will all these dark 2b pencil lines to away?! Scary stuff. 

The whole thing is scary but learning something new usually is. 


Here it is now ready to torture me some more tomorrow. But you know I really like the way it is going. The whites are taped to preserve them while we do some more torture tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret 👀😳🙄😁

Day 644 It’s done

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Rhineharts 10×15″ Watercolor on Crescent watercolor board

Done and ready for delivery. I think I gave a sigh of relief Repainting this successfully. You just never know with watercolor if you will mess it up or not. Thank goodness I didn’t.  

  I had to do it over because the original was in my sketchbook and it was drawn across two pages. Would I have cut that one out and sell it to Rhineharts?! Sure would but hard to frame it when it’s in two pieces. 
So a redo was in order. 

  
   

Here’s the ink sketch. I actually used pencil first and let it dry a while before I erased it. No ink smears on this one. 
   

   
The Rhineharts Masters Week tshirt. A bit darker than the original!

 While it dried I did some last minute shopping before Masters Madness descends full blown on this town.  
I got home about five and it was painted in time to sit down and enjoy Grantchester on Masterpiece Mystery. Really enjoy that show. 
 The shirt on display at the restaurant 
 Back to the painting – it’s painted on crescent watercolor board. Heavy stuff. 
Colors used – Sky cerulean, building Winsor yellow with grey made from cerulean and burnt sienna or yellow ochre. Roof has the same colors with Inathrodone for darks. Trim is marine blue with viridian. Blacks are Inathrodone and burnt sienna or burnt umber. 
Trees are burnt umber and Inathrodone for trunks. Inathrodone, viridian, yellow ochre and green apatite. White gouache for lights. 
Thanks for reading. Get your shirt at Rhineharts. 
Margaret xxx