Category: Art

Day 553 – Montmartre 

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Do you like it better with the red Moulin Rouge or all ink?! 

  
I really have to quit drawing these in my sketchbook. Somebody is already asked to buy it or a print. So now I have to draw it over. WHY    do I do these things?! 

Carbon pen with carbon platinum ink.  Great fine point pen but sometimes it leaks BLOBS On your just drawn paintings. Sigh. BIG blobs.

I have a French Seine riverbank landscape I was working on yesterday.  Yes.  You guessed it. BIG BLACK blob. No warning. 

It also leaks into the cap which can cause problems. Sigh. What’s a girl to do?!  

I know. White out?! 😜

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 552 More Brevard!

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Main and Broad in Brevard. I think it’s the town hall or the court house?! Watercolor, Noodler Konrad w D’artrementis Document Brown in strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook.

I drew this sitting out near O P Taylors on Broad which has a good view of the court house.

The tree and building were still decorated for Christmas. I love that people no longer zip the decorations into storage the day after Christmas.

brevardcourthouse2

A great view of the mountains as Broad Street drops off toward Asheville.
My biggest dislike about the Strathmore Mixed Media 500 journal is that it’s very difficult to make lay down  flat giving a large shadow down the spine. Not very attractive in the middle of a painting!

I guess I need to flatten it on the scanner but so much easier to use the cellphone for a quick pic.

Colors used. Cerulean sky w a touch of cobalt. Red w yellow ochre for brick colors. Burnt umber and Inathrodone for shadows, roofs, truck and street. Hookers green w Inathrodone for the for tree.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx who is off to the Columbia Art Museum for the Georgia  O’Keefe exhibit.

Day 551 – Sapphire Valley NC

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SweetwaterThompsonRiver
Out the Back door. Watercolor, Noodler Konrad w D’artrementis Document Brown in strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook. .

Spent the last week in Sapphire Valley at my sons trout farm that he bought last fall. A truly lovely spot. I sketched this as I sat on the back deck on one of the few sunny days we had.

The Thompson River, a trout river, runs through the property with at least two waterfalls. When you fall asleep at night you can here the river rushing by.  It’s surrounded by stands of hard woods and pine trees.

This was painted with my whisky painters watercolor box and waterbrushes.

Colors used. Cerulean sky. Grey is Inathrodone and burnt umber with touches of hooker green for the moss on the trees. River. Hookers, cerulean and yellow ocher.

Rhododendrons hookers and cad yellow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

 

 

Day 450 – O.P.Taylor’s Toy Store

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O.P.Taylors Toy Store – Watercolor, Noodler Konrad w D’artrementis Document Brown in strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook. 

In Brevard NC a charming small mountain town near Sapphire Valley. We all love to visit O.P.Taylors Toy Store http://www.optaylors.com in downtown Brevard on the corner of Main and Broad Street. 

O.P.Taylors Toy Store is truly a fantastic store that kids dream about. Toys packed to the ceiling in this old two story store. Even the staircase ballisters are popping with stuffed animals. There are several other locations including one in Biltmore Village and a website. If you find one nearby check it out. It’s truly ToYLaND!! 

I drew the store as I sat outside waiting for my kids to come out of it. It’s a dangerous place for a grandma to go with her sweet grandchildren. They didn’t need another thing after the largesse of Christmas so I sat outside to avoid temptation. 

This is not the front of the store but the side that faces Broad. 

Colors used. Everything in my whiskey  painters travel box. And a white gel pen on the Christmas lights. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

 

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Day 546 – Sycamores 

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Line the streets of Paris. The French like to prune them into odd shapes. I don’t like trees that Americans prune like this but in France there are so many I grew to like them. They line the Seine River and many streets.

 In the 1880s it became fashionable  to take the air but one did not want to get a tan so trees were planted and pruned to indulge this whim especially in Paris. 

Colors used. Leaf French ochre w Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange. Cerulean.  Splattered with whatever soup was on my palette. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 545 – Summer Madonna 

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A large watercolor commission that it’s finally safe to share with you. Delivered on the 26th to the mom as a Christmas present. Oddly this picture looks best at a distance which is the way you view most paintings unless you are an art geek like me whose never  happier than when she’s nose to nose with a Van Gogh or a Cezanne. 

Paper is crescent watercolor board. Color used Quin coral, Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange with French ochre for skin and skin shadows. Be careful ! Strong staining pigments!! Shadows burnt umber and inathrodone blue with some mineral violet very lightly applied. Lips alizarin. Hair Winsor yellow, yellow ochre, burnt umber. Water Cheap joes Andrews turquoise, burnt umber, inathrodone blue applied wet on wet. Black bathing suit is burnt umber, inathrodone blue

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 542 – that travel journal 

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🇫🇷Or breakfast at the Rochester hotel.

 A lavish spread. Heaps of croissants and tasty rolls. Several kinds of delicious cheeses, quiche, home made yogurt and the list goes on and on.  There was even some kind of baked chicken and veg. 👀

 
🇫🇷If you didn’t like what they had you could order whatever you wanted. I always ordered an omelet. We were up so early I did’t want to get hungry before we found a place to eat lunch!! And of course since it was a buffet we tried lots of goodies-perhaps only a bite. 


🇫🇷This lady sat next to me at breakfast one day. I knew she would not notice me drawing her since she was engrossed in her IPad. 

🇫🇷Strathmore mixed media 500 paper, Noodler Konrad pen, platinum carbon black ink, Daniel smith, winsor Newton, and Holbein watercolor.    

🇫🇷 I think I left my heart in France when it’s not in Decatur with my grandkids. 😢 I dream about it a lot!! 

Merry Christmas🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄

Thanks for reading. 

Day 540 – quite a few travel journal pages done

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  Paris Day 1 – Giddy with excitement. 

Now but since I am once again traveling will parcel them out and hope I get some more done. Not easy with an adorable three year old grandson “helping” you out. Lol

Like the layout. It evolved. The right page was done first sketched while we waited for our food. L’Artoise is a sweet little restaurant on Rue d’Artois around the corner from our hotel the Rochester. The Yelp reviews were spot on. Food was passable but not memorable.  

 Debbie and Tucker also cruising on Viking and staying at the Rochester. 
 The Proprietors were sweet and oh so French. The eggplant entree w a slab of store mozzarella was not great. The chicken an improvement – cow au vin I think. 

 We were so excited that dog food would have been wonderful lol. We imagined we were Phil who we followed on his adventures on PBS What is Phil eating. A hoot. Phil would not have eaten at L’Artois. 
 Dessert créme brûlée. Yummy. Then we walked the champs Elysees. I think we walked five miles even with out jet lag. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret off to make Christmas cookies but dreadfully in need of a long winters nap. On the 26th right?! 😊 xxx

Day 537 – Finally

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Figured out the title page for my France travel journal. I filled up two Strathmore 500 mixed Media journals but still have a lot of pages to paint in what I call my coloring book. 

The light was bad on the boat for painting so I mostly drew with my Noodler Konrads while I was on board. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret making headway in her journals finally. 😘

Day 536 – Saturday in Aiken

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Life modeling today at USC Aiken 

  The lovely Ilenia was our model. Great pose- The thinker!! Acrylic on illo board. 

Felt good to be painting and hanging out with other artists today.  

After first forty minutes – legs are too long!!

 Lots of good natured banter and holiday cheer today. The pound cake that I took was devoured. Just a few pieces left for Al our esteemed leader who was off celebrating his daughters marriage.  

  
   
After I got home I gave her a good look as I sat eating a sandwich. Her chin was jutting out to far. The arm under her chin was too straight. Nose too long.     
More shadows in the foreground. Cerulean blue shadows in the drape. 

Making progress.  How she looks at present!! I think I need a nap now. Going to let Ilenia lean on the mantel and tell me if she’s done or not. She will know. Then I will know. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who has presents to wrap and a sweater to finish knitting. Xxx