Can you figure out where I messed up?! The tall guy on the right. No idea how I did that. Thinking of painting over him with watercolor ground and having a redo.
As it is it’s unusable and I really like the rest of it. We shall see. So aggravating.
Ttyl margaret on Melt down. Xoxoxo
Pleased to announce that some of my urban sketches and some of my mixed media sketches will be for sale at Wolf and Finch on 859 Broad Street during Arts in the Hearts.
Ttyl more paintings to get ready. Stay tuned!! Xoxoxo margaret
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
Spent a great afternoon yesterday at the Morris Art Museum in downtown Augusta on Riverwalk with some of my favorite painter friends – the members of Al Byers Advanced Painting Class. Interesting listening to their comments and to Als who as a professor and a New Yorker always has an opinion which he will readily share!🤗
I thought I would take you on a virtual field trip to the Morris with us. It was one of the first museums to deal only in Southern art.
When you enter via the stairs the first thing you see are the water colors of Aiden Lassell Ripley (1896-1969.). Ripley caught the South in the early 1900s in a series of watercolors and prints that line the hall at the top of the stairs.
His bio says “He was attracted by the interplay between the solidity of buildings and the patterns of light and shadow they created, interspersed with people, the snap of a clean sheet drying on a clothesline, and the shape of trees and bushes.” An early urbansketcher!
These are large full sheet watercolors 22×30″. They have great light and shadows. The Picnic above is perhaps my favorite.
Remember he was painting these fifty – 100 years ago. There’s a certain timelessness to them. They could still be found throughout the south if we only bother to look. Oddly I am sure we could as Urban Sketchers find some of these places and paint them still. Probably a lot more battered but still standing.
He was getting out and painting the south long before Urbansketching was a thought in Gabes head.
St. James Church Tallahassee Florida
Love the glowing white in this one. He does glowing whites so well.
Southern Shack
I know these still litter the southern landscape.
Springtime – Southern Church
There’s is one of these not a mile from where I sit on Hopewell Church Road in McCormick County SC however there’s no great tree with Spanish moss and I never see people there. Is it abandoned. No idea.
Cabin in Georgia
Obviously many of these were done along the southern coast because the Spanish moss does not grow farther north in the south just along the coast. 
Planters in the Field
Perhaps my least favorite. The figures are stiff and it’s too dark. Great handling of the trees, woods, and that evening sky.
Unexpected Point, Florence SC
I love the light in this painting. It just glows with fall light raking across the horses and riders, glinting off the broom straw and buildings.
You can still see these broom sedge fields with tall pines and rickety old buildings slowly crumbling to the ground. And yes they still hunt for quail and dove in the south.
Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo off for another busy day.
This polo pony and rider took hours to draw and paint. Lesson learned when doing a horse like a face BIGGER is better.
The rider looks tall because he’s up out of his saddle in the stirrups a little and polo ponies tend to be short. Who wants a tall polo pony. Nobody. It makes it harder to hit the ball on the ground and it’s good to not lean out of the saddle too much.
Anyway actually drew this with pencil on 300 # Arches cold press and painted it with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors plus cerulean.
Truly time to paint. Margaret in charlotte. Xoxo I feel a trip to cheap Joes coming on!!
Love the Chinese dresses Foxy wore at Dr Sketchys Wednesday. Gorgeous fabrics and they fit her like a glove. Classic Chinese dresses probably from her home in Taiwan.
This is my favorite sketch I think though the next one is nice too.
Both 11×14″ Super Aquabee tablet. Noodler Konrad WN colors in a whiskey painter box with a Cotman travel box full of Daniel Smith quinacridones. I used a gold Wink of Stella marker to sparkle these.
This was a challenge to add origami elements. I have folded thousands of those cranes and a few of the frogs. As a kid I loved doing origami since the first kit I received for Christmas. I think she’s slightly out of proportion. Head to big. Legs a tad too short but I like her anyway. A lot to draw and paint in 20 minutes!!
After several disastrous sketches I knew I could handle our beautiful Asian model when I did this watercolor in ten minutes or so.
All sketches are 11×14 in a Super Aquabee tablet. Love that paper. Painted with my whisky painter box loaded with WN and Daniel Smith Quin coral and an old Cotman palette loaded with every quinacridone I own plus thalo blue and green black and white gouache. Painted with a pentel waterbrush.
These are all two minute sketches.
Some of these will probably be altered. 
And most are pretty awful. 
As in EEEKKK I Don’t feel good and I can’t draw a thing tonite. This one was the worst.
Better. I decided to give up my go to Dr Sketchys pen the Pentel Brush pen and use a Noodler Konrad. Life improved. I always think it’s interesting how a change of pen can improve your drawing skills when they aren’t going well.
Next We had a challenge to turn her into a fox. Evidently her stage name is Foxy. As some of you know I like to draw chickens. Follow them around at Key West to draw them or sit and watch them and sketch them. Never thought chickens could be so much fun but they are.
Really like the sketchiness of her body and legs in this one.
Ttyl another busy day. Haircut picking up paintings and back to aiken for a reception for a friends show.
Margaret xoxoxo
Could not resist drawing this great pirate ship passed by loaded with people tossing beads to the crowds. So much to draw and so little time. I really like parts of this but the foreground people watching are all assorted sizes. The middle group too tall for the other two groups.
And I completely forgot to draw the buildings in the background. OOPS!!!
Oh well that’s the thing about live sketching. Some you win some you mess up. Lol.
One more to go. The Whiskey Bar Lamy Safari. Lexington Grey ink in a Stillman and Birn Alpha.
Colors used. Every green I own. Pants are all some combo of ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Sky peacock blue I think.
Ttyl off to delve into Atlanta after talking to two groups is middle school art kids. One was awesome second one ready for lunch. Fun classes though the kids are so cute. Just hungry.
Margaret xoxox
St Paddys Day Parade ladies from St. John’s tower. They were actually riding another truck but I liked this one better. Augusta Ga
A dab of gel pen on the antennae. I loved those. And they were riding in chairs.
#stjohnstower #augustaga #stpatricksday #watercolorpainting #sketchbookskool #urbansketcher #undercoverspy #urbansketching #usk #georgia #ink #lamysafari #lamy #stillmanandbirn
Gotta run. Heading to Atlanta. Hope to sketch there. I am Ready!!
Margaret xoxox
One of my best so far I think. Al and Ruth said it is. So did Drew.
I decided to use my liquitex flesh as the darks with a little orange added to it. The lights are primary yellow flesh and white. The red is Quin red. I also used golden Indian yellow. The darkest darks are burnt umber and thalo blue.
Not quite done. Still need to paint out the hash marks on the left. Or at least not end the brown like that.
At the second break. The lighter dark is working well. Still a lot to do
And only half an hour left. Eek. After break will tackle the face and then the hands and whatever else I have time for.
First break. Forty minutes Of painting.
I started by carefully measuring how many heads wide and tall Emily was. For Example how many heads down was her right hand. I also used plumb lines to line up things like her right shoulder with the right side of her face. Her left wrist w the left side of her face.
I also decided that though the shadows on her face were very heavy purple was too dark and looked a little grey. So decided to make the darks peach w white and red orange made from Indian yellow and Quin or pyrrole red. I started w pyrrole red and ended with the Quin red.
Al Beyer’s lovely huge oil -3×4′ in an hour and a half! 😳
DrewMurphys large nude. Love the face. And the drape. Actually love the whole thing.
Iliana Van Pelt oil. She’s growing an artist by leaps and bounds. 
AC Daniels lovely transparent oil.
Marilyn Hartley’s lovely sketch w a little color.
Kathe Dennis great swirly conte crayon. 
This one is hers too. Always love her lines all over the place.
Rachel Millers beautiful small watercolor. This girl is so talented.
Fred’s tough lady.
Tom Needham’s lovely watercolor.
A very young mans pencil sketch. Great job!!
Thanks for stopping by. Still worn out from the show which was a great success.
Margaret xoxoxo
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 