If at first u don’t succeed

February 2, 2023Leave a comment

Make another one and another one and oh wait make a third. Apricots in a bowl one day if one of them turns out.

First one I drew on 140. Since it gets a wash of Prussian blue then black I decided it would t work out well on 140. So I drew it again on 300# fabriano cold press.

Oops I painted the bottom of the 300 alizarin. NOPE it’s suppose to be grey. Back to the drawing board! No way u can overcome that red and make it grey. Black yes grey nope. and my wash at the top is doing odd things. It backwashed a bit. Not exactly blooms but holidays.

Number 3 also 300#. Finally all the colors where they belong. AND I found my masking picker upper in my old paint box. Haven’t used it in years and there it was waiting for me. Peeled all that masking right on up. The masking ripped surface of the fluid 140# surface. Peeled it right off. 😳😳😳

By the way a layer of Prussian blue with a layer of black over it makes a delicious blue. And if that didn’t work you can alternate them til you get them really dark. Right now I have a light one and medium one and a dark one. All nice blues. Try it u might like it.

So now I have plenty to practice on. Surely one will turn out. We shall see.

Chicken pot pie

Hubster started saying the pie is burning. I told him can’t check it I am running a wash. It didn’t get too brown. Margaret with her feet up. Xoxoxox

Another watercolor

February 1, 2023February 1, 20234 Comments

From watercolorlive2023

Chasing after Iain Stewart for an hour and a half Saturday. Got WAY too purple in the foreground so I tried to calm that imperial purple down. Then I Vlad-it a bit. Putting in tiny details w a dark dark grey. That was fun.

Then I went too far on the water but I can’t leave water just plain. I mean the only time the water here is flat is when there’s no current or no breeze. One or the other is always happening. Turned the wowed tree on the top left into a Christmas tree. That was fun.

I mean eek. What’s with that purple. I swear that’s the color he said to paint it. He does love that purple. He suggested using a palette knife for the dark lines.

I actually had the same one. Thanks dad. It was my fathers old one. I tend to the triangular springy small ones that look like cake knifes. Anyway I tried my old springy one to do the poles but didn’t work to well. Dug out dads during the break between classes. So much easier. Then I made a lot of lines w it. Did walkways gang ways porches. Over the top as usual.

Night night. Though I had. A nice long nap I need another one to get rid of this cold. Oh yes u have had quite the cold thru this whole crazy long days of painting. Xoxoxox @

Done done done

January 31, 20232 Comments

Mexican Cactus Flower 1/4 sheet Kilimanjaro

I added a lot of darks to it and used a gel pen to add more whites. Gotta love a gel pen. The quinacridones had smeared when I removed the masking fluid from the stamens. Tried gouache. Of course that didn’t work. So the white pentel gel pen came to the rescue.

Here it is before I darkened it. I went to town adding darks. It wasn’t terrible before but like it much better now.

Also tweaked this one some more. Tried splattering it do more fireflies would show but like the stamens they didn’t show up either. Maybe they will tomorrow.

Can you tell what I did to it. This is before the latest tweak.

Margaret tired once again. Good tired though. I have how many left to do??Xoxoxoxo

Where I have been

January 30, 2023Leave a comment

In the dining room madly painting. I signed up for watercolorlive 2023. It’s all my friend Mikes fault. She talked me into it. What a mad three days of wild fun painting. Classes and seminars lasted from 10 am til 9 pm. Will be posting them the next few days.

My Swan from the hour Paint along with Shelley Prior one of 18 teachers we had . She was awesome. She held our hands and walked us thru it step by step. I am in love w my swan and will be checking out her extensive YouTube feed. Her instructions were clear step by step with no need to rush to keep up. This swan just glows. My favorite out of my stack of paintings.

Most of the paintings I did. There are TEN still left to do that I didn’t get around to for various reasons.

We started off with Julie who does Cheap Joes two minute art on you tube.

This took abt five minutes and was Julie’s tip. A fun way to start the day and to loosen up. We were all tense. I mean 18 teachers and all those hours. Eeek.

Out agenda. We were VERY busy. No potty breaks no lunch breaks. A good way to diet. Lol.

Next up the great Thomas Schaller. Now almost all the teachers supplied a sketch for us to draw before class started. This was NOT a drawing workshop but a painting workshop. For some reason. Thomas didn’t think we needed a drawing. Hmm. Off to a rocky start. I madly drew it and started flinging paint around.

On a half sheet. My perspective was off. Supposedly his odd idea of firefly houses. Who knew they don’t have fireflies in S California where he’s from. They got his attention in his new home in NYC. My husband loves it Me not so much.

Fireflies half sheet 140lb.
So I had to cram in time to tinker with it. It was really bothering me. The perspective was wonky. Hate that and all that glaring white paper on the top left screamed at me. Better. Still won’t be my fav. He can hang it in his mancave. Lol. Still may need more tinkering. Time will tell.

Next up a portrait with Patricia Guzman a lovely painter from Mexico who specializes in indigenous people. She’s a realistic portrait painter not my bag but she was a great teacher. At some point I got tired of painting every wrinkle and quit. LOVE the way this painting turned out. 1/4 sheet arches 149
Cold press I think.

Every artist had a different kind of paper or color of paint so I just used what I had and matched it up as closely as I could from my stash. Did I say I have way too much paper?!

My friend Mike my cohort in art crimes I mean classes. We met at a Charles Reid class in Boone at Cheap Joes 8 9 years ago and been friends and Charles Reid worshippers ever since. we are going to have a weekly zoom meetup til we finish out pile of not done drawings. There are quite a few. Eek

Another day another sunset. More tomorrow. My fingers are tired. Xoxoxox Margaret

#ericrhodes @

Morning scribbles

January 20, 2023Leave a comment

To say my sketchbook habit has fallen off would be an understatement. Been working on this stillman and birn alpha sketchbook for a year. Oops. Mostly these are birds and 2 cats on the back porch done with a uniball that I smear w a damp finger.

Daisy the cat was done with grey tombow. She loves to sit in the window and stare in at us in the den. Sooty the black male being solitary like he’s prone to be and yes he’s fixed. All our outdoor cats are.

Out back last night. It went from a nothing to this in about a minute last nite. Then it fizzled out just as quickly. Sunsets are so fleeting.

And yes the kitties still think they are starving ever morning.

Margaret show has to get busy drawing for Watercolor Live today. xoxoxox

Drawing the lovely Crystall.

January 18, 2023January 20, 20236 Comments

Chrystall as a fairy. You have to love her as a model. You never know what she will wear or if she will wear anything. She designs and makes all of her awesome costumes and also does fire batons as well as other performing. You can follow her adventures at crystallinecreative on instagram

These are both gesture sketches with a pentel ink pen drawn quickly. Then painted. This one was probably ten minutes The first one was a longer pose. Chrystal posed for us in a Zoom session. Lots of fairy poses. Best $10 I have spent recently.

My favorite type of sketchbook when I am doing live model drawing. Lotsa sheets. Loves watercolor and ink plus it flattens out mostly when it dries. I have it in every shape and size they make. I usually use the two biggest sizes for life modeling thru zoom or Dr Sketchys. Great for all those gesture poses.

This is one I use for everyday things when I don’t have my other fav Stillman and Birn handy.

Margaret xoxoxox

Portrait painting

July 2, 2022January 17, 2023Leave a comment

She may or may not be done. Not fond of the too loud quin gold and the too heavy pencil that won’t erase but otherwise like her a lot.

Took an online class with Fealing Lin a couple of weeks ago thru Cheap Joes online. The biggest plus is that we get to keep the video on YouTube forever. A big plus.

Another plus you can contact Edwina May at cheap joes to get put in your favorite painters waiting lists if you can’t score a class.

My friend Mike aka Linda joined me in the zoom class. Even though she was in Raleigh and I was at mine it was almost like being in Boone in one of Fealings classes. We texted each other our paintings back and forth during our class breaks.

Oops really not fond of him. Lost some of his mustache and the quin gold really got out of hand. Eyes need work and I need to lift his mustache.

And she definitely needs work. Not sure what BUT sooner or later I will.

Loving these lazy summer days. I suppose I am having too much fun just lasting with the hubs yet around the house to bother painting. My bad right??

Last evening we were floating in the pool watching the swifts dart and dive overhead for their dinner. Who knew they did that??! Or maybe it was just a whole new view of them from below instead of from the deck?