Category: Azaleas

Day 185 Low Country Cottage

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Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev. And of course more work to do on it. Fun painting the palm trees though couldn’t get them dark enough the first time round.

Arches 280 cold press.

I know I am going to try to paint the roof grey. Will paint some yellow on a scrap and then paint colors over it to see what turns it grey like a metal roof. Thinking purple will. Maybe on the blue side. We shall see. Will posts my tests too.

The photo. Kind of nondescript right??! Really in Cortez FL but I have seen 100 like it in the low country.

Value sketch.

The sketch.

First wash

Second wash. Actually a lot lighter than the photo

Adding darks. Should be one shot but I never get them dark enough.

And more darks.

Done for now. Definitely needs work. Thinking lighten the small palm in the middle because the chair is the focal point NOT that palm.

Tomorrow right?!! Margaret xoxoxo

Day 139 last page

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Finally got around to the last page in my sketchbook. Been sitting on the table w all the junk to get around to it. No idea why I haven’t been. I do intend to draw this blue jay but wanted to do that in my new sketchbook not last page in the old one. Another 90 plus pages done. Didn’t want to stick this blue boy on the last one. I do think jays are so pretty. I have been hand feeding them all week. They won’t go to the feeder. Instead they eat off the porch rails. Three of them show up every day to check the offerings.

This might be done now BUT I couldn’t get my saber brush to work today – odd since it worked fine to do the electric lines yesterday. So I may need to do that or not.

Bakes two loves of my favorite back of the King Arthur bread bag bread today. One sliced and in the freezer the other on its way as soon as it’s cool. Shouldn’t be making white bread but it’s sooo good. My grandson Henry asked me to mail him some. I would if it would get there fresh but it won’t.

Margaret xoxoxo ready to knit. That scarf might be done by Christmas as this rate.

Day 112 Piedmont Park Atlanta

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A beginning but lots left to do. The gazebo on Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park. Did not like it at all when I went to bed last nite but today in daylight I do. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev.

The photo. It’s a popular spot where the ducks teem to get fed. The value sketch. Ready to be hung at the Louvre🤣. Wasn’t sure I wanted boats. They aren’t allowed in the lake but I went with the flow. We always do these first w a 2B pencil and cheap printer paper on a clip board.

The sketch. Rough 300# Fabriano. No more Arches for me. Sorry for the bad photo. Can not improve it. I tried. Drawn w an hb pencil.

First wash. Colors used yellow ochre cobalt blue alizarin dioxizine purple.

I was not suppose to leave all the white in the water. Trying to follow him who is painting lightening fast and cover a half sheet. Groan. I did use my big size 16 kolinsky from Cheap Joes. But still. I do better for details like leaving white columns on the gazebo and making them straight with my 14 kolinsky from Cheap Joes. In my next life I am getting a Raphael or Windsor Newton. Hmm maybe I should try my mop next time.

Moving onto darker colors. But still very sheer. I have to admit painting with Vlad is like running a road race always trying to catch up with the number one runner. Leaves me worn out but in a good way.

How it looked when I quit for the day.

Ok more colors used golden ochre cobalt turquoise. Neutral tint made from indigo burnt sienna and doxizine purple. Adding white coach’s for lost highlights. Still need to do.

Half the trick is learning to use those pesky perla escodas and that saver brush. Vlad now sells his own brand for $89 from Rosemarys brushes but I have two sets of the Perlas so will wait til I wear them out. Some kind of synthetic fibers. I don’t think u can do the dry brush with my much loved kolinsky sable and I would NOT touch my Charles Reid kolinsky da Vinci on this rough paper. I don’t want to destroy it with the texture.

And I know you can’t do those I the tiny details w a kolinsky sable. The sabers have a wobble to them that makes interesting lines. Controlling them well that’s another thing. They really shine on tree branches and railings. Light posts. Power lines. They make graceful lines.

Top two brushes are the sabers. I use the green handled one a Loosey Goosey from Cheap Joes the most. Then three Perlas. Hmm I have four. 8 10 12 14. Got them dirt cheap on amazon. And my two Cheap Joes Kolinsky sables.

The tree Branch is done with the saber brush. An odd paint brush that does hold a ton of water despite it being synthetic. Right now I am trying to decide if the tree branch needs more work. Maybe?!! It is done with the saber brush.

Margaret who needs to quit goofing off make some bread and paint paint paint. Xoxox

Day 72 Italia

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Probably my least favorite painting I have done with the Vlad Yesilesev on his paintalongs. The top part looks great but don’t like all the brown on the very dull steps. Maybe I will wipe them out tomorrow and try again. Or maybe I won’t. Easier sometimes to just have a do over. Too many muddy colors on the bottom. Right now I am blaming the new Lukas paints I bought but Vlad doesn’t get them when he uses them so hmm. Read they have a lot of white added to them and that kind of color will mud easily.

Anyway back to my knitting. My mile long scarf is growing. Just what one needs in summer right?! Oh well as they say winter is coming.

Calling this the body blanket. Might just sleep on the sofa under it since I am too tired to move right now. Knitted most of this since Friday or is it Thursday?! I am a mad knitter.

Margaret xoxoxo who thinks she needs a break out. Oh and I have already signed up for two more paint alongs so a good crash and burn won’t keep me down.

Day 36 entertainment never

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Stops around here. Took another paintalong with Vlad Yesileyev. Maybe I will like this better tomorrow.

Vlads. Better pic on Fb tomorrow.

For some reason I seem determined to cross every t and dot every eye though I have known from freshman art that’s a no no.

My value study.

Loved his explanations that surround it.

    Use the biggest brush you can.
    Heads are on the horizon line.
    Start drawing and painting in the middle.
    We are not cameras. We don’t see everything. We focus on what we think is important.
    Give an accident a chance.
    Use your eraser too much you are an illustrator.
  • First sketch. I had to eliminate quite a few things.
  • First wash now that it’s been thinned out.
  • Coming along. is Vlads.
  • Margaret who need a nap now or to go to bed.

  • Down on River Walk

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    I always like this fountain that sparkles in the sun. I put off painting it because I knew it would be a pain and it was. I quit. Should have left it in ink. Too many tiny details. Sepia Pitt pen fine stillman and birn Zeta From the safety of my car.

    I did finish a pair of socks today. What else have I done this week. Three paintings. Sold two. Hurrah. Stacciatella THE best soup ever. Sooo good. And I have made lots of soup.

    Thought about quilting this.

    Bakes cookies snickerdoodles and easy no knead bread twice.

    Goodnite. Stay safe!

    Margaret staying home. Xoxoxo

    Jessica’s Pink Tower

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    My friend Jessica lives on the Savannah River downtown in the Pink Tower. The views are astonishing from high up in the building.

    Zoe and I went urban sketching today when I had to go downtown to pick up the Gypsy. It was a gorgeous day. But crazy people were out in Broad Street eating and parading up the street – not keeping their distance. Scary!! Stillman and birn Zeta sepia F Pitt pen. Fealing Lin palette Colors

    Margaret ready to relax. So far I drew quite a bit. Ran two errands with zero human contact. Made two batches of snicker doodles. Cooked more veggies for the leftover adorned beef. Oh and made a fb group page. No wonder I am tired scrub scrub scrub. I even bleached my Bernina after I picked it up from the shop. 😳😂

    Xoxoxox

    Day 1695 Summer Snow WIP?!!

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    Summer Snow – Fluid 140# cp paper 15×22″

    Sorry for the late post. Been working on this when I wasn’t busy walking 🚶‍♀️ 🚶 🤗!! My feet are tired.

    What I started off drawing.

    I drew it with a 2 B Derwent sketching pencil. Very soft. Before I started painting I erased it to lighten the pencil marks.

    Here we go. Decided the background was too light.

    Kind of wish I had left it.

    But I thought the background was too close in tone to the flowers. No idea why I thought that but I did. So I darkened it. Hmmm. Well those flowers really show now. And they look cut out. Not a good thing in a paintjng. Oopsey.

    Lots left to paint on this half sheet.

    Heading toward THE END! I was getting tired and probably should have stopped.

    But I kept on. Now you might notice the flowers don’t look so cut out now. That’s because my friend Mike suggested I use a Mr Clean eraser on the flower edges to soften them. THANKS Ms. Mike!! That helped.

    Now the question of the hour is more splatter or not on the flowers especially the ones on the right side. I think I will sleep on it. Have to work fast because those crepe myrtles don’t last long.

    Charles Reid Holbein colors plus quin gold.

    Margaret putting her feet up with the tv clicker in her hand. Xoxoxo

    Summer Snow WIP!! #stillmanandbirn #savannah #georgia #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #atlanta #painter #aquarelle #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #drawing #sketching #travel #charlesreid

    Day 1218 Urban Sketching

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    My nieces sweet house where I stayed in Charlotte for class. It’s just a small house but the perfect size with a small perfect kitchen fabulous bathrooms. Three bedrooms and hardwood floors. Screened porch and front porch. A great yard. What else do you need. Oh handy to downtown class

    Drawn with a Lamy Safari in my stillman and birn. I painted this with my paints left from class. DS sepentine Green House grass with a dab of hookers Mineral violet shadows yellow ochre for the trim. Roof trees are manganese and quin sienna. Trees have a dab of burnt umber as does the fence. Manganese sky. A bit of alizarin crimson for the pinks added while wet. And some brilliant purple for the iris.

    All the painting was done wet on wet so the colors would mingle on the page.

    Margaret xoxoxo

    Day 1003 The Morris – Urbansketching?

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    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.