It’s All About the Cherry

May 27, 20227 Comments

Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham watercolors w Mary Whyte colors in it per her portrait painting book.

My niece was excited about eating her chocolate milkshake at Rutledge Cab Company in N Charleston. Great restaurant bytw!!!

Why do I always make problems to fix like the light background?

Storm blowing in from Georgia. Mostly a deluge but no tornadoes thank goodness. Hugs Maggie xoxoxo

Another Monday with Crystal

May 26, 2022May 26, 2022Leave a comment

The long pose – 40 minutes – pentel brush pen and watercolor in my superaquabee tablet. Crystal of @crystallinecreative did a terrific job as usual during this live zoom session thru Townsend Atelier. She’s doing online modeling sessions via Townsend Atelier about once a month on Monday at 5 EST. You can contact them at mailto:peggy@townsendatelier.com.

Ten minute pose

Fishing again today. That’s my husband up at the top of the dam – the blue dot. You run up and down that hill to land fish. Not me. I sit at the bottom and paint. Of course I didn’t finish anything today. Maybe I will get them down tomorrow. Some dummy left most of her brushes at home. Duh.

Maggie xoxoxo

Been drawing

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022Leave a comment

In my small Stillman and Birn alpha w a Office Depot mechanical pencil.

The best of the lot. My sweetie Hunt. 4×6”

I measured his head when I drew this one by holding up my 2B mechanical pencil. His head is very long and narrow. Kind of like the rest of him. He’s 6’3”. Lots of whiskers. Mustache and goatee. Going grey but still has a lot of pepper in his once black hair.

Next up a watercolor or two of him sooner or later.

This is the First go round and his face was not long enough. Made him look squat. Vaguely looks like him but the mouth is his mouth. Oops. Easier to redraw than erase all that pencil. 4×6”

And Sam I Am a Siamese stray on the back porch. Sweetest of all the back porch cats. once he’s fixed he’s looking good for a house kitty. He wants in every time I feed him or pet him. Another man of good taste.

Another Friday Another Life Modeling Session

April 22, 2022April 22, 20222 Comments

Maybe I am on a roll?!

Terry Cold press fluid 15×22 M Graham wc paint. If M Graham is good enough for Mary White it’s good enough for moi. Also nice that she gives you a tube of it when you take her class.

First up 2 min gesture sketches done w Caran d’ache neocolor ii on a big sheet of newsprint. 8×24”

Then three five min gesture sketches. The time flew by ZAP!!

I did work on the shape of the last one a bit but hard to take a pic with all the light flooding in from the slider and no over head lights like the big studio at USC Aiken.

FIRST SESSION
Then it was off to the real race. Painting a king pose. NOT a fond of reclining poses. So much foreshortening which is always tough. Also not fond of all the empty white paper around them.

And all of a sudden we were done. Had fun painting the background in up side down during the break. Perylene Marron and ultramarine blue and slinging paint at it when I finished with my long saber brush called a Scroobys Loose Goose from Cheap Joes. LOVE that brush. Yes I got splatters on her but blotted them off as soon as they landed. Fluid is very forgiving paper like that.

Everybody was going what are u doing. Never underestimate a little paint flinging for a fun release. Also a little brush rolling on the pillows for texture. May have to do more of that next week.

Look what I found blooming it’s little heart out on my side porch. My amaryllis I bought four years ago for Easter.

It will have a dozen flowers before it’s done on multiple stalks.

Margaret xoxoxox

Mary Whyte and Mom’s 96th Birthday

January 29, 2022January 30, 20222 Comments

Well the time has come to take a class from the famous Mary Whyte. Off to St Simons next week via Dick Blick class in Savannah to spend my gift certificates. You know I “need “ something. Right?

Best part will be hanging out with my friend Karen Schaaf who I haven’t seen since before covid. Karen recently got her NWS signature and will be in the next issue of Splash 22. We can say we knew her when. Met her at Cheap Joes taking a class from the late great Charles Reid. I think I have almost every book he wrote.

I painted this of my mom who turned 96 last Monday a couple of years ago. I call it
“I Told Her to Smile” because I did and she didn’t. Painted on Fabriano 300# hot press. 11×15”

Thinking about repainting it since it looks off to me now. Nose too long and the mouth twitched to the side. And what’s with the light streak across her chin. Bytw mom did NOT like this painting. Never pout mom, never pout.

This is the photo the painting is based on taken on her 90th birthday. A friend said she was concentrating. Maybe so.

Maniacally sewed this baby quilt for my nephew and his wife’s new baby Mary Rose. She is named Miryam after her mothers aunt who died in the Holocaust. And another who survived it.

The back. Kind of wish I had put the yellow print on the front. Oh well. It’s off in the mail hopefully to greet the baby when she comes home this week.

It has the baby’s name in one corner heart her parents in another, her dob in the third and place of birth in the last one.

Really got to finish this. An old 60s VW abandoned in a car port in Athens Ga across the street from my brothers house. And then take it down town to Art on Broad with my other vehicle paintings for Kristin to sell. Maybe a few prints?! Could be an excuse to buy a new printer!!?

Baking bread. One loaf going to a friend for her birthday instead of a cake. We went to see Kingsmen and I treated her to popcorn and a drink since we aren’t eating out right now. We loved it even though the critics didn’t. Kept us in the edge of our seated the whole time.

Bytw NOBODY is at the movies so quite safe. We had the theater to ourselves. Well the top half. A couple that came in after us sat way down in front. Socially distancing! Yeah!!

Slicing my load up to freeze it. Reheats so well as toast or nuke ten min in the microwave. Taste fresh from the oven!! Also tasty as a sandwich.

My favorite red socks. Wore a hole in my other pair. It’s a free pattern from hedgehogfibers.com. It’s called Sprouting. I have probably made a dozen pairs of this sock. This is my second red pair. Wore the heels out of the first which were Malabrigo no poly. These are Madeline Tosh sock. Wears like cast iron. I also have to them in gold, two grey pairs, and turquoise.

A blue heron we saw on our walk. Fishing in the rice paddy where I live. This used to be a river plantation 200 years or so ago. Silly bird thought he was invisible and didn’t budge as I walked toward him. Finally I flapped my arms at him and he took off.

Bytw it’s quite dangerous to get near one of these birds or an egret. They can stab you with their beaks according to the SC Wildlife Department.

My current snuggle quilt. Where are my knitting needles. One more pair of socks almost done.

Margaret under her quilt on the sofa who really needs to pack for her Mary Whyte class next week but heck I can do that tomorrow right?! Xoxoxo

Robert Dutton, Yorkshire Artist

January 25, 2022January 25, 20224 Comments

I took an online zoom pastel class with delightful North Yorkshire artist Robert Dutton a while back on ShopKeeparty.com and been meaning to post this for a while but as you know when I think of how annoying Word Press is and I just don’t do it.

Anyway Robert is my new fav teacher. So enthusiastic so sharing….he’s one of those teachers that wants to pour everything he knows into your little brain.

He’s extremely supportive. Will chat with you on Facebook and on Instagram and answer all your questions. I just need to hop a plane and go take a class with him in the wilds of Yorkshire, don’t I?!

In the meantime I will make do with Shopkeeparty and a new site he’s teaching from. You can sign up for that class here. It’s £15 and will be worth every penny!!

Starting with a piece of vine charcoal.
Fabriano rough 20×30”

This is a large drawing on a full sheet of watercolor paper. Fabriano rough. 22×30″. Starting off with vine charcoal sketch and a few pastels.

Adding more details and colors. More pastels . I have an assortment of Senneiier(if they were good enough for Degas Manet and Picasso they are good enough for me-sold on the left bank in Paris or on Amazon), Unison both soft pastels and some Rembrandt pastels which are much harder.

We also used water on some of the charcoal to get the grey on the top right and sanded some charcoal to paint with on the bottom middle…great fun but what a mess!!!

Anyway..its done. Might be my fav…as soon as omicron calms down I am taking it downtown to frame…so I can hang it on a wall and not worry about the dog or the cat smearing it….

I also highly recommend Roberts book which is selling like hot cakes on amazon. Drawing Dramatic Landscapes for $21 and worth every penny…jam packed with how tos and what to dos. Heres a link to Robert talking about his new book on YouTube.

There are ten more videos you can purchase on ShopKeepArty with Robert along with my other fav cutie Ian Fennelly. You feel like you have run a race when you are done drawing with them both but you have learned a lot from both of them especially Robert….take a class you won’t be sorry!!!

There are at least three of Robert’s videos available on Shopkeeparty’s YouTube. Here’s one of them – the one that hooked me.

Kitty Ecstasy I
It’s what you do in a cold winter day.

Kitty ecstasy….Weenie Cat found her love Zoes bed and was in seventh heaven wallowing in it today in the sunshine. Too funny.

I think she wants to be a house cat. What do you think!!?

Margaret who just told Word Press tech support that on. a scale of 1-10 I give their new user interface a big fat ZERO. I would NEVER recommend WordPress to anyone…maybe I need to go back to blogger. time for bed!! XOXOXO

Really liking this painting

January 11, 2022January 25, 20224 Comments

Was bored on Friday and decided to take a class from artist network taught by Johannes Vloothuis Paint Along 84. How could you go wrong to get three classes for $18.99 on three consecutive Saturdays?! One is acrylic and the last is pastel. What a deal right??!

The reference photo. He also provided a template to trace onto your paper if you needed too. But it was quite easy to draw it.

To quote my friend Mike it was the best watercolor class she had ever taken. I think she might be right. You could text with him on live messaging during the whole class. He explained everything from how to alter your photo to painting a tree. The class was thorough well prepared and the video broadcast was excellent quality. No racing to keep up like you have to do with Vlad Yesileyev or Don Andrews.

People would say demo a fir tree or a palm and he did. Five solid hours of how to at a terrific price.

I finally left while he was demoing a wave. Zoe had to go potty!!

Margaret xoxoxo

Painting with Don Andrews

September 20, 2021September 20, 2021Leave a comment

My friend Mike and I usually go to Cheap Joe’s to take a class and paint together but all that has gone virtual with covid. She had signed up for a class with Don but it had canceled early in the epidemic.

When he posted a zoom class we decided to have a virtual get together and paint with Don. He does these every other month or so. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what he’s up to.

Class evaluation. Don has been teaching at Cheap Joe’s for years. Several of Cheap Joe’s American Journey watercolors are named for him like one of my favs Andrew’s turquoise.

Anyway Don really knows his subject matter and explains it well. Has great class paceing allowing plenty of time for drying the watercolor and breaks. Technology has greatly improved since he and his wife started. He also allows plenty of time for questions after class plus access to the class video for a year on Vimeo.

We started by doing small samples of what he calls granulated washes. You start off wetting the paper then adding colors one by one and letting them blend together. This is on Arches 140 rough.

There’s another word for them – is it ombré washes!? But can’t think of it off the top of my head.

First layers of Mountains in Guatamala I think. The class was about Granulation which he calls his wet on wet technique. He said he thought he got that term from Edgar A Whitney who taught all the older watercolor painters back in the mid twentieth century. The technique is very similar to Whitney’s as you can see if WordPress ever lets me post the photo.

I got this book quite cheaply used on Amazon. Finding the new word press format oh so annoying still and cumbersome compared to the old format. I find “Improvements” in technology frequently make my life more annoying not less. Thanks for listening to me whine.

I checked Whitney’s book. These are called graded and granulated washes in his book. Two types.

Whitney has some of the best explanations of washes in his book.

The graded wash-Done on paper flooded with water the graded wash is an even gradation of color dark at the top almost white at the bottom. Also called ombré.

The granulated washes are done by flooding with plenty of water. Then tilting the paper back and forth “letting the pigment settle in small basins in the paper.”

This might be a pic of the mountains finished. I really should check.

We started with the sky and water wash. Then we dried it.

Then the far background trees and some on the left which I managed to paint out. Oops.

Then we dried it. Notice a repetition here?? Everything is quite sloppy wet using this technique which can be quite fun.

Last layer was applying the darkest darks. And the boat. All the reflections.

Would I take another class from Don. Definitely. I find some watercolor painters just hurry hurry hurry they the class leaving no time to catch up with the teacher or to dry the watercolor. NEVER a good thing trying to paint on a still damp watercolor.