Day 1021 Fealing Lin

May 9, 2017Leave a comment

Fealing Lin is the next teacher at Cheap Joes. She’s so adorable and such a terrific teacher. We would have been in her class except she was booked back to back with Charles Reid first.

Watching the demo on the big tv at Cheap Joes during class.

This morning there was a little knock on our door about 7:20 am. It was Fealing. She asked us to come by and see her so we did!! What a treat!!

She started her painting while we were there. This is the initial washes. She had already drawn the painting before class.

Her palette. Her two favorite colors are Cheap Joes American Journey Hot Mama and Andrews Turquoise.

Her paint brushes. I have the same paintbrush folder and have been trying to keep it clean. Scratching that off my list.

A few of her portraits.

Always liked this old guy.

A lot of great ladies.

This is from an old photo.

Love her great old men.

What a smile. Beautiful portrait.

Margaret off to dinner with Fealing Lin and Cheap Joes. Xoxoxo

Day 2018 Its Saturday

May 6, 2017Leave a comment

And we decided to spend another nite in Boone.

Did I say I bought this Charles Reid painting. Best thing that’s happened to me since I got Beatle tickets with the possible exception of my grandchildrens birth.

Charles Reid wearing his new “happiness and security hat” as Judy Reid called his new hat that she bought for him at the Mast General in Valley Crucis.

Mike Gant and I wearing our Charles Reid happiness and security hat at the Mast General in Valley Crucis.

The original the Mast General in Valley Crucis.

A good looking gentleman was sitting at one of these empty tables ar the Wild Craft Eatery today. I just had to draw him and he almost busted me. He also kept moving his hands so I messed those up.

Here’s a picture of where he was sitting and the sketch.

The sketch. Not the best. Took maybe five minutes. I was so afraid he would catch me. He was sitting less than six feet from me.

And a bit of its Saturday done by

My friend Drew Murphy back in Aiken. 2×3′ acrylic alla prima.

Day 2016 How many flowers

May 4, 2017Leave a comment

Was thinking I would NEVER paint another flower when I did this one yesterday. I guess til you get it right. Painting like crazy!!! This one was wrong … well at least the flowers. Had no clue how to paint yellow flowers.

This is what I was looking at!

So I moved things around and tried again. Charles pronounced this one a great success. Thinking it needs some more splatters and where’s the chickens eye. Great paint brush apple tubes and teapot. I can nail that fruit. Why did I think I wanted to paint that yellow bouquet.

Enough for tonite. Worn out so BED time.

Ttyl Margaret having too much fun in Boone. Xoxox

Day 2014 I am HERE!!

May 2, 20175 Comments

In Boone NC at Cheap Joes. Hanging out with Charles Reid and his adorable wife Judy. And Joe Miller aka Cheap Joe is here too. Such great people. And my friend Mike and her husband Alan.

In the class of 18 we have had the first of May class with at least the same 7 or 8 people now for three years so we are all getting to be friends. Several of them were in my class in Charlotte too – a small world of watercolor painters.

So what did we paint today?! FLOWERS AND more FLOWERS.

This is Charles’ painting from today. He takes a break every 20 minutes. It took him maybe two hours to paint this. Down by 11:30. Sigh. One day.

This is what he was painting. Judy said they had large decoy collections at their house in Nova Scotia. No surprise there. He always paints his decoys.

His paint box. This box costs about $500. He finally bought it because he was going thru $80 Holbein palettes like mine every two years. This one will last him forever.

Ok so what did I paint today?! This is it. Well one of them. Half sheet of Fabriano 300# cold press. My almost Charles Reid!!

Ttyl. Time for bed. All this painting is exhausting. Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1007 All About the Raisin or is it Horses!?

April 24, 2017Leave a comment

If this painting of Raisin looks familiar it is. I started her last summer. I had also started a large watercolor earlier of the same photo when Al coopted it for an acrylic for school. He didn’t like the other photo I suggested.

Then she hung around the Aiken art studio waiting to have a few problems resolved like the upper corner and th iPhone.

Before you think I am obsessing over my friend Raisin the third photo is a study for the large full sheet watercolor and I really want to finish it after spending all day sketching it.

I decided to add the horse her Freisian Harley when I was taking Peggi Habits class in Charlotte and make the painting the Raisin story. She loves to ride and she loves her Freisian Harley.

I am meeting Harley soon but used a photo of a Freisian I took at the flat track races last month. Friesians are all big black and just gorgeous. Fairy tale horses with big curly manes and tails.

Here’s what it looked like before the gesso!!

I gessoed out the whole upper left -the picture frame and the iPhone that was in her hand in the original photo.

Then Al dissed the horse idea. WHAT?!! Too late. The gesso had done its work.

The photo from our Knoxville painting trip.

Here’s the watercolor study. The Freisian is too small. Bigger next time. It’s about 10×15″ Why do big?

I swore I would never do another tiny horse after doing this one last month. He may look great but he took HOURS ago do. Way too long for an 8×10″ painting.

What u say next time?! Still have that big watercolor to do. I only spent most of a day drawing it. And I AM going to paint it. Third times the charm right?!

Margaret whose hungry and going to eat.

Ttyl xoxoxo

Day 999 One more day.

April 16, 2017April 16, 2017Leave a comment

Happy Easter everyone. Raisin Carter. The chief instigator of all her friends showing up at Peggis class aka Leader of the Pack. I had fun stamping her name. I think she was a little tired from all the fun we had in Charlotte. We wore her out!!

Julie whose taking Charles Reid’s class in May at Cheap Joes with me. Wish I had taken a photo of her interesting basketball player that she was working on.

The ink sketches. Sometimes you should just leave them ink. I wasn’t using my normal skin tones of Quin coral and Quin gold. I used Quin rose and yellow ochre. So the paintings are a little dark.

They were painted with Quin rose, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, mineral violet, and pyrrole red. Oh and sepia for a dark brown.

Ink pen Lamy Safari filled with Carbon Platinum Black ink in a strathmore mixed media 500 journal. Love their crispy paper. Just wish they would lie flat like the Stillman and Birns do.

Happy Easter. Margaret hanging out with the grandkids who are on sugar overload xoxox

Day 994 – Peggy Habet’s class

April 11, 2017April 12, 2017Leave a comment

I drew Peggy several times during class. This was the last time and looks the most like her. Fourth time the charm. She was hard to draw with a long thin nose and a tiny face.

The nose kept overpowering her tiny face when I drew her. This was the first try. And then I painted her too dark so I scrubbed her a little to lighten her up. I did have fun stamping her name and embellishing the page with a watercolor pencil.

Go round three. Nose still too big. Eeekkk. The hair is a combo of thalo and sepia.

Number four. TOO Dark!!!’ What the heck.

Better. But the face was too wide and not oval enough. I could make it narrower by adding hair.

I painted on my class sketches most of the day. Guess it’s time to do those color studies.

Margaret xoxoxo whose having a painting day.

Day 987 Polo!

April 5, 2017April 4, 2017Leave a comment

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!!

Day 985 Some Rachel time

April 3, 2017Leave a comment

A good way to start a Monday!

This ones a little busy but it was a busy day on Thursday. For that matter so was Friday.

Oddly I noticed Rachel looks a little tired in this sketch. If I hadn’t deleted it I would go back and look at it to see if she was. Those kinds of things turn up in sketches even if you don’t notice them while you are watching.

I actually think I might like this better unpainted. Oh well. As you can tell the news continues to astound me. The spy novel keeps building and building.

As Chuck Lorre posted after Big Bang “our best hope to save the day is an eighty year old slab of beef jerky from Arizona(McCain) and his trusty sidekick Scarlett O’Hara(Lindsey Graham)!!

Off to bed. Ttyl.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 984 Alex and Willie

April 2, 2017April 2, 2017Leave a comment

Every Sunday I watch CBS SUnday Morning. My fav bits on it are the partsabout artists or singers people stuff. And this show is crammed with them. Alex was on this am talking about his 45 impersonations. Hard to resist sketching him. He morphed into 45. The mans definitely making me political!!

The background was Quin gold but not enough contrast w the head. Like the orange one better. After all he is the Orange One”

Have always loved Willie and meant to just draw him. He just popped onto the page. What’s not to love about an 84 year old who says “we woke up and we are still not dead!”??

Think they are done. Maybe. Trying to resist the urge to scribble on them in the background with a soft dark pencils. So many quotable quotes from them both.

Painted on 280# Arches Cold Press with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus cerulean, hematite and cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise. Pen pentel brush pen.

Ttyl Going to try my hand at horses today.

Margaret taking a walk in the park today too.