Day 1053 – Politics

June 8, 2017Leave a comment

Hard to avoid it today. It’s all over the tv the radio Facebook twitter. I don’t know about you but the last few days have been riveting. THIS IS WATERGATE!! 14×20 Mixed Media

Enough to get Rachel Maddow back from her sick bed where she had been for almost two weeks.

I got the brilliant idea to do this one on arches #140 cold press. BIG a mistake. Hard to write on with any ink pen or marker I had.

I finally picked up a Japanese brush pen I thought had permanent ink. I tested it on a scrap of paper. It didn’t run.

Fast forward to all the heavy lines in this sketch are done with that brush pen especially on Dan Coats.

When I started painting him he turned into a gray runny mess. This was supposed to be a watercolor. EEEKKKK.

I dug into my mixed media art supply grove. Caran d’ache Neocolor ii to the rescue. I started coloring. I lightened him up. The only person that didn’t have some runs was Comey. 😳

A lot of the letters ran. The names!! Eeeekkk. On this rough paper there was no clean edge. Tried a grease pencil which works great in my sketchbooks. NOPE TOO rough.

Got out a white gel pen on the letters. Better!! Got out a paint pen. Even better. More outlining with the Lamy Safari.

Done. Whew. Not what I had in mind BUT finally pleased with it.

Margaret planning another but it will be on hot press paper. Xoxoxo the news is calling.

Day 1052 – Take a Hike Mr President Key West #3

June 7, 2017June 7, 2017Leave a comment

Found a few more that I hadn’t posted. The Shark cruise. Guess they won’t be around. No clean water. It’s already pretty bad in the Gulf.

All this would be underwater.

And this fun whacky restaurant on the waterfront.

And my favorite wacky restaurant Blue Heaven. Such delicious food and awesome chickens. never tire of the crazy chickens in Key West.

And my other favorite spot Louie’s backyard eatting on the water enjoying delicious Caribbean breezes. All gone with global warming.

Sad that it would disappear.

My sis in law who doesn’t believe in global warming would be very said at Key Wests submergence beneath the waters. Here favorite spot in the world.

One of my favorites too.

Busy day. Off I go. Setting up for a flower painting. If only they stay alive long enough.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1051 Take a Hike Mr President #3

June 6, 2017Leave a comment

And what about where I live? Will the houses along the Savannah be in the Savannah?!

Will downtown Augusta be underwater?! And the island across from me already underwater sometimes. Will it be gone?!

Will the Savannah be 600 yards wide here instead of 300?!

I keep asking.

Nobody can answer me.

And you know 45 doesn’t care about our little spot of gorgeous earth.

Will

All

Be gone or

Bigger ?!

Or what?!

Ttyl Rachel Maddow is back tonite. I knew she wouldn’t be able to miss the recent NSA leak. Off to shower so I will be ready

Xoxoxox

Day 1046 – Let’s Make A French Omelette!

June 1, 2017Leave a comment

Ever since I read Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a child I have been in love with the notion of all things French and especially the quintessiantal French food – the omelette.

But I never could figure out how they made that neat rolled omelette.

Watching Jacques Pepins American Master show on PBS I thought YOUTUBE!!

Sure enough. There he was teaching how to cook an omelette.

Omelette Number 1 of course I had to draw it to commemorate the occasion.

First mistake I had been making was not using the right pan so I got it a big 10-12″ round edged skillet that was coated w the green coating that releases easily.

And I hadn’t been using the spatula to scrape around the edges as I cooked. Who knew?

And I stuffed mine. Trying to eat those greens and I had to have some Cheddar cheese.

The most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I swear. Not so pretty but amazing.

Omelette 2 Today.

Prettier shape but too brown.

Anyway colors used to paint it. Cad yellow light, cerulean, yellow ochre, green apatite and sap green for the plate, Ultramarine Blue and burnt umber for the shadow.

TIP: Splattered with palette mess left from painting. Has to be really soupy to splatter. Use more water than you think. And I just use a large paint brush in this case my 10 Da Vinci. I also painted this with the same paint brush.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1044 – That Dirty Dried out Palette

May 31, 2017Leave a comment

Now that I am home for a day or two I wanted to use my Ted Nuttall palette. This is actually Teds Palette.

All those lovely transparent colors.

And it helped with my procrastination mode getting started painting the Raisin and Harley painting

which is finally transferred to paper and ready to paint.

Of course my Palette has dried out and filthy. They always dry out!! It needed revival and cleaning. Another way to procrastinate!!! The spray bottle was not getting the job done. The colors were lumpy and nasty.

So how did I get it clean and get the paint smooth and ready to use!?

First I sprayed it and tried stirring each color with its own tooth pick. That did not do much for the lumps. I wanted to paint!!!

I got out my trusty old palette knife. It has a tiny blade on it compared to most so it fit perfectly in the wells of my porcelain palette.

I used a jillion Kleenex wiping wells out where there was just a dribble of old hard paint. NO LOTION On those Kleenex.

I started bending my antique palette knife in some of the paint. Oh NO!! I kept going. What palette knife is supposed to last forever!?

I decided to rearrange the colors. Here and there I had added colors I MUST have to the basic Nuttall Palette like Cerulean, Andrews Blue, Daniel Smith Piemonite and Green Apaptite.

The Kleenex and the palette knife left crusts of color in the corners.

Then I realized I could fill the wells with water and used an old brush to swirl out the bits left in corners. Hallelujah clean wells at last.

I used a sharpie to rewrite the colors on the edges of the wells and I even have a few leftover slots.

So it’s new clean and lovely at this point.

What I learned while cleaning my palette.

Wear rubber gloves while cleaning your palette unless you want to have colored fingernails. 😱
Those dollar store Kleenex with lotion have something wierd in them. They gave me a rash when I used them on my nose. 😱😱 Now gone. 🤗🤗🤗
Now I know why some people have stacks of these palettes. It might be easier to just buy a new palette than clean the old one out.

Margaret who has some painting to do. Xoxox and no more reasons to procrastinate because I even cleaned up the studio and moved to the summer one aka the kitchen table and island.

Oh wait I need to use the glass cleaner on the winter studio table. It’s looking hazy. Procrastinate procrastinate. I need some flowers to paint!!

🌼🌻🥀🌷🌷🌸🌺🌼🌻🥀🌹🌷🌸🌺

Day 1043 – Chuck and Judy 3 or is it Brenda and Judy?!

May 30, 2017May 30, 20172 Comments

I don’t know about you but I can’t take enough classes with Charles and Judy Reid. I highly recommend them.

Did I say I own all of his books but one and several videos?!!

Brenda and Christine Again! – Charles Reid class

And evidently I can’t draw Brenda the Blonde- enough either.

The third time in Charles class.

Brenda and Rebecca – Peggy Habets class

. I have drawn her at least FIVE times because she stands and watches the teacher paint and she’s handy to draw. Some turnout better than others.

Oops way too dark.

I usually draw her pretty well but sometimes thempainting goes astray like in this one. Too dark.

But the sketch was great.

One more Brenda in Ted Nuttalls class May 2016.

Christine in Ted Nuttalls class May 2016.

Margaret whose going to paint raisin and Harley if I can quit watching the Keepers today on Netflix’s. Riveting show. Highly recommend.

Xoxoxo

Day 1036 – The Farrier

May 23, 2017May 28, 2017Leave a comment

I took a great photo of Raisins farrier when he was showing Harley and Beau a couple of weeks ago.

He has luxurious mustaches.
Here’s the photo I took in the barn when he took a quick break.

Filing shaving who knew it was such a job. Not to speak of holding up the foot of such a large beast. Harley is 17.2 hands. A big fellow!

As you can see it’s hard work shoeing horses. They have been known to sit on farriers while their shoes are being changed.

I was surprised he was all done in about an hour. Busy guy!!

The sketch. Drawn on 140# cold press fluid paper.

Marking progress.

At this point he’s pretty scary looking. The shadows on his cheek look too dark.

Not fond of the no lost edges look of his head. Every thing was too hard edged. Not what I had envisioned. So I left him here to think about it overnite.

Besides I had to watch the last show of Call the Midwives. LOVE that series. Now I can watch it all over again. Yes I have it on DVR!

Here he is with the beard in progress and some background added. Starting to loose some edges. I decided to do him what I do when I don’t like the way a painting is going. Add some sloppy dots.

Once you don’t like a painting it’s a good opportunity to just mess with it.

I started reading this great watercolor book that Raisin gave me. Ran across his art at Cityart when I went on the Vista Gallery Walk last month and was thrilled to find he had a book.

One of the things he suggested was spraying the hard edges with a spray bottle?! WHAT?? Yes SPRAY the edges to loose them.

So I hit the background with the spray bottle. What a great effect. Juicy runny spotty color. LOVE The effect.

Did the same thing on the left background. And swished it with a big brush.

Love the speckles the runs and then the light areas. Try it. Such fun!!

It did leave a few horizontal drips on the left that I didn’t like but a few swipes with Mr Clean and zip they were gone.

See?! All gone! Got to love fluid paper for its liftability.

Yesterday I didn’t like the dark ick colored shadows on his cheek. Funny today they don’t bother me. I guess time fixes paintings as well as the heart. Lol!

So he’s done for now. Fixating on his mouth and that hard edge Sean on his shoulder. Oh well nothing’s ever perfect. Going redraw him on an offer sheet of 300# paper today.

Margaret who has to get drawing now. Xoxox

Day 1034 Best one yet

May 21, 2017May 22, 20174 Comments

This is number ten flower painting. And all my friends think it’s the best one. I agree. I softened all the right edges and lost some. I let it drip and run and mingle the color like watercolor does so well. I got the essence of flowers without the exact flower being painted.
I think it’s actually due to the change in paper. I used up the last of my old Fabriano block so I dug out a pack of fluid 140# cold press which is what Charles Reid recommends.

It seems to have a slidy effect due to the sizing when you add water to the color. This was painted by adding full strength watercolor on a dry #10 da Vinci brush then adding water. It uses a lot of paint but well worth it for the effect.

Of course the slidy effect could have been due to the fact that I had painted this at almost a vertical angle.

So I googled it to read reviews of it. North Light said

“Work wonders in watercolor with Fluid watercolor paper!

Fluid Watercolor Paper is crafted in a European mill (Schut) which produced its first paper stock in 1618. Mill masters craft small batches at slow speeds allowing for finer control of quality. This slow approach produces a sheet of great strength that shares much of the working integrity of more expensive mold-made papers.”

And Roz Stendhal who is diligent in her art material reviews uses it all the time. She said it’s 100% cotton hand made artist grade paper. The blocks are much cheaper than arches and you frequently can find a deal on it. Right now Cheap Joes is offering it with a free sample pack of 20 8×10 sheets with the purchase of three packs.

However she’s not so fond of the hot press. Has a slight pattern when it dries.

I will say I found it annoying when the paint slid off these fruit to make dark shadows under them but today I quite like the effect.

Time to go fruit and flower shopping. I ate the apple and the orange yesterday and the flowers well they are looking raggedy!

Next up trying the ferrier on this fluid paper. If it’s good enough for Charles Reid and Roz it’s good enough for me. Hmm evidently their paper was in the republished Audubon catalog in 1972.

Ps Cheap Joes is offering a good deal on Fluid paper. A 20 sample pack free when you buy three Fluid products. I do love JOe and his company. Great humanitarians spreading the joy of art!

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake.

Ttyl Margaret getting ready for brunch and a lazy rainy Sunday. As Oprah says no demands on a rainy day! Xoxoxo

Day 1033 Those darned teapots!

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017Leave a comment

In every class you take there is usually very useful fact that sticks out that you learn.

I have learned that rubbing alcohol dissolves and removes acrylic paint even when it dries.
I learned about Mr Clean erasers in my first Charles Reid class in Atlanta and have been using them ever since.
In John Salimens class I learned about masking taping your painting when you use a Mr Clean on your painting. That way you can hone in on an exact spot.

For some reason when I drew the above painting I decided it would be a great idea to put the teapot behind the leaf. DUHHHH!

I absolutely loathed it when I was done. As no doubt you know that might mean the painting was ruined. So yesterday I decided to lift it with a Mr Clean and masking tape. It couldn’t hurt it.

Here is the top of the teapot taped off and the star on top of it.

And here it’s all erased in one swipe and a blot with a Kleenex.

I had to do the spout twice. Once to remove the leaf over it. And once to correct my not so great painting of the inside of the spout.

This is the tape job before I lifted the color off the spout.

And here’s the spout after I swiped with the Mr Clean. Be sure to use clean water and a clean sponge.

Here’s the spout and the top repainted after lifting with the Mr Clean.

And here’s the painting now. I also went back in and added some carmine to the lilies in the left. They were too purple.
And I tried to soften their edges. Those darn Lilies are asuch a pain. Always sticking out.

Ttyl time to paint. Margaret whose thinking of giving the droopy flowers one more go round.

Day 1029 -Another Flower Painting

May 17, 2017May 18, 2017Leave a comment

If at first you don’t succeed try try again. Love the flowers. The teapot not so much. So I drew another at 11 last nite.

I turned the bouquet around. Some of the yellow daisies are already drooping so better get busy painting this one. Stay tuned.

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake, sap green.

Ttyl Margaret whose playing bridge today. Xoxoxo