Done

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023Leave a comment

Daisies so I tweaked it a bit more today. I have to say Irena Roman gave the best directions. I wrote them down during her session at Watercolorlive 2023 then offline I religiously followed them. The only thing I would do differently is make a bigger one. All that work and it’s only 1/4 sheet of fabriano 300# cold press. Next one at least a half sheet.

Usually pouring you mix the colors on this page. Can’t wait to try Linda Bakers approach but this one you mixed them in a cup, masked the figure and sprayed the sheet with a spray bottle then flooded it with three layers of color.

The masking was endless ruined a brush in the process and took a half an hour of hard running to get off but it’s definitely interesting to play with. Didn’t make a huge mess.

Colors used. Well only five or six. Inanthrodone blue dioxizine purple viridian ultramarine violet and quin gold for the flooding.

Cad yellow aureolin cobalt teal and a few oddball greens for the leaves and details. Thalo blue added to the mix of blues for the jar.

I actually used a 2 and a 4 Isabey kolinski painting these. I don’t know when I last used those brushes. An 8 is small for me!

Margaret xoxoxo who forgot to upload this yesterday. Oops.

@IrenaRoman and @ericrhodes #300fabriano #watercolor #transparentwatercolor #watercolorlive2023 #watercolorartist #watercolorpainting #watercolorsketch #watercolorist #watercolorillustration #watercolordaily #watercolorpaintingartist

Watercolor Live 2023 post hmm

February 5, 2023Leave a comment

Started working on Irena Romans class today.

She showed us her home studio today. I want one like hers.

The background is poured. A whole lot of options for messy Margaret to flood the world with blue. Eeek.

A whole Lot Of Masking. Ruined the old paint brush I was using. Oh well.

One pour down and two to go. So far so good. It’s a mix of inathradone blue ultramarine violet dioxizine purple and viridian.

Bytw I covered my chair seat which is cloth w plastic put on my old slippers and an apron wished I had a plastic one. 😳

Pour number 2. Looks dangerous and a total mess.

Number two dry. Supposedly it keeps the paint transparent. Not to sure abt that.

Last pour is now drying. I added quin gold to the mix per the instructors directions. Amazing how dark it got.

Last pour and no catastrophes yet!! 🙃😂. Next up removing all that masking. Can’t see how this was better than a wash. Hmm

Be sure to check out Irenas site. Her paintings are phenomenal.

In the middle of all this I was making my friend Mikes Cream of chicken rice and mushroom soup. DH said it was the best soup ever. He even cleaned up the kitchen. Yeah. Margaret xoxoxox

Santorini

February 3, 2023Leave a comment

A fun paint with George Politis a lovely Greek guy who was such a helpful concerned teacher. He was worried I had a question about masking. And offered any help. I didn’t for him – it was for the teacher before him like why couldn’t you tell us we needed to mask BEFORE class. Not a lot to ask. He walked us thru this painting in a concise simple easy to understand manner with great results. I really enjoyed his class and would take from him again. He also has quite a few videos on YouTube though I have not had time to look.

Still slogging away at the blue black background washes. Tomorrow I am painting them no matter what else happens.

No idea how many times I have glazed these. But I think I might be done. Will sleep on it for now. Gorgeous blue. Prussian blue layer then a black layer repeat ad nauseum til it’s lovely. Now for those darn fruit. Fabriano 300# cold press

Yesterdays sunset got better and better till it was just glorious. Today nothing but grey skies. Oh well you can have gorgeous everyday.

Margaret whose tahred xoxoxo

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 @

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 @

Plein Aire Fishing

May 27, 2022May 27, 20222 Comments

Well while he fishes I paint.

Flags flying at half staff on the Thurmond Dam.

The sketch. The only pencil I had was a thick leaded 2B derwent sketch pencil. Yes I forgot a regular pencil too. Sigh. You know when fisherman are ready to go they are ready to go. 😂😂😂

Off course I didn’t finish them. Left the big wash brushes at home. Both of these were painted with a tiny size 4. I rarely use anything smaller than a 10!

Both are fairly small. 1/4 sheet 140 arches rough. The pad just fits in my painting bag so I took it along.

Will finish these when I get home but off to moms memorial so these will languish on the studio table while I am gone.

Mom at 90. She does recently from Covid. Refused to get the shots.

On her 90th. She was 96 when she died in April. RIP Lucy June!

Maggie xoxoxo

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.

Pepes

May 24, 2022Leave a comment

Oldest eating establishment in Key West is their Moniker.

Margaret xoxoxox who needs to do a whole series of Key West quirky places.

Across from the Key West Bight.

This place serves the most awesome coconut pie you will ever eat. I ran across this sketch when I was looking for photos of Chrystalline creative in my superaquabee sketchbook and really like it a lot so thought I should publish it.

Pepe’s Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 C Graham Crumbs

1/4 C Sugar

6 T Butter melted

Stir all together and press in 9-10″ pie pan

Filling

3 Egg Yolks

2 t Coconut Extract

1/2 C Sugar

3 Heaping T cornstarch

3 C Half and Half

1 C Flaked and Sweetened Coconut

1/2 C Heavy Cream

mix yolks and extract, set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch , half and half in heavy sauce pan over medium high. Bring to boil stirring constantly.

The recipe for Pepes Coconut Pie.