Category: Daily drawing

Day 735 – Parrot Mountain

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I am off to draw and paint plus a little sock yarn buying therapy as soon as I post.

Parrot Mountain is wonderful. Lovely gardens filled with birds all owner surrendered or rescued. Parrots macaws parakeets and a lot of other exotic birds. 

 The place is just lovely with many quiet spots to sit and enjoy the birds but I was HOT to draw them and did. However the rain was NOT conducive to painting them. 


The Parrots and cockatoos have perches with little straw hats on top. I wish I had one yesterday when it started raining. Finally pouring but the lovely trees in the Parrot  Mountain Gardens saved me from a soaking. 

What are you doing my dear? Drawing. Some of the birds were so curious. 


One of the caretakers. He loves the birds and they love him.  


How’s this for a family portrait you will never forget?! 


Misty A highly endangered Blue Hyacinth macaw in the petting area. This is the bird the movie Rio is based on. 

Misty standing on her head half the time while I tried to draw her. 
There were probably 100 different birds of all types in this area.  

One of the cockatoos showing off for my son. Just the best $20 I have spent in a long time. Thoroughly enjoyed the place. I wish we could have stayed longer but we had a dinner reservation at the Buckhorn Inn and had to leave. We didn’t even have time to change for dinner we stayed so long. 

Drawn in a strathmore mixed media 500 journal with Noodler Konrad and Carbon Platinum plus black ink. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret off to paint something today. Xxx

Day 735 – Yes More France!!!!

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Les Andelys looking up toward Chateau Gaillard – Richard the Lionhearted’s chateau stronghold above the Seine. 

One of the Seine barges steaming toward Le Havre. These boats are just huge. I had no idea they were so long or so fast. I had to draw Quickly!! 

Chateau Gaillard. I drew it twice. This one I messed up and didn’t get the town below in.  I “fixed it” by adding ledger paper and some real French stamps. 

This is what I was trying to draw in the last painting.  I actually like both of  them a lot now.  

The Eglise Saint Sauverers in Les Andelys with Gussie and Bob from Seattle in front of the church.

 Like the church and museum yesterday I first coated it with Quin gold and then a mixed grey of cerulean and burnt sienna. The blacccks are also a mix of burnt umber and ultramarine or Inathrodone blue. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 732- A Great Saturday 

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Or at least my painting this morning turned out well I think. 

An LA Gallery saw it on Instagram and is interested in my work. YEAH Me. 

Anyway. I actually remembered to take in progress pics of her today. I thought you might like to see them. 

The first blocking in. The most important thing I learned this year was how to always get the whole figure on the canvas. You measure her head and use that to get both the height and the width of the figure. 

Who knew??! Only took me two years to discover that. You my dear readers can try it. Works every time. 

You will notice the long vertical lines. They are plumb lines I dropped off her head and shoulder to line her bday up farther down. 
Here she is at thirty minutes of work. 

At the next break. 

Almost done. Oh my goodness she’s not that thick thru the middle that’s her left arm. Duh!  


Here she is done. So far I don’t want to change anything.  A first for me. 

The canvas is toned w Golden Quin Nickel Azo Gold. The defuse is painted with Winsor Titanium White, liquitex flesh, burnt umber, and Thalo blue, plus Golden green gold, dioxzine purple, and pyrrole red Thanks for reading. 

Margaret. 

Day 731 Another Year?!

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Who knows?! Maybe.  


Emily acrylic 24×30″

A face lift!! Remember I only painted in her perhaps an hour and half Saturday. This is a big painting. 24x 30″ in acrylic

I worked a bit on Emilys face yesterday. Especially the mouth and ear. And did more negative painting around the head. 


Here’s her head when I started. Not much of an ear. Lips and Bridge of nose off. Hair to light and brown. Ear flat.   I could go on. 


Emily acrylic 24×30″

Here’s the whole painting now. Worked a bit on the hands – highlight and shadows – and the breasts. She reminds me of a Van Gogh- one of the women he painted Madame somebody. 

Emily Saturday
Colors : Golden Nickel Azo gold and green gold. Liquitex Titanium white flesh pyrrole and cad red light. 

Day 730 – Happy Birthday Blog!!! 

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Happy Birthday Blog!!! Caran d’ache neocolor II on Kilimanjaro 5×7″

Absolutely THRILLED to say  TWO years of posting daily. I started out just trying to post daily for 50 days. I think I made it!! 😊👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Start of an Abstract iii 26×40 Arches 280# elephant sheet 

Have a couple of watercolors ready to paint. I really need to get with it but …..

So what else is up???  Plotting a trip to somewhere -probably France or China. 

Travelzoo had some great deals. $1800 for 14 days in China including air fare may be hard to pass up.

But then there’s a seven day deal in France 4-5 days in Paris, museum passes hop on hop off bus, then off to the French country side around Dijon driving ourselves. Thinking that could be an adventure to remember. 

Raisin full sheet watercolor Fabriano Hot Press just started 
And thinking about  a repeat of the Paris – Normandy Viking Cruise. You say why?! So I can draw Paris, Vernon, Auvers, Normandy and Rouen without being hustled everywhere nonstop while being pampered on the ship. Not bad. 

Never touching a suitcase has its appeals. 

It’s running $1900 including airfare. The southern leg thru Provence is also dirt cheap now. 

So many possibilities. Which will it be. In the meantime heading to the mountains and Key West while we decide. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret dreaming of foreign lands instead of painting. Xxx

Day 728 – That Abstract 

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Abstract 2 – 22×30 For Sale 

Is done. A friend said it looked like a flower unfurling and the more I look at it I think she’s right. 

I added one thick  black squiggly line on to this painting that is in the first picture. Can you find it?  I think it makes a big difference. 

Most of the squiggly lines are strips of paper colored with caran d’ache watercolor crayons though some of the black ones are done with Pitt pen which are India ink markers. 

This was painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette and black. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 727 – A Hmm 

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But off to opthamologist to see if I have a retinal tear so this is all you get today. Maybe I need some glasses because drawing this statue of James Brown on Broad Street was NOT my finest hour. 


Once again I used Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus Daniel smiths green apatite. Love that for trees. The tree tops were sponged with a sea sponge. 

The greys were mixed usually with Quin burnt orange and ultramarine blue. The more color you add the darker the grey is. 

Thanks for checking by. 

Margaret off to the doctor. Xxx

Day 725 Saturday. 

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Marking her up as a WIP. Her profile definitely needs some work but I like the odd colors she’s painted especially the Thalo blue and the golden green gold. A bit of liquitex cad red light, liquitex flesh and titanium white. The background is golden nickel Azo gold and green gold over em white gesso. 

Al Beyers oil

Ilanias

Cathe Dennis charcoal 

Lee Ringler pigma micron  pen 

Ruth Oearls beautiful pastel  


Tom Needhams watercolor


Fred Bakers fun acrylic 

Day 722 – the Miller 

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Named after its owner Frank Miller the theater is an Arte Moderne  theater built in 1938 in downtown Augusta. 

This side of Broad Street rarely gets any direct sunlight and of course it’s the side where all the old stores are. 

Business office buildings are largely on the other side of Broad the sunny side probably because who wants to shop in the hot summer sun??

The onset of the malls in the late 70s destroyed downtown Augusta business and forced the closure of the Miller in 1980s. 

Currently under new ownership of Peter Knox it is slated to reopen fully restored in 2017 as the new home of the Augusta Symphony. 

As kids we went to see Disney movies, Beatle movies, and the umpteenth screening of Gone with the Wind here. I distinctly remember watching Swiss Family Robinson and 101 Dalmatians here. 


Colors used. Ted Nuttalls colors and sodalite. Really like the way the sodalite granulated on the front of the grey stucco building. I also used a white and a light yellow caran d’ache watercolor crayon and a white gel pen for the lights. 

Anyway. Thanks for checking by. 

Margaret xxx