My Husband’s Cat

March 10, 20234 Comments

Pumpkin 300# cp Fabriano Artistico may be done. Shes aging right now.

The paper masked and first pour of a variety of purples and blues.

Second pour.
I also added some burnt sienna on the left.

Biggest decision. How to paint all that fur and keep it soft?! 😵‍💫Found a Liz Steele @lizsteelart post on instagram where she used four colors today all of which i happened to have -Daniel Smith French Ultramarine Blue, DS Buff Titanium, DS Monte Amiata and DS Red Iron Oxide which i thought would be perfect for Miss Pumpkin. This is my test page in my Stillman and Birn Alpha. Lots of wet on wet for the fur test.

Before i stripped off the masking. Not a big fan of masking. You have to soften alot of edges after you remove it.

Lots of sharp edges now on her face. I had to lift out some of them by rubbing them w a nylon flat and remove the rest of the masking.

And here she is now. The watermark lettering does not show like that when you look at the painting. I also had tto wet the back of the paper toto wet the back to try to flatten the paper which was

Margaret xoxoxoxo

My Husband’s Cat

March 10, 2023April 1, 2023Leave a comment

The cat masked. I drew the whiskers and the furry hairs on the left w a fine indian ink pen. It can be a bear removing so much masking. Lots of rubbing required.

And here she is now. The watermark lettering does not show like that when you look at the painting. I also had to wet the back of the paper to wet the back to try to flatten the paper which was anything but flat when i was done.

Margaret xoxoxoxo

Chasing the train with Vlad

February 17, 2023February 19, 20232 Comments

Chesky Krumlov, Czech Republic according to Rick Steves a charming cobbled city. One of the chase alongs for WatercolorLive 2023 was to chase Vlad Yesileyev as he painted this charming street scene. You had to paint like mad or get off the Vlad Express Train as it briefly stopped in the Czech Republic.

Mike and I entertained ourselves today by virtually painting together. My power went out just as I got the program working. Sigh. No Wi-Fi no show. So we waited. Then I had to wait til the Murdaugh trial had a break.

My palette finally ready to paint. Exciting stuff right?

My uh tracing. There I said it. I had 18 of these to do. Eeek. This is on Hahnemuhle. I agree with Vlad it’s awesome paper.

First layers. Lots of greys. Zipping down the line.

Adding some darks. Then I kept going. When I get to the end and don’t know what to do I use a thin paint brush and just draw on it so that’s how I got to here.

Not my best but it’s growing on me. I am rusty at chasing Vlad. I got thru the pandemic letting him entertain me on a lot of Sunday’s. He’s so funny and his classes are reasonably priced. I highly recommend them so just go along for the ride on the Vlad Express.

Margaret xoxoxox who is now tahred.

Hand is now cramping

February 6, 2023February 6, 20234 Comments

Almost done. Twelve hours or so just today on this 1/4 sheet. Fabriano Artistico cold press 300#

Endless drawing. Third time. First trace was wrong second draw was lifted by masking. Spent three hours redrawing. Or was it four. 🙃🙃🙃😵‍💫

Now to figure out where to put the masking on the bottle. 😳😵‍💫

Jar masked. Kept dipping the brush in soapy water and drying it off. Also dumped the masking in the lid. Went much easier after I did that. I think asking the whole letter and lifting the mask to paint the dark will be easier than masking the highlight around each one. We shall see

Masking on jar removed. I think it looks awful. so hard to soften those edges that masking leaves.

Quitting for now. Need to work on the jar some more esp 1858 BUT my hands and shoulder are DONE.

Finally standing back from it i think it looks amazing if I do say so myself. since it’s sucked up most of my life for the last few days glad it does.

Margaret xoxoxo where’s the chocolate?

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

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

Fun with David R Smith

July 23, 2021July 23, 20212 Comments

Stay tuned for part two.

Never wear blue readers when you paint. Lots of fast slapping paint around. And splattering water to make dots in the damp paint. Then painting again.

Arches 280# cold press paper

Well who knew I would be painting rocks? But I did. I liked it so much I did two. Another Shopkeeparty class.

And then I took another longer class from David and his friend Bob Ross today. Another crazy fun class. He sweetened the class by giving a 20% discount. Now I am thinking abt buying the video. 😳😳😩

The first layer. Quin gold Andrew’s turquoise alizarin cobalt. Maybe ultramarine?! You can watch the cideo too on Shopkeepartys YouTube channel.

The photo. Just those plain rocks they use in landscaping yes those. If you wet them they are actually colors. Who knew!!

The second one on Hahnamuhle 140 Cezanne. And yes I wore the blue readers again like a dummy. Then I took them off and returned them to Costco. Nowhere on the wrapper did it say they turned everything yellow. But truly why didn’t I take them off. This one is better BUT just think what it would look like if I took off my blue readers DUH!!

Two for one. So this one counts for Friday too. Off to Atlanta tomorrow for the next week. plenty on my phone that you have not seen so I can continue my knitting.

Hate to leave this morning view out my back window but needs musts. Off I go tomorrow.

Hugs Margaret. Xoxoxox

The Fox I hope

May 13, 20211 Comment

Well maybe …in the gates but waiting for the race to start. Hoping not to be an also ran.

The sketch kind of sort of done.
Peachtree Road.
The cars need some more work and I think I will add some more people.

Maybe.
Half sheet Hahnemuhle 15×20” 140# rough

Can I just call this done?!

This is my primary picture I am using. I have a ton of photos of the Fox. I snap them when traffic backs up at the light or just put the phone on the dash and take a surreptitious pic or two.

Using this one to add the tall background building. I think it could be a good painting too. That bright sunlight and great shadows in it.

Currently looking at it upside down to see if anything outrageous stands out. Sometimes they do. Like no focal point. The right hand tower of the Morrish influenced Fox will be my focal point.

Try upside down. You will see it works.

On another subject. New cat on the back porch. Eeek. Worse my cats who are bigger than it are afraid of it and run when it tries to eat their food. Dummies don’t know they are suppose to run it off. Sigh.

In the meantime some good news. Still like this painting. Might be my new fav. Hurrah. I didn’t change a thing today.

Margaret xoxoxo

Over the hill

April 16, 2021April 16, 2021Leave a comment

Rather like this. Might be my fav watercolor I have done lately.

Quarter sheet Hahnamuhle Cezanne 140#

Took a fast 1 hr class with Graham Booth sponsored by Shopkeeparty as an ad for his longer paid class next Th. You can also purchase a downloadable video of the session too and have permanent access to it. As I said John at Shopkeeparty is doing a great service to the art community. It was posted on YouTube today.

I have followed Graham on YouTube for a while and do like to paint along with him when I have time energy and like his subject. The videos he posts are shorter but still interesting.

Graham lives in N Ireland. At what other time could you be in Ga and take a class from someone live in N Ireland?! Zoom makes it possible.

The photo. Somewhere in Scotland but could be in the Blue Ridge so that’s what I am going with.

First wash. Sky way to pale.

Always amazed at how it changes when you add some darks. Mix of quin gold and ultramarine. I think.

Hmmm🧐🧐

Splat the buildings were done. Some of the foreground. Cad red on the roofs. Burnt sienna ultramarine for greys. Ultramarine and alizarin for the purple. More green in the foreground. Splattering red for flowers and I think yellow.

And then we were fine. Adding a few shadows and more darks in the foreground.

Zoe telling me to get up yesterday.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Field of flowers

April 15, 2021April 15, 20212 Comments

You know one of the things That is a good side effect of the pandemic is all the zoom classes with famous artists that you could never afford to take from in person. And no travel. Do it at your favorite painting table. A win win if there is one in this hideous pandemic.

Today I took a class with Keiko Tanabe on shopkeeparty.com. she just zips along. This class went alot better than thenlast one I took with her so I may do another.

Quitting now. I worked on my sky a bit. And splattered a lot with white gouache, cad yw, opera, and some Joe’s Andrew’s Turquoise. Softened a few edges. Lightened a few spots that had gotten too wet to paint the bushes on and gone dark.

The photo

Will try again with a different building on Hahnamuhle rough instead of Kilimanjaro cold press. Let’s see how it does.

The sketch. Not much to it is there?! Kilimanjaro 300# cold press.

First wash. Dry brushing once I remembered to. Oops. Scratching in the field a bit. And splattering the green to simulate followers. The sky omg. Puffballs. Eek.

Progress. Using my cheap Joe’s Scroggys loose goosy, a kind of saber brush, to paint the flowers – all those lines. It also makes great hair, branches and sometimes telephone lines.

Adding details and darks. Trees and bushes. It was still to wet to do a lot of these but I plowed on chasing Keiko.

NEVER drink espresso Before Doing phone lines. Wobbly lines. Sigh.

Finally remembered how to dry brush trees. Added some neutral tint and some yellow ochre and alizarin to the sky. More cobalt too.

Thought it was done. But eeek. That hard edge under the house bushes. Had to wipe them out some.

And done.

If you are interested in taking online classes. Shopkeeparty.com offers all kinds of art classes twice a week. Every Tues am there’s a one hour one that is free to the public on YouTube. There’s also an extensive backlog of videos on YouTube all free for the watching on Shopkeeparty. John Harrison who runs it has been doing these for a year now. Another COVID benefit. He’s in England. His artists are all over the world.

Margaret xoxoxox who should sell some art to pay for the expensive sliding door that’s getting g replaced. Salesman coming today. Eeekk.