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.

Beach combers

May 22, 2022May 22, 2022Leave a comment

Is done. Lots of wet on wet painting with huge brushes. The whites were not masked before painting. Call it living on the edge.

The sketch on 300# Kilimanjaro cold press

On the palette Aurelian yellow, vermilion, burnt sienna, Thalo blue(joes blue), manganese blue, alizarin, quin magenta.

I tried to fix the sky. When will I learn to never touch a wet sky wash. My downfall in these kinds of paintings. I just can’t resist tweaking and then it’s NOT wet enough and I get a bloom or worse lifted paint.

Hope your Sunday is wonderful. We are getting much needed rain here on the river!!

Margaret xoxoxo

Gone fishing

May 17, 2022Leave a comment

Me fishing. Incredible but it happened today. Actually I was painting in my Hahnemuhle journal while my dh fished. Of course the fish started hitting less than five minutes after he threw out his live bait. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

I can see this one needs work after looking at it just now.

The weather was perfect behind Clarke’s Hill Dam or floating lazily on the river under a turquoise umbrella fishing.

He caught four like this. Two were big enough to keep. The other two were slightly smaller. This one is over 28 inches long a big boy!!

Maggie having a relaxing Sunday after WordPress tried to eat this post. Xoxoxox

Life modeling Finally

April 18, 2022Leave a comment

We had a super model Christine. She held the pose like a rock never moving. Hurrah. And always reset after breaks. Something rarely done by models.

Lots of gesture drawings each 2-5 minutes. Her poses were challenging and interesting. Charcoal on newsprint.

Down in about an hour and a half. 16×20 ish. So I lost the blonde hair. Oops and I made her a little too fat but oh well it was just great to be back drawing. Also went a little grey.

First session. I was determined to draw her in the first 20-25 minute session. And I did hurrah!!! She still needs some work but she may just get tossed in the pile of nudes.

Fluid 140# paper M Graham watercolor

Made a quick trip downtown to the Aiken Center for the Arts. Nice fiber art show from the upstate. And that’s a wrap folks.

Margaret xoxoxo

Mary Whyte and Mom’s 96th Birthday

January 29, 2022January 30, 20222 Comments

Well the time has come to take a class from the famous Mary Whyte. Off to St Simons next week via Dick Blick class in Savannah to spend my gift certificates. You know I “need “ something. Right?

Best part will be hanging out with my friend Karen Schaaf who I haven’t seen since before covid. Karen recently got her NWS signature and will be in the next issue of Splash 22. We can say we knew her when. Met her at Cheap Joes taking a class from the late great Charles Reid. I think I have almost every book he wrote.

I painted this of my mom who turned 96 last Monday a couple of years ago. I call it
“I Told Her to Smile” because I did and she didn’t. Painted on Fabriano 300# hot press. 11×15”

Thinking about repainting it since it looks off to me now. Nose too long and the mouth twitched to the side. And what’s with the light streak across her chin. Bytw mom did NOT like this painting. Never pout mom, never pout.

This is the photo the painting is based on taken on her 90th birthday. A friend said she was concentrating. Maybe so.

Maniacally sewed this baby quilt for my nephew and his wife’s new baby Mary Rose. She is named Miryam after her mothers aunt who died in the Holocaust. And another who survived it.

The back. Kind of wish I had put the yellow print on the front. Oh well. It’s off in the mail hopefully to greet the baby when she comes home this week.

It has the baby’s name in one corner heart her parents in another, her dob in the third and place of birth in the last one.

Really got to finish this. An old 60s VW abandoned in a car port in Athens Ga across the street from my brothers house. And then take it down town to Art on Broad with my other vehicle paintings for Kristin to sell. Maybe a few prints?! Could be an excuse to buy a new printer!!?

Baking bread. One loaf going to a friend for her birthday instead of a cake. We went to see Kingsmen and I treated her to popcorn and a drink since we aren’t eating out right now. We loved it even though the critics didn’t. Kept us in the edge of our seated the whole time.

Bytw NOBODY is at the movies so quite safe. We had the theater to ourselves. Well the top half. A couple that came in after us sat way down in front. Socially distancing! Yeah!!

Slicing my load up to freeze it. Reheats so well as toast or nuke ten min in the microwave. Taste fresh from the oven!! Also tasty as a sandwich.

My favorite red socks. Wore a hole in my other pair. It’s a free pattern from hedgehogfibers.com. It’s called Sprouting. I have probably made a dozen pairs of this sock. This is my second red pair. Wore the heels out of the first which were Malabrigo no poly. These are Madeline Tosh sock. Wears like cast iron. I also have to them in gold, two grey pairs, and turquoise.

A blue heron we saw on our walk. Fishing in the rice paddy where I live. This used to be a river plantation 200 years or so ago. Silly bird thought he was invisible and didn’t budge as I walked toward him. Finally I flapped my arms at him and he took off.

Bytw it’s quite dangerous to get near one of these birds or an egret. They can stab you with their beaks according to the SC Wildlife Department.

My current snuggle quilt. Where are my knitting needles. One more pair of socks almost done.

Margaret under her quilt on the sofa who really needs to pack for her Mary Whyte class next week but heck I can do that tomorrow right?! Xoxoxo

Nuff said

January 23, 2022January 25, 20225 Comments

Snowy Morning
Hahnamuhle 140 Rough
15×20

Been a busy week. And I am tired.

Dada with a D. Aquaboard 11×16”
Think he’s finished. I also think I hate the way WordPress doesn’t work anymore. Makes everything harder. So I don’t want to use it because everytime I do it’s A royal pain.

Won’t load photos. Won’t let you type. “Corrects” words and makes them misspelled. Sigh.

Zoe my live model posing with her portrait. Lol.

Mostly sennelier Pastel on mi teinte 15×20”also used a few Unison. And a variety of other hard pastels.

Did I say I bought a new bigger set of pastels from Amazon. Sennelier of course. Yes I did!! I bought that. It will be here first of February. Can’t wait.

One set of Sennelier wasn’t enough. If Sennelier was good enough for Degas Monet and Picasso – well I need.

So nice and creamy but don’t drop them on the floor. Oops!! Hmmm maybe I need to put a rug down?! Or a towel??

The trees are brown for Pete’s sake yet my phone takes them as black. What the heck?! And the background is much lighter though not as brilliant as in the first picture. What do I need an $800 phone for if it won’t take accurate colors?! Please tell me. Thanks.

This is suppose to be the second to last block but uncooperative Word Press won’t let me move it. Finally got it to move. So aggravating. Makes me
Not want to post for another month or two. Sigh.

Got off my tired self off the sofa and took a picture with my iPad Pro. Much closer to the actual colors though it darkened a bit on the left. If it’s not one thing it’s another right?! See below. I told u the trees weren’t the right color in the photos.

I drew a penguin on this screen shot I took of a Porkchop Zimmerman’s sidewalk crack drawing. It’s a thing like looking at clouds and seeing Mickey Mouse. You can look at sidewalk cracks and draw whacky animals from them. Pork chops side wall cracks probably have SEVERAL animals in them. Lots of fun to do. I have a whole sketch book of them.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox tired from drawing all day.

Really liking this painting

January 11, 2022January 25, 20224 Comments

Was bored on Friday and decided to take a class from artist network taught by Johannes Vloothuis Paint Along 84. How could you go wrong to get three classes for $18.99 on three consecutive Saturdays?! One is acrylic and the last is pastel. What a deal right??!

The reference photo. He also provided a template to trace onto your paper if you needed too. But it was quite easy to draw it.

To quote my friend Mike it was the best watercolor class she had ever taken. I think she might be right. You could text with him on live messaging during the whole class. He explained everything from how to alter your photo to painting a tree. The class was thorough well prepared and the video broadcast was excellent quality. No racing to keep up like you have to do with Vlad Yesileyev or Don Andrews.

People would say demo a fir tree or a palm and he did. Five solid hours of how to at a terrific price.

I finally left while he was demoing a wave. Zoe had to go potty!!

Margaret xoxoxo