Day 840 Almost a nightmare.

October 25, 2016October 25, 2016Leave a comment

The pen I used on this page was not one of my normal ones. THE INK LEAKED WHEN I TRIED TO PAINT THE PAGE with a light blue tombow pen. EEEKKK.

So I painted almost all the letters grey with water thinking I would stop there. I painted All but the numbers which is why the letters are a darker red. I blotted alot of the excess ink with kleenex and take out napkins.

When the numbers did behaved ok I decided to go back over the grey letters with the same red marker. And a dark red resulted…not the lite blue I had in mind BUT when catastrophe strikes you have to make lemonade right?

Then I colored the background with what I thought was a yellow marker…it was really orange…oh well …I wet it and lifted alot of it too with the kleenex heap which was growing.

Not bad but I will not be using that pen again unless I want the ink to run. Here’s a picture of the offending pen. Its a Japanese pen with a brush on one end and a really fine point on the other end.

I tried to go with the bleedy color. It occasionally got me into trouble as I colored and painted. So I blotted some more with the growing heap of kleenex!
I used tombow markers and a couple of caran d’ache neocolor ii crayons on this. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal a lovely crispy paper. Highly recommend this one or stillman and birns series. Great sketchbooks for watermedia.

Ttyl

Margaret off to the y for yoga!!😳xoxox

Day 641 PCM and the t shirt

April 4, 2016April 4, 2016Leave a comment

Really loving this sketch of PonceCity Market Szechuan Restaurant. Love the dragon. Strathmore 500 watercolor paper carbon platinum black ink in carbon fine tip pen.

Repainting the tshirt sketch as promised. Hope to deliver it Tuesday to Rhineharts.
Letting the ink dry so no smears on it. Ink smears are so annoying and so unpredictable. A kin to letting paint dry!!!
I usually don’t use pencil but since it’s a redo of the original sketch which has a split page from the sketchbook it’s a necessity if the restaurant is to have it.

The sketchbook.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx

Day 635 Ponce City Part two or three?!

March 28, 2016Leave a comment

Szechuan Restaurant and Bar
I had a perfect seat to have another go at this dragon. I think I did a better job at the perspective this time.

While there is a lot I like about this the perspective on that bar is wild and I still think the people look like the walking dead.

A nervy young couple say not two feet from me between the restaurant and me blocking my view. First time that has ever happened.

I kept craning my head to look around them as I drew. They never noticed nor did they notice when I took this picture of them.
I really should turn them into a large painting similar to the one I am working on now.

Waiting at Waffle House which no loner looks like this. Who could resist those crosses arms and those faces?!

Ponce City Market looking toward the Beltline stairs. No walking dead in this sketch.

Taped down and reading to watercolor.

The Cuban restaurant LL Superpan.

All three Ponce City Restaurants are drawn with the very fine tip pilot pen with Carbon Platinum Black ink on Strathmore 500 watercolor paper which is lovely paper. I can’t wait to use it. Takes the color so well.

A tea towel from French Silver Shop. Sooner or later I will buy some. I just can’t pick which one.

Ohhhhh

Ahhhhhhhh

We were “hangry” from all the oohing and ahing, the walking, the two hour drive, the packing, the loading of the car. Which restaurant would we choose?? There were so many.

Marakeesh Mediterranean Market North Africa East of Atlanta

We decided that though the hamburgers smelled oh so delicious wafting thru the air we were not doing burgers. So many restaurants how did we choose?!

We got food from Marakeesh Market because there was a small line and well it was just exotic to eat Moroccan food.

The potato stuffed burekas,tahini, Israeli pickles and Israeli salad which looks just like feggous – a Morrocan tomato and cucumber salad except for added radish sticks were all just simply delicious. I can’t decide which item I liked best. Best pickles ever. Perfect iced tea.

Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx

Day 570 – A quickie

January 24, 2016Leave a comment

Thought that would get your attention. I shop too much at Costco and these are just Some of the things that I bought on two trips- one to pick up croissants and one to pick up those luscious new crop strawberries.

I also bought a dog bed and four pounds of butter. 😋

Two friends and I were doing lunch when we started talking about we had on jeans we had bought at Costco the Amanda by Gloria Vanderbilt.

And of course we had a good laugh about what else we were wearing that’s as bought at Costco like my boots.

Next time we need to do lunch at Costco aka sample heaven in the afternoon. Hard to resist those impulse purchases.

Yesthe Florida strawberries are in!!

I may go back and paint the background yellow. I meant too but got carried away on a map for my sons weddings save the date in September.

Colors. The letters started out as cobalt but were too pale so I added Inathrodone to them. Cad red on strawberries. All the green is hookers w cobalt. Same on the hydrangea and strawberry tops. Blacks are Inathrodone and burnt umber or burnt sienna.

Currently dyeing a mouse brown scarf red.

Right now it’s a nice rust but going to dunk it in food coloring since I already used all the koolaid. It’s soaking in vinegar and water for the next go round. If that doesn’t work back to Krogers for more tropical punch.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 542 – that travel journal

December 25, 2015December 26, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷Or breakfast at the Rochester hotel.

A lavish spread. Heaps of croissants and tasty rolls. Several kinds of delicious cheeses, quiche, home made yogurt and the list goes on and on. There was even some kind of baked chicken and veg. 👀

🇫🇷If you didn’t like what they had you could order whatever you wanted. I always ordered an omelet. We were up so early I did’t want to get hungry before we found a place to eat lunch!! And of course since it was a buffet we tried lots of goodies-perhaps only a bite.

🇫🇷This lady sat next to me at breakfast one day. I knew she would not notice me drawing her since she was engrossed in her IPad.

🇫🇷Strathmore mixed media 500 paper, Noodler Konrad pen, platinum carbon black ink, Daniel smith, winsor Newton, and Holbein watercolor.

🇫🇷 I think I left my heart in France when it’s not in Decatur with my grandkids. 😢 I dream about it a lot!!

Merry Christmas🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄

Thanks for reading.

Day 519 – In Search of Aux Merveilleux de Fred in the Marais

December 13, 2015Leave a comment

Aux Merveilleux – each a bit of meringue clothed with whip cream topped with anything from cherry to coconut or chocolate or coffee. Seven flavors! We had been told they were incrediblé! A true taste experience.

We only had time to press our noses against the glass and marvel at the Merveilleux marching in rows upon rows of many colors as we marched toward the Hôtel de Ville. ViTe ViTe!

Just time to snatch a quick photo of the name and address Aux Merveilleux de Fred Rue de Rivoli and Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe. ViTe ViTe! Here’s the website! http://www.auxmerveilleux.com/home_en/ 

A moment more to longingly gaze into the interior of Aux Merveilleux de Fred. Quelle chandelier! Fantastique! ViTe ViTe! More to see! Time is running out on our tour!

We made it our mission to return and BUY some Merveilleux. Do you know how many Aux Marveilleux de Freds are in Paris alone? Which one had we drooled over? En le Marais! That narrowed it down.

What address? Thanks goodness for the photo with the street address.

TEN metro stops from our HÔtel?

Three blocks past the Hôtel de Ville into the Marais and turn right on what? Pont St Louis Phillipe! Toward the river?

There it was just where we had seen it! On a corner teeming with people.

Would there be any left for us? Did we have time to stand in that line? Mais oui, the line also moved ViTe ViTe!

Our clerk spoke English learned from Saturday morning tv! A miracle. We got a box of six assorted lovelies and off we went! To the Louvre to l’Orangerie, then to the Seine where we enjoyed our Merveilleux as we dreamed above the river.

So why post one more photo of Aux Merveilleux de Fred? The line.

All those people out front.

Never ever eat at a restaurant or, as in this case, a patisserie that does not have a line. The line tells you that what is inside is delicious, worth the wait, worth your money, worth the search for Aux Merveilleux de Fred.

Bytw there’s one in NYC now! Watch out Fred. We may be making a field trip! Christmas in NYC with Aux Merveilleux de Fred?!

One more reason short walk in the Marais tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 508 – Sketching the Smokies

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015Leave a comment

first you better have a good breakfast. We started with some of the best eggs and bacon ever cooked in a restaurant at the Little House of Pancakes in Gatlinburg near our condos.

I got there early and of course I sketched the perfect line up of happy Customers mere feet away from my table.

This is drawn with my brush pen in my Stillman and Birn zeta colored with watercolors.

I always love it when people sit nearby never noticing they are being drawn. These actually look like the couple eating.

Fun drawing.

Thanks for looking.

Day 485 – La pause de beaubourg

November 8, 20153 Comments

Le Brasserie La Pause Beaubourg near the Hotel de Ville and Georges Pompidou Contemporary Art Center. Delicious food and wonderful staff. This is the view out their window. We are there again today – so delicious.

Despite being exhausted and walking 7 miles today I drew two sketches when we ate there again after our visit to the Georges Pompidou. I even drank a Coke. Something I rarely do.

La Pause Beaubourg where u can eat in the window in the most charming barrel chairs. Tiny furniture in France unlike supersized everything in America. Always too big pour moi!

La Pause Beaubourg

We did sit resting our aching feet and recooperating before we took off for some Marveilieux au Fred on Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe three blocks from the Hotel de Ville in the Marais.

Can I say Heaven!? Delicious meringues filled with what might be marshmallow fluff?!

Tiny cakes called Marveilleux that melt in your mouth. Wonderful staff. The young homme who helped us spoke English like an American. When I asked him where he was from he said he learned English from American tv shows.

Beautiful churches abound. This one is interesting because it has a gothic flying buttressed church with a neoclassic facade. Gorgeous lit in the afternoon sun.

Hotel de Ville the crenelated embellished jewel also know as City Hall. Amazing building. This is the Seine River side.

Hotel de Ville from the plaza side.

Even the lights, the metro signs and

the advertising kiosk are amazing in Paris.

Notre Dame across the river from Hotel de Ville was amazing. The building is just incredible. So large! I am sure it’s bigger than a football field.

The Rose Windows and all the stained glass unbelievable. We just sat in awe of quite a while. Well worth getting up early and beating the crowd which stretched across the plaza when we exited the building.

To think that only Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame kept it from falling down in the 183os/. Thank you Victor Hugo and Quasimodo.

Views from the fifth floor of

The Pompidou were worth the admission alone.
Parisians packed the plaza in front enjoying the sunny warm fall day.

The children loved the bubble lady and so did we.

The architecture near the Ljmpidoy was quite eclectic. Gothic to modern in a row.

A few more views from the Pompidou.
Ze Eiffel Tower.
We are off the Viking Pride today and the Louvre. No hopping night club to keep us awake tonite on the quai.

Day 484 – Champs Elysees

November 7, 20152 Comments

What better place to start than this gorgeous avenue of world class shopping.

Despite two hours of sleep on the place we managed to walk five more miles including a rainy after dinner walk to the Arc de Triomphe which is gloriously lit at night. Well worth the walk!!

We ate dinner at L’Artois around the corner from our Hotel on Rue d’Artois. A sweet little place with the nicest owners. A nice way to dip our toes into Paris dining. This will get watercolor soon but not tonight after another six mile jaunt thru the drizzly beautiful Parisian streets.

We did a waking tour of the Marais today. Originally the Jewish district before World War II we know what happened. The Nazis actually rounded up the children at their schools to transport them to the death camps. There are plaques dedicated to them all over the Marais.

Charming Patisseries. This is the Marveilleux de Fred. We hope to go tomorrow. Fabulous cakes. Yum!
One of the oldest buildings in the Marais. A half timber building much more typical of Rouen than Paris which was rebuilt after the third revolution of Les Mis fame with its sweeping boulevards.

Built in the 1400s the buildings were not allowed to be all wood for fear of fire.

It also used to have several royal residences. Place des Vosges is all that remains of the home of Henry 4 and Catherine de Medici. She burned the palace when her husband died from jousting wounds and established this park.

We finished the day at the Eiffel Tour. Our tickets were pre purchased they parisinfo.com. No waiting in the block long line. We went straight in at our appointed time 2 pm.

It is amazing.
The building incredible.

And just enormous. More than 1000 meters tall. 700 HUNDRED TONS of steel!!😳
The view from the Eiffel Tower. Still raining sadly. I would like some photos taken in the sun. Please Thank you!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret hoping in the shower. Xxx

Day430- Food Food Food!!!

September 12, 2015Leave a comment

We ate at Taj of India the other day. I actually liked the sexond sketxh best til I painted them. Guess which one I like best now?!!funny how things change. I had trouble with my pentel brush running on this paper so I never painted the cerulean around the name of the restaurant. I read somewhere recently that the Pentel brush pen will sometimes run on certain paper. Guess I hit the jackpot on this one. Strathmore mixed media paper. Usually it behaves but I do have two brush pens. I may have used the Kuretake with carbon platinum black on the second one. No runny problems on it. You have to love that carbon platinum black. NEVER runs.

My favorite dish was mine. The chicken tiki Marsala. It was painted with cad red then Quin gold. Last I added touches of green apatite to the bowl. Lots of wet on wet. The same colors were used on the kuchumba just watery. Quin gold and Inathridone on the rice. I actually used most of the same colors on all the dishes just in different variety.

Having never been to Taj of India before I was hoping for an exotic interior. But no. Gold walls with one lonely wall hanging and an alcove. However there was a birthday party in progress having a good time. The odd waiter who had hair like a rasta was added for some variety. His hair and huge beard were red and black. Very odd. He was a really sweet guy and kept the water glasses full. Good idea since the food was spicy. Not a spicy food eater.