Category: Georgia

Day 1035 Its about a dog! 

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I took a great photo of my friend Raisins white English retriever Lucy lounging around on the window seat. 

 This is a small practice painting for bigger painting. Note to self LOOSE THOSE EDGES!  It’s very hard to do a loose painting when it’s so small.  

It all starts with a great photo of a gorgeous dog. 

Click the link for a short video on how to draw your own dog. 

Think I will draw Zoe. It’s been a while and she’s curled up ready to be drawn.  

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake. 

Ttyl Margaret who had to get walking again. Been on vacay TOO along now. Xoxox

Day 1033 Those darned teapots! 

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In every class you take there is usually very useful  fact that sticks out that you learn. 

  • I have learned that rubbing alcohol dissolves and removes acrylic paint even when it dries. 
  • I learned about Mr Clean erasers in my first Charles Reid class in Atlanta and have been using them ever since. 
  • In John Salimens class I learned about masking taping your painting when you use a Mr Clean on your painting.  That way you can hone in on an exact spot. 

For some reason when I drew the above painting I decided it would be a great idea to put the teapot behind the leaf. DUHHHH! 

I absolutely loathed it when I was done. As no doubt you know that might mean the painting was ruined. So yesterday I decided to lift it with a Mr Clean and masking tape. It couldn’t hurt it. 

Here is the top of the teapot taped off and the star on top of it.  

And here it’s all erased in one swipe and a blot with a Kleenex. 


I had to do the spout twice.  Once to remove the leaf over it. And once to correct my not so great painting of the inside of the spout. 

This is the tape job before I lifted the color off the spout. 

And here’s the spout after I swiped  with the Mr Clean. Be sure to use clean water and a clean sponge. 


Here’s the spout and the top repainted after lifting with the Mr Clean. 


And here’s the painting now. I also went back in and added some carmine to the lilies in the left. They were too purple. 
And I tried to soften their edges. Those darn Lilies are asuch a pain. Always sticking out. 

Ttyl time to paint. Margaret whose thinking of giving the droopy flowers one more go round. 

Day 1024 Some Charles R class! 

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Mari Mac aka Mari McMillan all the way from Hawaii! But used to live in Aiken SC. 

Christine and Brenda. This is our fourth class together. We are the see you in May in Boone at Cheap Joes girls. I think there were seven people we have had class with every year the first week in May  – Fealin Lin Ted Nuttalls and now Charles Reid. 

Off to paint. Let’s see if we can get this one done today. 22×30! What was I thinking painting that big?! Too late now. No going back. 

Margaret sitting on top of a mountain in Tennessee wondering what adventure we will have today. Xoxoxo

Day 1102 In the Bag 

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This is what yesterday’s page should have looked like.  

Part one of The assignment was A creepy forest above the horizon. A graveyard and Frankensteins bride. 
First up was to take only five minutes to cut out ten animals and people to assemble into Frankensteins bride. The hands are Jacques Pepin. The gravestones and wings are more of the altered citrasolv National Geographic. 

Then the forest then a letter then a graveyard and then reconcile it. 

Lilly as I call her  was a lot of fun. Her head used to be a really cute little toddler I cut from an ad. Not anymore. 

I dressed her for her wedding day with Frankie. She’s excited of course. I added some gold gewgaws to her.  She still might need a purple plastic purse. 

 The tombstones are not quite as journalie as they should have been. Milestones in my life. Instead I wrote ancestors names.  Seemed a little creepy to do my life’s milestones.  

Bottom layer is a letter to a dead person. I chose Abraham Lincoln. We could use his wisdom right now. 

Thinking of adding some large letters. Frankie and Lilly were sweethearts!! 

Masking tape, black acrylic paint, white gel pen, Prismacolor art sticks, caran dache neocolor ii and Lamy EF. 

Ttyl Margaret xoxox off to start her haunted doll house.  Lilly needs a home. 

This is the list I have brainstormed for my house so far. 

Door flaps 

Birds behind it. 

Victoria or Queen Anne spiral staircase 

Tower Jacobean?! 

Bridal room for Lilly 

Doll house. Whole cover comes off. 

Widows walk w telescope 

Flag skeleton 

Open in middle of page 

Gothic throne chair w wigs and a hood

Attic room w bed. 

Arched gate 

Window wall 

Hotel de ville. 

Day 998 Oh My Two More Days Painting PCM

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Spent yesterday hitting the art stores and taking photographs for possible future paintings at Ponce City Market.  

It’s a HUGE rehabbed old Sears building on Ponce de Leon near the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Whoever designed it kept much of the funkiness of the old building keeping the floors and the huge support columns and the ibeams in the floors. 


The two panoramas give a 360 degree view of the space which is jammed packed with the smells of the 20 plus upscale chef run restaurants that allow you and your friends many delicious choices of food which you eat in the open areas. 

Outside eating area is a huge interesting place called the Shed which is an enormous concrete beam structure surrounded by restaurants ok one side and stores on the other. I think it’s new construction but not sure. I really need to sit down and draw it becAuse it’s wonderful to look at.  

The store side of the Shed.  

Sunday there is an art market in the shed. Going to check that out tomorrow but since it’s Easter thinking it’s not open. 

Keep taking photos of a few places that just appeal to my eye. This Caribbean food place El Super Pan  is just delightfully funky with its purple lit metal overhang. Someplace I have an unpainted sketch of this place. 

And my favorite golden dragon Chinese restaurant.  I have painted this twice. Love that dragon. 

This couple sat down inches from me at the same table Aron f one of the columns between me and the object of my attention. The golden dragon column. Yes there were other tables to sit at but no they had to block my view.  Irritated with the self involved duo I snapped their photo and immortalized the French Fry couple. 

Here’s the sketch I had been doing.

I love going upstairs and taking photos of the first floor over the railing. 


That’s how I snapped the photo for this painting called Looking Down which was recently juried into the Anderson Center for the Arts Show which is considered a coup in South Carolina. 


One of the appeals of Ponce city Market besides the delicious food are the masses of people and the odd interesting architectural elements like the large yellow and black arrow in the upper right. 

I think you could find a life time of paintings on the environs of PCM aka Ponce City Market. Something about this one. The two guys one big one little trudging off across the light from the doors. 
Sooner or later I will get a food pic of this bar. Maybe on my big camera not my phone. I have two hundred or so photos there. 

A trip to PCM is not complete without drooling over the delicious candy shop 

And my personal favorite the St Germain a PArisian themed patisserie loaded with all things Parisian – macaroons, breads, small crispy meringues, real marshmallows and cases of decadent gorgeous goodies. 

Trying to resist the lure of PCM today a Sketchers paradise but there are eggs to dye and Easter prep to be done. 

Ttyl 

Margaret loving Atlanta even when it took me an hour and 15 min to drive 4 miles  from Trader Joe’s to the house. Xoxoxo

Day 994 – Peggy Habet’s class 

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I drew Peggy several times during class. This was the last time and looks the most like her. Fourth time the charm. She was hard to draw with a long thin nose and a tiny face. 


The nose kept overpowering her tiny face when I drew her. This was the first try. And then I painted her too dark so I scrubbed her a little to lighten her up. I did have fun stamping her name and embellishing the page with a watercolor pencil. 


Go round three. Nose still too big. Eeekkk.  The hair is a combo of thalo and sepia. 


Number four. TOO Dark!!!’ What the heck. 


Better. But the face was too wide and not oval enough.  I could make it narrower by adding hair. 

I painted on my class sketches most of the day. Guess it’s time to do those color studies. 

Margaret xoxoxo whose having a painting day. 

Day 985 Some Rachel time

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A good way to start a Monday!


This ones a little busy but it was a busy day on Thursday. For that matter so was Friday. 

Oddly I noticed Rachel looks a little tired in this sketch. If I hadn’t deleted it I would go back and look at it to see if she was. Those kinds of things turn up in sketches even if you don’t notice them while you are watching. 


I actually think I might like this better unpainted. Oh well. As you can tell the news continues to astound me. The spy novel keeps building and building. 

As Chuck Lorre posted after Big Bang “our best hope to save the day is an eighty year old slab of beef jerky from Arizona(McCain) and his trusty sidekick Scarlett O’Hara(Lindsey Graham)!!


Off to bed. Ttyl. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 982 Dr Sketchys 2

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Love the Chinese dresses Foxy wore at Dr Sketchys Wednesday. Gorgeous fabrics and they fit her like a glove.  Classic Chinese dresses probably from her home in Taiwan. 

This is my favorite sketch I think though the next one is nice too. 

Both 11×14″ Super Aquabee tablet. Noodler Konrad WN colors in a whiskey painter box with a Cotman travel box full of Daniel Smith quinacridones. I used a gold Wink of Stella marker to sparkle these.  

This was a challenge to add origami elements. I have folded thousands of those cranes and a few of the frogs. As a kid I loved doing origami since the first kit I received for Christmas. I think she’s slightly out of proportion. Head to big. Legs a tad too short but I like her anyway. A lot to draw and paint in 20 minutes!!

Day 980 A few of those 100 people 

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Painting the Farmhaus people 

And a few of my tv sketches. Really liking the background colors. A lot different than my usual cerulean. Sometimes it pays to get outta the box you are in. 

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

Book club tonite. If you haven’t read When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanathi do. Don’t know when a book has made me cry more. So poignant. Wonderful book.

Book club tonite. Off I go. Xoxoxo Margaret.  

Day 975 One more St Paddys Day

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Could not resist drawing this great pirate ship passed by loaded with people tossing beads to the crowds. So much to draw and so little time. I really like parts of this but the foreground people watching are all assorted sizes. The middle group too tall for the other two groups. 

And I completely forgot to draw the buildings in the background. OOPS!!! 

Oh well that’s the thing about live sketching. Some you win some you mess up. Lol. 

One more to go. The Whiskey Bar Lamy Safari. Lexington Grey ink in a Stillman and Birn Alpha. 

Colors used. Every green I own. Pants are all some combo of ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Sky peacock blue I think.  

Ttyl off to delve into Atlanta after talking to two groups is middle school art kids. One was awesome second one ready for lunch. Fun classes though the kids are so cute. Just hungry. 

Margaret xoxox