Category: kilimanjaro 300# cp

Santorini

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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

If at first u don’t succeed

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Make another one and another one and oh wait make a third. Apricots in a bowl one day if one of them turns out.

First one I drew on 140. Since it gets a wash of Prussian blue then black I decided it would t work out well on 140. So I drew it again on 300# fabriano cold press.

Oops I painted the bottom of the 300 alizarin. NOPE it’s suppose to be grey. Back to the drawing board! No way u can overcome that red and make it grey. Black yes grey nope. and my wash at the top is doing odd things. It backwashed a bit. Not exactly blooms but holidays.
Number 3 also 300#. Finally all the colors where they belong. AND I found my masking picker upper in my old paint box. Haven’t used it in years and there it was waiting for me. Peeled all that masking right on up. The masking ripped surface of the fluid 140# surface. Peeled it right off. 😳😳😳

By the way a layer of Prussian blue with a layer of black over it makes a delicious blue. And if that didn’t work you can alternate them til you get them really dark. Right now I have a light one and medium one and a dark one. All nice blues. Try it u might like it.

So now I have plenty to practice on. Surely one will turn out. We shall see.

Chicken pot pie

Hubster started saying the pie is burning. I told him can’t check it I am running a wash. It didn’t get too brown. Margaret with her feet up. Xoxoxox

Where I have been

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In the dining room madly painting. I signed up for watercolorlive 2023. It’s all my friend Mikes fault. She talked me into it. What a mad three days of wild fun painting. Classes and seminars lasted from 10 am til 9 pm. Will be posting them the next few days.

My Swan from the hour Paint along with Shelley Prior one of 18 teachers we had . She was awesome. She held our hands and walked us thru it step by step. I am in love w my swan and will be checking out her extensive YouTube feed. Her instructions were clear step by step with no need to rush to keep up. This swan just glows. My favorite out of my stack of paintings.
Most of the paintings I did. There are TEN still left to do that I didn’t get around to for various reasons.

We started off with Julie who does Cheap Joes two minute art on you tube.

This took abt five minutes and was Julie’s tip. A fun way to start the day and to loosen up. We were all tense. I mean 18 teachers and all those hours. Eeek.
Out agenda. We were VERY busy. No potty breaks no lunch breaks. A good way to diet. Lol.

Next up the great Thomas Schaller. Now almost all the teachers supplied a sketch for us to draw before class started. This was NOT a drawing workshop but a painting workshop. For some reason. Thomas didn’t think we needed a drawing. Hmm. Off to a rocky start. I madly drew it and started flinging paint around.

On a half sheet. My perspective was off. Supposedly his odd idea of firefly houses. Who knew they don’t have fireflies in S California where he’s from. They got his attention in his new home in NYC. My husband loves it Me not so much.
Fireflies half sheet 140lb.
So I had to cram in time to tinker with it. It was really bothering me. The perspective was wonky. Hate that and all that glaring white paper on the top left screamed at me. Better. Still won’t be my fav. He can hang it in his mancave. Lol. Still may need more tinkering. Time will tell.
Next up a portrait with Patricia Guzman a lovely painter from Mexico who specializes in indigenous people. She’s a realistic portrait painter not my bag but she was a great teacher. At some point I got tired of painting every wrinkle and quit. LOVE the way this painting turned out. 1/4 sheet arches 149
Cold press I think.

Every artist had a different kind of paper or color of paint so I just used what I had and matched it up as closely as I could from my stash. Did I say I have way too much paper?!

My friend Mike my cohort in art crimes I mean classes. We met at a Charles Reid class in Boone at Cheap Joes 8 9 years ago and been friends and Charles Reid worshippers ever since. we are going to have a weekly zoom meetup til we finish out pile of not done drawings. There are quite a few. Eek

Another day another sunset. More tomorrow. My fingers are tired. Xoxoxox Margaret

#ericrhodes @

A question

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Trying to decide which two portraits to enter in the GWS show. which ones would u choose?!

AC at the sweetest guy and a great artist. But NOPE I won’t let him give me a tattoo. Ouch I think they must hurt too much. If I ever got one he would be doing it. He’s a sweetheart.
Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham paint.
The Church Lady. A great model from Mary Whyte class in St Simons last February. Love her red hat and those pearls. Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham paint.
Garden Party. Another great model from Mary Whyte class in Charleston last year. Think she’s out. She gets lost in the background.
Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham paint.

Time to clean up my painting table. Taking watercolorlive next week w my friend Mike.

Sunrise a couple of days ago.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

It’s All About the Cherry

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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?
Almost done
She’s done for now.
Storm blowing in from Georgia. Mostly a deluge but no tornadoes thank goodness. Hugs Maggie xoxoxo

Beach combers

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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.

Off to the races.
Almost done.
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

Mary Whyte and Mom’s 96th Birthday

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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.

Don’t you love their blues?
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

Field of flowers

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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.

Daffy for daffodils

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Got a little carried away painting daffodils yesterday over and over and over. Wanted soft edges and kept getting hard ones. I used up a half sheet of 300# Kilimanjaro painting these.

They range in size from 10×10″ to about 7×7″.

Some have salt added to them which gives the speckled look.You can still see salt on this one. Oops.

After lunch I forgot the salt and splattered them. Oops

Cad yellow light, Indian yellow, Daniel smith sodalite and green apetite, quin magenta and sap green. Oh and some Daniel Smith gold and opalescent blue.

I also added salt to three of them. Wish I remembered to do it to the last two.

Margaret xoxoxo

Wet on really wet

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Winter in St Petersburg makes me glad we don’t live in a cold cold clime like that. Half sheet Kilimanjaro 20×15″

These are some famous buildings in St Petersburg. Took an online class from Tatiana Assimova (she’s on IG) where you spoke Russian to us and Vlad translated simultaneously. How crazy we live in a day and age you can take a class live all the way from St Petersburg while it’s being translated in Sarasota FL on zoom?!

The sketch and my paper sopping wet. We wet both sides and let it sink into the paper. I used a big hake brush to do it.

Mine was so wet it was still dripping on the back side FOUR hours later. I kept trying to paint the people and my trees in the foreground and they just kept running.

The trees are painted with a half worn out chip brush. The cheap house painting brushes you can buy for $1 each. Or by the bagful at Michael’s.

Finally used a hair dryer on it. BOTH a front and back sides. C R A Z Y. Nothing was drying. Maybe because I had the windows open?! Usually everything dries quickly running the AC or heat.

sky wash of Daniel Smith neutral tint over a yellow ochre layer. All very wet. It does make great skies though.

Onto the buildings. Yellow ochre and neutral tint. I did not get the 911 at first that you had to use straight color to keep it from running a lot. Oops. I did by the time I got to the building on the left.

Colors neutral tint yellow ochre and a dab of burnt sienna.

More trees and buildings. My details kept mushing into the backgrounds. Oops. Too wet.

And now everything else was running together or running away. Sigh. I kept waiting for the trees to dry but no no no they weren’t. I scrubbed off the lilac grey in the foreground.

Hair dryer time.

Here it is now. A fun experiment.

Electric lines done w a liner neutral tint the gouache. The snow spattered w white gouache on a toothbrush. Lots of paint slinging. You should see the tv on my painting Table. Oops.