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.

Day482 Paris

November 5, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

We should be touching down any minute in Paris. Can’t wait to get sketching in France. To stand in the haunts of some of my favorite painters Monet Degas Matisse Van Gogh and Cezanne will be amazing. To visit the Rouen cathedral that Monet painted how many times?! Got to paint it at least once.

In the meantime going to post some of my Inktober sketches that I painted with the palettes I am taking with me.

This one lit up my Instagram feed. And yes I did strip my kitchen floor. Evidently it also striped my fingernails even though I wore gloves but hey my floor looks brand new!!

A quick brush pen sketch of one of the audience members at Best of Augusta. I just loved her look and couldn’t resist sketching her. Sometimes I find the audience members much more entertaining to draw than the bands that are playing. Her skin is burnt sienna with ultramarine blue for shadows. The hair is ultramarine blue and burnt umber.

My dog Honey was painted with the Whiskey Painter palette only two colors. Ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Period.

Thanks for reading. Pass me a croissant please!!

Margaret xxx

Day 479 Two days to Paris 😳

November 2, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

Well at least we leave then. Lol. Be in Paris by 2 pm Thursday.

Been raining cats and dogs do I am posting all of the family dogs but one today.

A quick sketch of my lab Honey. She walked off before I finished it but decided to paint it this am. Painted with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.
Grant – my sons newest put bull. Drawn with a Lamy Vista using Carbon Paltinum Black ink.

Drawing a new dog is always a challenge. To top it off he’s black and white. I smeared the ink with my finger to try to make his black more solid. I actually drew him three times before I was happy with him.

I wish I could give u some dog drawing tips but the only one I can give u is that a dog like a person or a horse is just geometric shapes. Check out Richard Schmidts wonderful Alla Prima book which is what he says about drawing anything. They are all just shapes.

Livia my sons other pitty. Small sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded w Platinum Carbon Black ink.

Lucy dog my youngest sons Briard Colie mix. Such a good puppy.

My other dog Zoe watching me pack. Maybe I should stick her in the suitcase?! I have enough room.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 478 – finishing up

November 1, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

WIP??? Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie 11×14 super Aquabee tablet

Not sure these are done but at least they have some color now. Getting into travel mode so I used my travel Palette with Winsor Newton colors and my cotman palette with quinacridones.

The background in this painting is cerulean and yellow ochre. I may darken with ultramarine or inathradone to make the mermaids pop.

Remember this is what it looked like?

WIP – Mistress Princess Augusta – 11×14 drawn when I was done with one of the long mermaid poses. Her right arm still has problems. She was not posed so she was moving a lot and I drew her right arm too long. I shortened it with negative painting but now I think it is a smidge too narrow.
TIP: Really love her skirt. Both of these paintings were done wet on wet after watching a how to impressionistic watercolor video on Marcon Chews website http://www.marvinchew.com/ (You will have to scroll down for the video. Could not copy the exact irk for u! 😐) about wet on wet painting.The skirt turned out especially well I think. Done with ultramarine and burnt umber added to a wash of water that I painted on the skirt first. The background was done the same way.

I added the bowler hat to the original sketch.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 477 – last of Dr Sketchys

October 31, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

Happy Halloween!!

The first three are all drawn with my Noodler Konrad and Lexinton Grey ink. The colors are all Winsor Newton watercolor markers a few tombows and Wink of Stella Glitter pens.

Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie. What librarians do when they are not working!! Wear mermaid costumes and makeup like a character from Avatar.

My two favorite mermaid sketches. Thier costumes were awesome which is why I saved them for Halloween. This was a twenty minute pose that had ten minutes added to it.

I was done in twenty minutes so i started sketching Princess Augusta our hostess.

Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie

Twenty minute sketch. If I ever sit down to watercolor these this one will be great. I barely had time to start painting.

This was a ten minute sketch. I spent most of the time on the tail. Much more fun coloring than the human part. I really like the tail part but the human part not so much.

Mermaid Lorelei

Looking at that part of would be an easy fix. Shave a tad off the right side of her face and draw in her right upper arm. Oops the things u miss when unate drawing fast. The last one with the Kuretake brush pen. Sometimes I just draw better with one than the other. I changed to my Noodler Konrad.

Day 472 – She was too pretty!!😳

October 26, 20152 Comments

She was too pretty 30×40″ ??? acrylic

At critique today the class loved the way she looked but the boss aka professor said she was too pretty so I spent today trying to make her less pretty. It’s hard to make a pretty girl not pretty. This is what she looks like now. I should have known better than to use any pink. .

I decided to use contrasting colors adding a lot of orange with cad yellow light for highlights. I also added some pure phtalo blue for darks. And bits of cad yellow light for sparkles.

I also like the area of carpet under the sofa. All the busy stuff. Fun!

This is what she looked like earlier today. A lot of white on the sofa. I do like the sofa with more cad yellow light on it. The yellow in this photo is nickel Azo gold a rusty gold.

Thought u might want to see her pretty face that wuz up close. I do actually like her better now. Now to get her a little wilder and crazier.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 468 – I WON I WON I WON!!!

October 21, 201514 Comments

I won an award in the professional class at the South Carolina State Fair Fine Arts show and a CHECK!!! Very exciting.

The SC state fair is a big deal and the top prize in the Fine Arts is $2000 with thousands of dollars of prizes. There are thousands of art entries. So many they fill up an enormous football field sized shed.

NO idea what I won or which one won but I am thrilled!! I did try googling to see if a list was on the net but NO.
TEA TIME

This is entry #1. She’s for sale Bytw. If she’s not bought at the state fair.

Inscrutable also for sale!

Stand by I will let you know which one was the winner. Hope to go to Columbia tomorrow to find out if my cold keeps improving.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 466- The Girl

October 19, 2015Leave a comment

Gets blocked in. This is how she looked after about four hours of work.

Blocking in is the start of a painting. Why he direction it will go gets started. It’s a thin layer of acrylic paint and it’s done for either a finished acrylic or oil painting. I thought you might like to see the process.

First four hash marks are placed along the edge of the canvas dividing it into quarters. The same thing is done to the photograph. This helps in more accurate placement on the canvas.

Next thin layers of color are painted in. I was having a hard time with of all things CONTRAST. duh. I was using Phtalo Blue and Alzarin Crimson and not much else. A little flesh on the face.

Still more Phthalo blue and Alizarin Crimson. A lot of it was applied with foam brushes. They were a lot of fun and I may use them more. They also do a great arrow straight line.

It’s not really as dark as this but it will be. I added alot of Goldens Nickel Azo one of my favorite acrylic colors. It’s a sheer transparent color. All I had to do was add some water to it and brush it over the color already on the canvas. It was like magic making the painting pop. Somewhere I had forgotten about using contrasting colors. Duhhh. Probably this cold that came back with a vengeance when I was in the mountains or more likely the fact that I did not review my painting notes- use a work of complimentary colors. In this case it could have been gold on one end and violet blue on the other.

It takes practice. The more you do the more you remember and do it right the next time.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 458 – Zoe

October 11, 20152 Comments

Zoe Pentel brush pen in Superaquabee tablet

It’s not easy to draw an all white FLUFFY Jack Russel with black ink. Her fur is very wispy with a Mohawk down her back and bushy eyebrows. Impossible to draw those bushy white eyebrows with black ink. Zoe is a broken coat which means she has long hair AND short hair. An extra challenge.

Then there is her muzzle with black nose and lips and white hair with dots and a greyish cast. 😜 another inky challenge!!
So I started shading which was done by smearing ink with my fingers before it dried completely. The ink is permanent so if you wait to long it won’t move on most paper.

A redraw with my other non waterproof Pentel brush pens could be fun but we are off to the Magnolia cemetery ghost walk one of the most haunted spots in Augusta GA and the Hispanic festival. Hoping for lots of opportunities for sketching and photos for paintings!! And NO rain.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 457 – My Diebenkorn

October 10, 2015October 11, 2015Leave a comment

Erica WIP 20×30 painted this morning at life modeling session at USC Aiken. She still needs a lot of work I think. Like fixing her saggy right Tata. I am also not enamoured of the greyish flesh color. And twitch her mouth to the left a bit.

Richard Diebenkorn in his studio from an old Horizons magazine.

We have been studying Richard Diebenkorn who was an abstract expressionist and a Bay Area painters an influential west coast group starting in the 50s.
A Beginners guide to Diebenkorn at

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/richard-diebenkorn-beginner-guide from his recent retrospective at the British Royal Academy.

Coffee by Diebenkorn.