Sometimes a sketch book is just scribbles

March 28, 2023Leave a comment

Love escape to the country and its variety of houses. Probably my fav show other than big bang. I get the urge to draw the beautiful countryside and the wonky odd ball charming houses and shops. i finally did. And probably will again since this one didnt turn out the way i wanted it too. And oopsey. How do they get the pronunciation Lem-stir out of the name Leominster? Go figure. I love the fields and Yorkshire the land of my ggggggrandmother Hartley takes my breath away. She lived just diwn the road from All Creatures Great and Small Skelldale House.

Drawing the seagulls at the dam. They were plucking herring from the water. Rather like drawing gesture sketches but they never hold a pose for a second.

The first pages. I think they got better.

Sweet Daisy who is always a willing model snoozing on the back deck and especially appropriate for ink sketches since shes fifty shades of grey.

Stillman and birn alpha uniball micro pen pentel brush pen

Margaret who has taken way too much antihistamine today. 💤💤💤💤xoxoxoxo

Marathon continues- Finishing edges

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023Leave a comment

Yeah its a thing. Spent most of the afternoon painting the gallery wrapped edge of the mountain painting w a 1/2 Winsor Newton imitation mongoose flat.

Thats a 12 FOOT strip about two inches wide trying not to get black paint on the front of the painting. Formerly stark white it’s now black. I tried ultramarine blue but didn’t like it.

I used blue tape to tape the edge off but was worried it would peel off the fresh paint.

Another problem w blue tape is that it always leaks when i use to to tape off walls. 🤪 I was NOT interested in painting it again ever. Then i realized using a damp paper towel i could wipe any leakage off the dry paint from yesterday. Zip and it was gone.

The blue tape DID help. Painting those edges is always an onerous task when you do an acrylic because they never stay clean.

One more day varnishing it w Miniwqx polyeurethane. Drying time makes the process take longer.

And i missed sitting out on the back deck today enjoying the gorgeous early spring . Tonite there are frost warnings. Brrrr

Margaret xoxoxo

Bird of the day well actually

February 18, 2023February 18, 20234 Comments

Been working on this bird for a few days. Maybe a week off and on.

This is 9×12 and done. I like a lot. So I decided to paint a bigger one. BYTW this one is available if you need her at your house.

The background wash went well but darn what was with the bird drawing. the back looks like spikes and regular ones at that. Regularity is an anathema in a painting. So how do I fix it without starting over?! So of course I kept on painting.

Starting the head. And then of course I forgot to take pics. Sigh. Really like the quin gold and the quin rose with cerulean on the neck and around the beak. But then no more pics. Sigh.

So here she is almost done but those spikes are still annoying me. So yesterday after madly painting with Vlad I thought slap some paint on the background and get rid of those spikes.

So I did. And it went well. I painted the horrible spikey look out. HURRAH!! But then I got the dreadful green run across the bottom of the beak. The 140 kilimanjaro was waffling like crazy with huge ripples making the washes run like crazy. To make it worse the green run was THALO notoriously staining of any paper. NIGHTMARE time.

Slapping cobalt on to give her some curves.

So her she is today. The paper dried amazingly flat for all the ripples it had yesterday. Maybe I can grey out the green streak. Tomorrows job! I do like the way she looks now.

Maybe a crop to take a couple of inches off on the right?? She’s a big girl at 16×20”. Did I say I have already drawn another one?! 😵‍💫

Tonite sunset was rather spectacular. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was heating up our dinner leftovers. We do love a good bowl of leftover soup.

Margaret ready for bed xoxoxox

Plein Aire Fishing

May 27, 2022May 27, 20222 Comments

Well while he fishes I paint.

Flags flying at half staff on the Thurmond Dam.

The sketch. The only pencil I had was a thick leaded 2B derwent sketch pencil. Yes I forgot a regular pencil too. Sigh. You know when fisherman are ready to go they are ready to go. 😂😂😂

Off course I didn’t finish them. Left the big wash brushes at home. Both of these were painted with a tiny size 4. I rarely use anything smaller than a 10!

Both are fairly small. 1/4 sheet 140 arches rough. The pad just fits in my painting bag so I took it along.

Will finish these when I get home but off to moms memorial so these will languish on the studio table while I am gone.

Mom at 90. She does recently from Covid. Refused to get the shots.

On her 90th. She was 96 when she died in April. RIP Lucy June!

Maggie 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

Off to Paris

November 9, 2021November 10, 20212 Comments

Who doesn’t want to go to Paris for the day or a week or a year?!
Half sheet Hahnemuhle rough

I took a class today on Shopkeeparty with Michal Jasiewicz. He’s a great painter but he can’t paint and talk about what he’s doing at the same time because he speaks Polish.

Of course he speaks better Polish than I speak English but when it’s an online zoom class you don’t pay attention to what he’s doing when he’s not talking. You don’t have time to just sit and watch because he’s painting like a madman.

He would be off painting like a madman someplace I wasn’t because I didn’t know he was painting.

I only realized that after the class was over.

That’s another thing. Why do they have to paint like a madman. I can usually keep up BUT i know a lot cant so WHY!?

The drawing. Did two because I drew the first one last nite on the back. Hahnamuhle doesn’t have sizing on the back so I has to draw it again.

First wash. A mix of red yellow and blue no specific colors. Just a nice light grey.

Heading. Down the road. All this was done wet on wet which makes me a little crazy and slab happy with the brush.

No idea why I didn’t take more pics. Here it is for now. Already thinking of scrubbing the tree off some but who knows.

At this point I decided to do why I wanted. Started really slapping paint on. Drawing with my saber brush, the Cheap Joe’s scroobys loose Goose, which is always uncontrollable fun.

Before I took it out on the front setups and took another photo. The iPhone just takes crap pics as a whole. Still had to lighten it even outside.

Yesterday from the front porch. Love my trees. And the bright fall sunlight glancing they thru them

From where I was painting this am. Chad really has to get over here and get his overspray off my windows. Always one thing or another right?!

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 133 Really Calling It Done

July 15, 2020May 19, 20213 Comments

I worked on making the people walk in different directions. I think they look better now. Added a lot darks. A few more lamp posts. A flag. Darkened the church towers. Lots of darks. And a few highlights.

Paint alongs with Vladislav Yesileyev

Got this lovely treat Paris in The Rain by Vlad Yesilesev in the mail today. When I looked at it I realized I needed to go a lot darker with my blacks. And whiter w my whites so today I cheated and used masking fluid to reserve some whites.

Margaret Xoxoxox worn out from speed painting.

Day 47 A quick trip to Florida

April 29, 2020May 19, 20212 Comments

To the Forgotten Coast in other words another paintalong with Vlad.

The value sketch and class notes.

The sketch. Tough drawing on that rough press Paper. First wash. Very light.

middle tone wash.

Painting on the kitchen table. Watched the class on Zoom on my iPad.

I did catch a sbsdrawingparty with Koosje but I need to flatten it to take a pic so tomorrow.

Margaret who’s Tahred now. Xoxoxo

Day 46 some urban sketching and drawing mugshots

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020Leave a comment

Always enjoy drawing mugshots with Danny at today’s sbsdrawingparty.

Here’s the culprit. Namiki Fude. Love the way it turned out.

Urban sketching at the post office in Evans when I went to drop off mail in the outside box.

A cute Boston Bull who patiently waited with her dad while we all did a curbside pick up with Augusta locally grown.

Darn this is the shoe that kicked my beloved flip flop Out. I forgot to chronicle it. Guess I better fix that. Traveling shoe part 2

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 33 Never

April 15, 2020Leave a comment

Eat a large chocolate bar. It will keep you up most of the night. But oh was it good.

I took another photo of The Farm using my Ott light to light it up. Much more accurate photo. Can’t wait til Saturday for the next class.

Drawing with Koosje. A corner of the living room really my den.

Lamy Stillman and Birn Alpha.

We drew masks with Danny at noon. Now we have to pick one out and make a paper bag mask.

I had to write down what I thought they were saying. That was fun. Can you find the Covid monster?! Lamy Safari Stillman and Birn Alpha. Only five spreads left but I got a new one from Amazon. Hurrah.

Sweet Ilaina. Missing my painting peeps.

Digging around for my 140 # rough press Fabriano I found this. Always liked it. Still have the photo to finish it. Full sheet on Waterman cold press I think.

Got some decent pics of the Downy that hit the window this am. So pretty.