Yer Za Vue is a Professor at Portland Art Institute. She gave a funny and informative demo.

She has quite the resume actually drawing Pocahontas and Lilo and Stitch.

Most interesting to me is that she uses clean strip an odorless cleaner from Home Depot to clean her brushes.

A lot of the oil paint solvents give me a headache and her too. So will have to try some.

I did like her number 1 rule to have fun when painting. One I agree with. If it’s not fun why are we doing it?!

Anyway that’s if for tonite. I have been off in Aiken having fun with friends. Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

John Guernsey. I was late for his talk but I have to give him five stars for being prepared. The part I caught was interesting.

Here he is talking to us. I took artistic license painting it since I am god on the canvas as Tim Newton said. Lol. Actually I forgot the guy was bald. I DO love to paint bald guys. They are a challenge.

I thought the sketch was such a disaster I changed to pencil. Something I never do. I always think the ink sketches look better painted than not but frequently pencil looks better before you paint it. Oh well.

Stillman and Birn journal Lamy Pen Noodler Eelskin Ink.

Now I need a nap and a shower not necessarily in that order. Hugs Margaret glad to be home and watching Little Women. Xoxoxo

#atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #demo #JohnGuernsey

Off To the Booth Art Museum in Cartersville Ga today. Suppose to be wonderful. Full report soon. One of the Olmsted Judges is the museums director and runs a world class museum.

A quick painting of one of the old oaks in Olmsted Linear Parks. Huge old oaks are all over the park.

I painted the whole thing with my Cheap Joes Mop. Love that brush. Should have left the tree lighter. Oh well. We are our own worst critics right?!

Who doesn’t love a gorgeous magnolia!?Spring is going gang busters here in the south.

Margaret off for a day of fun. Xoxoxoxo

Quite pleased with the way Ilania turned out today. Pretty well for a ninety minute painting from life. Heads a little too round in the back. the sketch

Right now I can’t find anything to fix. Give me a couple of hours I might. 🤣

First forty minutes. Heads too fat and the hair looks like a helmet. I managed to wet the hair and lighten it up a lot.

Second break about 70 minutes. Nearly done.

Finished for now.

I enjoyed watching coach Larry who was sitting on the floor in front of me drawing.

His charcoal turned out great but I didn’t get a pic before he left.

Toms soft watercolor not finished.

Bills oil on metal panel. Nice job!!

Als huge oil. He’s off to Portugal tomorrow afternoon lucky guy.

Fred’s whimsical acrylic

Happy Mother’s Day everyone xoxoxo Maggie and Zoe.

The Gamblin Oil Paint Product Manager gave a fascinating talk about color. And passed out free stuff. Who doesn’t love free stuff?!! Scott was also ready willing and able to answer questions about oil paint. Told me to get his card and email him if I had anymore questions. What service!

Did I say I have a large peach basket full of oil paint which I hadn’t been using because I don’t like the smell of the solvents. He gave lots of good advice on that too.

My biggest take away from his talk was the two types of color. Modern colors -Thalos and quins, hansa yellow, quinacridones – carbon based and made in a lab have much more color even when mixed with white than the organic colors like cobalt, cadmiums and ultramarine are made from burnt minerals and always mix together making a much duller color.

Also Scott said that virtually NO color is toxic anymore. No lead no radioactive cobalts or other heavy metals and are actually much safer than acrylics which are made from Plastic aka petroleum based.

All oil paints are organically made from flax seed oil and safflower oil aka grown.

If you are interested in finding out more about oils the Gamblin podcasts on Savvypainter.com

I also found a podcasts on savvy painter with Joe Gyursak. I am really enjoyed these podcasts. They are packed with information downloadable and FREE. LOVE free!!!

Now that I have totally bored you go listen to some of savvy painters podcasts. You will learn a lot!! Brian Rutenbergs was fascinating too. I also discovered he has years of videos from his studio on YouTube.

Margaret who baked quite a few dozen cookies for sketching in Aiken tomorrow and is now putting up her feet and going to knit on the second worlds longest sock. Xoxoxoxo

#atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #oilpaint #scottgelattly #gamblin #savvypainter

I knew what was doing I will get a clinker of a watercolor and honey this one is it. Hmmm well I do like the background trees and somehow I like the trees but that’s about it. Probably should have left it as a sketch but for some reason or other I don’t. Does that make me an idiot?!

Last class it occurred to me that I should be drawing classmates to remember them like a photo album one day when we aren’t together. Should have started earlier.

Drew looking much younger than his age. He’s a terrific painter.

Ted who loves to go to the races and paint horses.

Sweet Marilyn my next door neighbor at the studio. Does gorgeous drawings and sketchy paintings.

Marge who loves bright colors in her landscapes.

In the meantime I have this whole series of friends in my painting class at USCAiken that I drew that need painting. Maybe I won’t kill them. I HOPE!!

Be sure to check out the podcasts on Savvy Painter. You can dlisten to them while you paint. Very inspiring. You can also download them and listen to them in your car.

So far listened to The Gamblin Guys, John Wentz pushing the boundaries of portrait painting and Duane Kaiser the painting a day guy.

Margaret getting her hair cut. Xoxoxo

#atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #portraits

I do like to paint people in hats. Great shadows! And hats are interesting to paint.

Hurrah. Jake got juried into the SC watermedia National show. Always cool and good for the ego!! It will be digital so everyone can see it.

You can view the show here. And yeah he’s for sale. You know you want him to come stay at your house so you can admire his arms. My friends and I all have been. 😂

Judge actually posted her comments. Something I have never seen before. She said she thought the background should be darker. Hmmm. Too many midtones again. She might be right. What do you think?!!

She also said he was smug. And here I was thinking he was just squinting in the bright fall light looking at the performer in Brevard. Smug. Hmmmm.

But back to the other hats. Here’s one from last weekend. Sun hats of all kinds abounded and I was fascinated with them. This guy was hard to paint since his face Was almost totally in shadows sitting under a tent listening to and demo. I elected to keep his face on the light side.

Margaret back to her sock she’s knitting. Xoxoxox

#atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #demo

More darks! Makes the hat pop.

Before I added the darks. Too many midtones.

Loved Suzy Bakers Great big sun hat and all the stickers on her pochade box. I do wish I had made her face narrow in this sketch but that’s the way sketching gos. It’s never an exact thing when out and about drawing. And maybe some one darks to make her hat pop more since I am betting the tones are all in the mid range without a lot of darks or lights. Oopsey. Easy to see the problem when you convert the sketch to a black and white in photo ap.

Since it is a sketch does it matter? Just annoying and something to remember. Guess that’s why Joe gets to be in the big show. He did it. 😃 It made the hat really pop!

oOk I couldn’t resist. I quickly added some blues -cobalt and ultramarine- and green gold with my big Cheap joes wash brush to the background of the painting. A few seconds painting rally improved it. Does make the hat pop more doesn’t it?

That Millers Pseudo squirrel quill mop. So much cheaper than my old squirrel Isabey mop. Makes great trees. And does great washes. Only $25 compared to the Isabel which was $85 and didn’t last a year. Started popping its bands so I returned it to Cheap Joes.

Maggie off to play today.

Adding midtones. @Olmstedpleinajr #atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #demo #suzybaker #joegyursak

Artists are fairly easy to draw because they hold still for you!! Joe Gyurcsak the Utrecht Blick rep was a font of information as he painted Suzy Baker. She was painting him too. Annoyed I misspelled his name.

I was especially interested in what Joe had to say since he paints plein air in acrylic. Next time I think I will use my acrylics.

Joes palette. He always sets it up the same way so he can find the colors without looking. The ONLY paint colors Joe uses when painting plein air. All plein air painters pack light. Nobody wants to carry every paint they own. Too heavy. Joes fairly large painting of Suzy-acrylic 12×14 panel. He was taking about what he was doing the whole time. Painting masses of color NOT details. If you like his start he actually paints a whole portrait on this YouTube video.

Suzy’s painting of Joe. Fun square oil on board. Joes Strada set up on a tripod base. Suzy’s well traveled pochade box also on a tripod base.

Both set ups are available on amazon.

Margaret who had to go paint more. Xoxoxo #olmstedpleinair #atlanta #pleinair #painting #urbansketching #ink #watercolor aqua tells #stillmanandbirn #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #urbansketching #artists #art #sketchbookskool #demo #suzybaker #joegyursak

More quin burnt orange in the background and dabs of ultramramirne.

Had no idea the three judges at Olmsted had such impressive resumes. I drew this while Ken and Tim were talking at the Druid Hills Golf Club last Sunday in the bar. The talks were quit interesting – how they judged the art. What collectors look for – they actually do like the art to match their decor. Strange. I never care. I barter for art I like.

Ok colors used. VERY LIGHT Quin gold wash over the whole page. Just to give a tinge a hint of gold. I actually darkened where the guy wasn’t to tone the page more.

Cerulean burnt sienna quin sienna quin burnt orange. Burnt umber Ultramarine and sea foam green. Think that’s it. Oh cad red. Decided I was going back to quin coral because it’s transparent. Some colors give u muck like cad red light and burnt sienna if you aren’t careful.

Lightened the dark brown. Aka scrubbed it a bit.

And this guy moved. He was slumped in his chair when I started drawing him with his arm on the table. Then he moved his arm and sat up. OH well. Still like his face.

Margaret whose going to cook something. Hope you aren’t in shock over that. 🤗xoxoxox

#Olmstedlinearpark #atlanta #pleinair #oilpainting #painting #artists #paint #urbansketching #ink #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #lamy #druidhills

#Olmstedinvitationalpleinair #quickpaint #vladislavyeliseyev #urbansketching #sketchbookskool #judges #salmagundi #druidhillsgolfclub #kennbackhaus #timnorton