Category: Uscaiken

Day 940 – LateNight Entertainment Al Beyer!

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Our beloved prof Al Beyer was the program at the Aiken Art Guild last night and he was his usual humorous self peppering his talk with quip after quip such as “If you get a bad painting it’s your failt but if you get a good one (at lifemodeling) it’s all the model!! And that is true well sometimes. 

This huge seemingly abstract is the way Al works. It will be a photorealistic water landscape painting when he’s done or as he calls it the most boring painting ever since it will be almost all water with his. A bit of tree bank across the top. 

We told him we liked it as it is. An abstract. 

He blocks off the painting into multiple blocks the size of a standard piece of paper. Every nite with a printed paper from his tiled photograph he paints one section in oil with a small brush which takes him about 2-3 hours per square. 

Here he is with his helper Vanna aka Ilaina – one of  our Saturday models. 


Here’s a better picture of this huge painting. It’s made by layering multiple photos of Beijing in Photoshop. Interesting effect. 

Hmm my sketchbook seems to be among the missing. I drew theses ladies yesterday while my excellent steak salad got cold at Aiken Brewing Company on Laurens Street in Aiken. 

Hope I find it. It will be a great painting when I am done. Sigh. 

Ttyl 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 937 Its Saturday 

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Sarah 24×30″ Acrylic alla prima. 

Her last modeling session before she moves to Los Angelos this week. We will miss her. She had such a sweet pensive look today. Maybe she was thinking about her big move. LA is a long way from Augusta Ga.  

The painting. Was done in an hour or so. I liked it when I left. Now I am not so sure but that’s life isn’t it?! Took a while and several restarts to decide how to paint her but after that it was easy. I turned the panel one way and then the other. Finally painted her vertically. 

She was in such a nice position with her legs extend I wished I had a big square to paint her on but oh well only a rectangle. 

Colors used titanium white pyrrole red and nickel azo gold for skin. Highlights are primary yellow mixed with the skin color. Shadows are Winsor purple added to the same mix. 

I used some thalo blue and that’s all the colors. 

Here she is at first break. Forty minutes.  

Last session I drew this large ink drawing of Sarah on a piece of mat board. It’s Sarah’s goodby present. Took about 15 minutes. 

Oops I forgot her hand and left leg. Oh well. 

Drawn with my Pentel brush pen and I bled the ink with a wet Winsor Newton flat fake mongoose brush for shading. 

It was a big crowd today. People were even sitting on the floor. Oh it’s good to be young. They were rewarded with Happy buttons for their floor positions. 

Al Beyer’s beautiful very large oil 3×4′. A great expression. 

Jeremy’s beautiful conte crayon sketch. 

Kathe’s wispy sketch. Love the wispiness of it. Conte crayon. 

Here it is before the background. 

Tom Needham’s beautiful watercolor. Background is Daniel Smith Quin coral. 

Marilyn Hartley’s lovely pencil charcoal and ink sketch. Wispy was in today. She really did a great face on this one. Looks just like Sarah. 

Another of Kathe Dennis’ lovely sketches charcoal this time. 

AC Daniels great oil though for some reason he later wiped out her leg.  

Coachs charcoal. Always a great job. And interesting. 

Rachel’s branching out. Pastel on arches. 

Fred still in his Mondigliani mood. 

Dawns sweet face of Sarah. 


Last but not least our lovely Iliana’s painting. Great colors. Wonderful face. 

And that’s it for today. There were More that got away without a photo. 
Ttyl 

Margaret ready for a longggg nap. Xoxoxo who sold TEN paintings last nite. Hurrah!!! And the show has a month to go!!! 

Day 934 Urban sketching and a cartoon 

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I drew this apartment building from the porch of the Partridge Inn last Wednesday. It was bathed in the late afternoon sun. I don’t know if I captured it but it’s my other favorite sketch from yesterday. 

Color Quin cold and Quin coral on the building w a violet in the shadows.  Hematite green bushes w ultramarine blue. Sky cerulean. 

Sketchbookskool homework.  Draw a cartoon. 

This is our beloved art professor Al saying his quips that keep us laffing and coming back for more of his teaching. I am starting year two. Some people in Advanced Painters have been there for twenty years. His New Yorkness is still there all these years later. 

Some more Al-isms. 
Looks like a gorilla painted this. 

Don’t mess it up to fix it. Never happens. 
You owe me some time. 
You need to leave room 140

There’s a world outside room 140

This is not a democracy. 

Steal from the best. 

“These two areas of your painting need to talk to each other”. 

 “Get working. Stop talking”. 

 “Don’t let me paint your painting for you. You decide”. 

  “Seven years he has been here and he has never done anything I’ve asked him to do”. (Like in a way he is sort of proud of the guy for that)

 “So do you think you have another painting in ya?”

 “Work on this for your next 20 paintings”.

Kawfee 
“You got it!” (I.e.do we understand?)

 “You are in danger of finishing this painting”. 

 ” It’s your painting; I don’t want to micromanage it”
“Be thinking about your next painting” ”
“Keep it fresh!

“Don’t get too.close.to me….or might be I don’t want to get too close to anyone, I might be coming down with something.”

“I am very tired.today” ” I have to go crack my back”.

Stop.talking….start painting…….and/or. “Get to work”!😕🎨
Have the same person paint this side.  
Watch those edges. 

Big brush strokes. 

Warms and cools make a happy painting 
Complimentary Pairs. 
Brush strokes 
Same intensity of two complimentaries make them pop. .
Change blue use thalo sometimes. Thick paint makes it closer glazes farther away
Texture brush strokes 

People are stingy about their paint 
A really great painter pays attention to the corners and edges not just the middle. 

Day 933 Urban Sketching

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Went sketching downtown with my sweet  friend AC Daniel. We ended up at the Soy Noodle house eating. Gotta keep your strength up. So far this is my fav sketch done that day. It looks terrible after I painted it but turned it into a journal page with the lettering.

Stillman and Birn Zeta Pentel Brush Pen and Lamy EF. My whisky painter travel palette and waterbrushes.

Wish I had taken a photo of it before the lettering. The brown was just dullllll.

Pleased to announce Augusta is having its first Urban Sketchers meeting. Hopefully Sunday February 12 at Earthfare Meeting Room at 1 pm. Click on the link to join our facebook page, to keep up to date, and to see our art!!!  Lots of sketching will be going on.
Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo who had to work on her sketchbookskool homework.

Day 932 – Al Beyer

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I drew this during art history lecture last Wednesday. Not meant to look like him exactly just the essence and to take notes on the lecture about how to compose a painting and be sure you get all the parts in perspective. When people are added the heads have to line up on your sight line or they will appear to float. Check out John Salimen,  another great art teacher.  He’s a master at composing from photos  with many national and international art awards. His new coffee table book is just gorgeous. 

His DVD  on urban landscapes explains how to compose a picture from several photos.   

Painted with my tiny whiskey painter palette loaded with Windsor newton travel Paullette colors. Refilled with Daniel Smith using the same colors plus DS quin coral. 

A bientot Happy Mondayoff to class I go. 

Margaret xoxox

Day 917 Urban Sketching the Woman’s March

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Despite the deluges yesterday a large crowd turned out. It was a rainbow kind of crowd – old and young, men and women, LGBT and even a few dogs.

 

I drew these yesterday on a very wet day in downtown Augusta. The March and the speeches were at historic Springfield Park where Morehouse College started at Springfield Baptist across the street. 

The flame like sculpture on the rampart is all a part of the park. I did paint these at home. I didn’t think watercolor would work  too well in deluge weather.  Besides there was nowhere to put anything down because it POURED all morning too. 

A second even faster sketch of the happy crowd of raincoats and galoshes.  I think the correct number of marches was actually 671 but the speakers said 370 and 20 countries. 

The sketches were done in my Stillman and Birn Zeta mixed Media with my very patriotic Red Noodler Konrad.  I added the flags and the signs to give more interest to the sketches.  

Notice the big raindrop blotches on the ink?! Oops. Bravely I kept on sketching standing on top of a bench for a better view.  

Here’s the first sketch and a picture of the crowd and park. The local news reported 600 people were there.  I think there were closer to 1000. Guess it’s impossible to count. 

Somebody asked me how I drew these. The only thing I can say is start at the front and fill in the crowd moving back or you won’t have room for the people in the foreground. 

You can not draw a counter in a restaurant and then add people. You have to do it people first then the counter or pencil in the counter which I rarely do. Sometimes it gets me into trouble when I forget the order :

People first background last!

Happy sketching. 

Margaret madly painting black edges on canvases for her show at 4p in February. Xoxoxo and yes it’s still raining.  

Day 912 a little conch republic 

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And a little more FauvismWhat we jokingly call a jacaranda when we head to key West. The trail on the Sunshine Parkway to Key West and we try to entertain ourselves. One way is the first jacaranda sightings which we usually spot south of Orlando. 

The Tale of the Jacaranda 

Now why do we call Norfolk Pines Jacarandas?  My first trip to Key West I sent a picture of a very tall thin tree to a friend who grew up in Florida. She told me it was a Jacaranda even though we thought it was a Norfolk Pine. I finally looked it up and yes it’s a Norfolk Pine. They grow fifty or more feet tall in southern Florida. Straight up like a cornstalk. 

But that’s southern Florida for you. Every house plant we have grows to enormous size. Our house plants are their outside foundation plants.  Pothos and philodendrons have leaves bigger than dinner plates and grow stories tall just like the Jacaranda Pine tree. 

Stillman and Birn mixed media Zeta Ted Nuttals transparent colors. My small Isabey mop. Well mostly. 

Yesterday after I bough the sunflowers I remembered that Earthfare sold some gorgeous red radishes with lots of green leaves. So I made an extra trip 8 miles up the street and got a bunch. $2.99 ouch. Cheaper than flowers though. 

Once again we were to use as many cooors as we could to draw these after drawing the first one in the colors the object is. I was lazy and left them on the plastic bag. 

Number 1.  Fun but I like the other one better. 

And all the colors I used. 

Day 910 – Hours of Marks Making 

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Happy MLK Day dear readers!!  A holiday is always a good day for lots of drawing and painting. 

Spent three hours last nite drawing this old rice paddy down the street from my house which is built on an old antebellum rice plantation. No idea how many pens I used. Also scratched the wild rice tops with my xacto knife.  At least I assume that’s what they are. 

The assignment was to make a variety of marks. And I tried to add a variety of tones and not relie on lines. Have you ever tried drawing weeds and trees without line. Not easy.  

Stillman and birn Zeta.  I know I used my Noodler Konrad, both pentel brush pens, my carbon platinum pen and my Lamy Safari and a white pentel gel pen.  They each make such different lines both in weight of line and style of line. Even the two pentel pens are very different from each other. 

A detail for those who don’t like to click on the big pic. 

 And a few words from MLK himself. Words to live by in a daily basis too. 
Ttyl off to draw. 

Margaret xoxox 

Day 909 A bit more of Key West 

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Been meaning to finish this for a while. Today I did it. A compilation of two of our tours the Historic Inn Tour and the Christmas Trolley Light Tour which was our fav. $15. A bargain. 

Still have three more spreads to finish. Guess it’s time. Anyone know a publisher who needs a Key West book?! 

The tools. 

Hmm painted with my smaller #2 Richeson  mop and my #10 Da Vinci Sable. And mostly I used the mop. 

Tips on The Christmas tree. Leave a lot of white. First layer is quin gold. Then I added hematite green and a bit of hookers green and ultramarine blue. Did the palm the same way. 

Last I used a white pentel gel pen to add white lines and lights to the trolley. And anywhere else I wanted a bit of white. It doesn’t show when u use it but it does show in photos. Strange but true. 

Off to sketch the park in black and white. Wonder how many pens I will use?! 

Ttyl 

Enjoy your Sunday 

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 905 – the Bean

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Everybody’s favorite place to eat lunch in Augusta or for a coffee or even better some of their amazing cake. They give you a slab of home made cake for $4 or $4.50. Today I had their Tuscan Bean Soup which was delicious. A big bowl and some delicious ice tea $5. A good deal. 

I don’t think I have ever eaten anything that was not delicious at the bean as we call it. Their coffee is from that other fabulous cafe that I drew a couple of weeks ago The Dancing Goats in Decatur. 

Painted in my new STillman and Birn Zeta.  Drawn with a Lamy Ef loaded with Lexington Grey and painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. 

Sketchbookskool Homework. 

Draw some textured objects. I might have gotten carried away but have had these on my art table for a while to draw. I can check them off my list now right?! 

Pens used Staedler .01, carbon Platinum pen w carbon platinum black ink and a Pitt calligraphy pen which I soon abandoned because it was too dark to me. 

Stillman and Birn mixed Zeta journal. 

Ttyl 

Margaret off to bed early after two hours at the gym and walking a couple of miles. Color me tahred. Xoxoxo