Category: Viking cruise

Off to Paris

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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.

This is Michals painting.
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?!
Sweet Weenie dressed in her fall coat.

Margaret xoxoxo

Off to Paris

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Don’t we wish we could?! So ready to go somewhere NOW! I hear you can’t go to Australia til the end of the year unless you do a 14 day quarantine in your room you get to pay for. No leaving it. Eeek. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

Anyway here’s the photo.

One of those cafes we all know and love with the cute cane chairs. At least I think they are cane.

Margaret done for the day. xoxoxox hoping she will get this one painted and then finish the Atlanta one. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

On the Adriatic

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Croatia. Paint along #three with Vlad Yesileyev. He’s taking a group there to paint this summer he hopes. Covid willing.

Done for now and maybe forever. 

The photo

The value sketch.

The sketch. 140# rough Hahnemuhle Cezanne great paper. Only thing I don’t like abt it it buckles when soppy wet but dries flat. Paint and paper from Cheap Joes. Love them.

First washes. Looks very ghost like. This photo was taken when it was wet. See the buckles?!

Adding midtones.

Adding darks and the water. Painting those darn boats. Hmm they were the easiet thing to paint. Actually this was not a hard painting. Just a lot to do.

And done. I need a nap now after the paint along. Work slap out!! 😂

Margaret whose ready to tuck up on the sofa with a blanket. Xoxoxo

Day 144 Paris Barges

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Nothing better than walking by the Seine in Paris passing the barges under the fabulous bridges, Pont Alexander, and by such landmarks as Les Invalides and my fav – le tour Eiffel aka the Eiffel Tower.

Vlads picture

A wild paintalong with Vlad. I bet his wife, his manager, has to wear track shoes to chase him around.

Vlads value sketch.

Seems I forgot to take a pic of my sketch. This is Vlads.

First wash. Almost done.

And the washes are piling up. Pointy brush w Paris grey to the Eiffel Tower and the Pont Alexander.

Sliding toward home. Pulling the masking off the boat lines and a few other whites I wanted to save.

Going to have to fix these lines now the masking gone. Can’t leave them stark white.

Lines

Looking better. Really need to work on softening my lines.

Calling it quits for tonite.

What a difference a few minutes makes in the sky.

Margaret Xoxoxox

Day 143 Paint brushes flew

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300 lb Fabriano rough

Away to Dubrovnik Croatia paintalong with Vlad Yesilesev today. Great fun. Lots of mad painting. Vlad was funnier than usual today and he’s always funny. You really should join us.

The photo. Not much to look at as a photo is it?

The value sketch. Vlads. This is what we paint from.

The sketch

First wash. Yellow Ochre alizarin cobalt and card red orange rooftops. Not much paint at all.

Heading down the sidewalk. Sky cerulean cobalt neutral tint and whatever else Vlad decided to toss into the mix.

More washes. Darker ones.

Adding browns and dioxzine purple.

Trees cad yw cobalt ultramarine yellow ochre burnt sienna neutral tint.

And more darks. Scratching out lines. Think I might take some of the purple out of the wall but not til tomorrow.

Wildly painting lines with my sword brush which worked fine today skimming out electric lines without a problem.

Some splatters for crepe Myrtle tree flowers.

Margaret who needs a nap now. Xoxoxox

Day 2070 Problems Problems

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Decided to add this lady to my sketchbook as a memory page.

She meets me at the back sliding door and peers thru the glass this way and that as if to say are you there. Where’s my breakfast??? It’s very funny.

Hahnemuhle Journal twisbee pen Charles Reid palette colors and Vlads neutral tint which is dioxzine purple indigo and burnt sienna.

Advantage of using his neutral tint or making your own is that you can shift it to blue purple or brown maki g it a flexible grey that Vlad never paints without it on his palette.

Miss squirrel earlier added some ground under her feet with the neutral tint so the nice highlights on them would show. And splattered it a bit with the neutral tint.

wouldn’t let me upload these pics yesterday. 😵😵😵

Seems I have run out of storage on WordPress. I either have to Del a lot of old photos which is oh so difficult to do or pay $200 more a year for unlimited storage. Groan.

wouldn’t let me upload this one either so added it today.

So while I am deciding I Del a lot of my friends nudes and I bet the pages look like Swiss cheese. Sorry friends and dear readers. I still love you.

Here’s the final painting again. Do wish I had left the metal strip on the side.

That freed up a little space.

wondering why I didn’t do this one but I think I will maybe on the opposite page.

Oh. Went to see Anne Hathaway’s new movie The Hustle. Funny well only occasionally. Best part was the French Riviera scenery the French music and Anne’s fabulous clothes.

Skip it and go see Poms. Much funnier.

Margaret In p189 of Redemption. Only 200+ pages to go.

Ttyl. Xoxoxo

Day 2069 French cars

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Took a photo of this small wagon in Rouen. I love old French cars and all the fabulous French doors.

Rue de Florence Rouen Normandy France

Why didnt I use the second one. Duh. I know redo time. Another sketch. Lol.

Twisbee pen Dartrementis document brown Ink hahnemuhle journal. Not liking the paper a lot. Charles Reid palette colors.

Margaret Xoxoxox who has one more Baldacci book to read before her Amos Decker binge is done. Xoxoxo

Day 1056 – the View at Breakfast 

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We always stay at the Country Inn and suites when we take a class at Cheap Joes.  The people are lovely even if the breakfast is not so great. The view from the breakfast area and the staff make up for the lack of the great food. After class Mike and I frequently go prop our feet up and rock the afternoon away drinking a glass of wine and looking at this view of Howard’s Knob the mountain in the painting.  

Of course on a good morning we got to share our breakfast with Charles and the ever adorable Judy Reid. Always a morning treat. They are so lovely! Judy will regale is with stories of the adventures of Chuck and Judy. 

There are quite a few after 60 plus years of marriage. Like the time they almost were lost at sea helping a friend sails 50 foot Chesapeake bug eye catch when a storm hit them off of Charleston. Judy and Charles were the only ones who knew anything about sailing.  So glad they survived!!  

Painted with Charles Reid’s palette. 

Off to hem those long overdue curtains. Wonder if my sewing machine still works?!  Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1042 – Happy Memorial Day

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Which somehow seems an odd thing to say when you are remembering the deaths of millions of young men in battles.

American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandie. 

The 73rd anniversary of the D Day Invasions is coming up June 6 so Memorial Day seems like a good time to revisit the invasion sites in Normandy and remember the many brave young men who died there so long ago. 

Bytw Rick Stevens visits all the places we want to in Normandie including Rouen the Norse capital and of course d Day sites. 

Arrowmanches les Bains, Normandy, France in the heart of the invasion zone.  

Last night I watched a Pbs show about a group of D Day survivors who returned to Allemanche and the landing beaches on the 75th Anniversary in 2014. They had not wanted to go do fear the French would reject them. 

The D-Day Landing map 

It was so touching to see how much the French of all ages opened their arms to the returning soldiers now extremely old men giving them many hugs and kisses and thanking them for giving them their freedom that they still enjoy 70 years later. In Normandy they still celebrate the arrival of the Allies every June 6 so that it will never be forgotten. 

 The Pegasus Bridge Commander, General Hill, and the US Divisions who were at Normandy. 

The one of the old men said they were not the Beatles but to the French of Normandy they were something better. Men who had fought and died to free the French. Such a touching show. 

 This is the Canadian WW2 Cemetery at Bien Sur Mer. A touching spot it’s a beautiful parklike  place where 70 years later everything is in pristine condition bushes trimmed gravestones scrubbed and flowers planted everywhere. 

The Canadian Museum at Juno Beach. Gleaming in the afternoon sunshine if viewed from the air it looks like a large maple leaf. The exhibits are all up to date state of the art interactive exhibits.  It sits on the bluff above the beaches and La Manche -the Arm- what the French call the English Channel. 

Pegasus Bridge. The spot where the Brits lead by Gen Hill parachuted into Caen, Normandy the DAY BEFORE the  D Day Invasions. And of course many died there. Some never touched the ground. One hung from the church tower acting like he was dead and lived to tell the story. Brave Man!!

This fascinating museum is shaped like one of the gliders they parachuted out of. 

Pock marked with bullet holes, Eglise de Ranville, the site of another allied cemetery, where even on a cold grey November day there were bright flowers marking the graves. This Ranville, Basse-Normandy, France claims to be the first village freed by the Allies in June 6 1944. 

Another Map of the D Day Invasion. 

The full spread from my sketchbook. 


And a journal page of a few other places we visited on our trip to Normandy to the D Day sites.  

Happy Memorial Day! 

Margaret xoxoxo whose going to listen to old WW 2 movies on TCM while she paints.  #usk #urbansketcher #traveljournal #watercolor #aquarelle #ink #strathmore #viking #strathmore500 #arrowmanches #normandy #normandie #normandietourisme #vikingcruises #PegasusBridge #bayeux #Ranville #beny-sur-mer #Rouen #omahabeach #junobeach #dday #alliedinvasion 

Day 966  coloring in my coloring book 

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I drew these two guys last Thursday as part of my #oneweek100people2017 as they pushed and shoved the heavy scaffold into place that would allow them to hang the new Augusta State Univeristy sign four stories up in the air. 
I have two say these guys were working very hard and were as good as having dancers to draw with their interesting poses. This is the first page I drew. 


Here is page two. Drawn with my Lamy Safari with Lexington grey ink in my Stillman and Birn Alpha. 

You can see the scaffold better in this painting. Drawing three of the big event. They almost had shoved it into place when I drew this. 

UPDATE: And a week later they are still working on top of the building. It’s very cold today. Hope the finish before it goes down to 24 tomorrow. Who turned off Spring?


Here’s the original sketch. I painted these after I got home. Colors used Quin coral, gold,burnt orange. Cerulean and hematite geeen on windows with ultramarine and burnt umber shadows. The building is Quin coral and burnt umber. Their jackets are Lemon yellow and hematite green. The sign is ultramarine and mineral purple. 

I have a giclee quality printer that I am finally getting set up for print making. It’s been in the garage for quite a few years because it’s about two feet long and takes up the whole desk but no more. 

It’s hooked up and it works. I was told it might not. New cartridges cleaned the print heads and it looks like we are in business. 

Hurrah!! 

Will let you know when I start making prints. Soon. I promise. 

Ttyl 

Margaret xoxox