Day 908 Lazy Saturday

January 14, 2017Leave a comment

After all that sneezing and Benadryl decided to be lazy today and binge on Netflix’s.

Maybe I should do some urban sketching off of Midsommer Murders? It’s always set in the most charming Bristish villages as long as you overlook a serial murder or two in every village.

About the sketch one of the Key West sketches. A steel drum player at Buzzards Roost. Sketched on location of course.

Colors are Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Pentel. Rush pen in a Stillman and Birn Zeta.

Tip: I do much better painting all trees when I use my squirrel mops. I have a 12 and a big fat Isabey mop. It keeps me from getting to detailed. Then I usually splatter them to give the small lead effect.

Love my mops. Top one is the Isabey 12 second one is an Isabey 8 I think. Bottom one is a Richeson 2. The 12 is from Blick Atlanta Peachtree store. The bottom two are from Cheap Joes. I use the two smaller ones the most.

It’s really hard to get detailed with these which is great for trees or painting Charles Reid style. The smallest brush he likes to use is an Isabey 16 Kolinski sable.

That’s is for today. Go forth and sketch.

Margaret xoxoxo thinking about a run to the nearest park to sketch the kids in the manufactured snow park. One day only event.

Day 856 – Happy Veterans Day

November 12, 2016November 12, 2016Leave a comment

Once again I posted this yesterday on that OTHER website…sigh…

Somehow saying Happy Veterans Day seems like a conundrum to me because is not happy and people remembering it are sad.

That said I am sharing sketches of War Memorials I did in France last fall in Normandy at the sites of the Allied D Day Invasions 71 years ago.

The Canadian Cemetery at Beny sur Mer. It was odd to me that people to young to know the men buried there were crying over dead relatives.

That said I found myself doing the same thing as I shared a link to my dads historic battle of Foxhill at the Choisin Reservoir in 1950. PBS recently aired a riveting documentary about the week long battle. I had heard bits of the story but to actually see the 32 below conditions they fought in, the rugged almost arctic landscapes, the mass burials of the Marine dead,the frozen Chinese who were shot because the Marines had no other choice in this desperate time was a totally different experience.

The beautiful Canadian Juno Beach Museum shaped like a maple leaf on the beaches of La Manche, the Sleeve as the French call the English Channel. A stunning building wrapped in glowing aluminum with state of the art exhibits.

The Ranville Eglise next to another Canadian Cemetery in Caen Normandy France. The day was getting dark and somber threatening rain that afternoon.

The Pegasus Bridge Museum. Using gliders brave British paratroopers jumped behind Nazi lines BEFORE the Allied invasion forces landed on the Normandy beaches. I am sure many of them are now buried at the nearby Ranville Cemetery. They are immortalized in the movie The Longest Day.
Thanks for stopping by.

Margaret xoxox

Day 735 – Yes More France!!!!

July 5, 2016July 5, 2016Leave a comment

Les Andelys looking up toward Chateau Gaillard – Richard the Lionhearted’s chateau stronghold above the Seine.

One of the Seine barges steaming toward Le Havre. These boats are just huge. I had no idea they were so long or so fast. I had to draw Quickly!!

Chateau Gaillard. I drew it twice. This one I messed up and didn’t get the town below in. I “fixed it” by adding ledger paper and some real French stamps.

This is what I was trying to draw in the last painting. I actually like both of them a lot now.

The Eglise Saint Sauverers in Les Andelys with Gussie and Bob from Seattle in front of the church.

Like the church and museum yesterday I first coated it with Quin gold and then a mixed grey of cerulean and burnt sienna. The blacccks are also a mix of burnt umber and ultramarine or Inathrodone blue.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 730 – Happy Birthday Blog!!!

June 30, 20162 Comments

Happy Birthday Blog!!! Caran d’ache neocolor II on Kilimanjaro 5×7″

Absolutely THRILLED to say TWO years of posting daily. I started out just trying to post daily for 50 days. I think I made it!! 😊👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Start of an Abstract iii 26×40 Arches 280# elephant sheet

Have a couple of watercolors ready to paint. I really need to get with it but …..

So what else is up??? Plotting a trip to somewhere -probably France or China.

Travelzoo had some great deals. $1800 for 14 days in China including air fare may be hard to pass up.

But then there’s a seven day deal in France 4-5 days in Paris, museum passes hop on hop off bus, then off to the French country side around Dijon driving ourselves. Thinking that could be an adventure to remember.

Raisin full sheet watercolor Fabriano Hot Press just started
And thinking about a repeat of the Paris – Normandy Viking Cruise. You say why?! So I can draw Paris, Vernon, Auvers, Normandy and Rouen without being hustled everywhere nonstop while being pampered on the ship. Not bad.

Never touching a suitcase has its appeals.

It’s running $1900 including airfare. The southern leg thru Provence is also dirt cheap now.

So many possibilities. Which will it be. In the meantime heading to the mountains and Key West while we decide.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret dreaming of foreign lands instead of painting. Xxx

Day 726 – Almost two years.

June 26, 2016Leave a comment

My Van Gogh Sunflowers 20×24 Acrylic For Sale
Coming up on two years of daily posting on Day 730 or at least attempting to do that.

One of the things I learned this year – if you are taking a Viking cruise up the Seine River the wifi is definitely UNdependable. Have to think about a cure for that next time we go.
My friends and fellow artists say they have seen a lot of growth since I started this journey. I started out to do a month then 50 days then 90. It grew like topsy.

Auvers sur L’Oise – Prints available Watercolor 8 x 11″ approximately

I love Van Gogh. Ever since the Viking Cruise and a tour of Auvers where he died I have been thinking about painting sunflowers because I knew I could never afford a real Van Gogh. I had to paint my own another that mine is in his league!!
This week was the week. I bought a bunch of sunflowers at Krogers and Costco to paint in my blue Shishir pot from Tire City Potters in Augusta.

Colors used – Pthalo blue, cerulean, ultramarine blue, golden Green Gold and nickel Azo gold, hookers Green, cad yellow medium, cad yellow light, cad red light, burnt umber, titanium white.
I had a lot of trouble with the yellows. They tend to be transparent which did not work well over the turquoise background. I finally found a tune of Golden Primary Yellow that I drew petals on straight out of the tube. The impasto ( thick) paint finally did the trick.

Day 623 – a bit more France

March 16, 20162 Comments

Arrowmonches Les Bains in Normandy near the D Day invasion site. Charming quintessential French village by the seaside. Some of the WW2 beach defenses still remain out in the breakers.

We had a delicious coq au vin lunch at Brasserie 6 Juin.

I almost missed the bus drawing this picture. 😳 I could have happily sat there drawing the village all afternoon while the others went to the landing sites but it would have been a LONG walk back to the boat moored at quai in Rouen.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx dreaming of France

Day 593 – Back to Rouen

February 15, 2016Leave a comment

Somehow I forgot to post this sketch I did of Rue Martainville from the square in front of St Maclou in Rouen.

These half timber frame houses proliferated in the Rouenduring the medieval period. More still remain here than anywhere else in France. The medieval Europeans thought they were more fireproof than timber houses. Hmm?!

Notice how the bottom leans. Oh my!!
Rouen has them in great variety and shape, overhanging streets, leaning crazily. Often doors and windows are totally leaning a kilter on the front of the houses. Nothing is square though we were told they were inside. How is that possible. Je ne sais pas. I don’t know! But I have seen them with my own two eyes. Now you have too.

Lining an alley.
And how is it that these crazy wonky leaning buildings don’t fall down upon our heads. Once again. Je ne sais pas! C’est un miracle.

Surrounding the market place.

Marching toward St. Mclou.

And of course cheek to jowl with St Maclou.
Rouen has street after street lined with these teetering ancient beauties like old women in spikes towering and tilting down the narrow cobbled lanes waiting to tumble down momentarily.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx hot planning maps to make to fill in blanks in my French travel Journals.

Day 587 – The Bény Sur Mer Cemetery

February 9, 2016February 9, 2016Leave a comment

Is a beautiful four acre cemetery where the Canadians buried their dead after the D Day invasions. Americans have 170 acres of cemetery.

Something about spot is poignant. This is the favorite sketch of many on our cruise. They eventually started looking over my shoulder to see what I was drawing. This one got alot of that’s my favorite sketch.

It was quite an easy one to do so I find the comments interesting. Not complicated like the Centee Juno Beach sketch or the Pegasus Bridge sketch.

Simple colors too. A bright cobalt blue sky. Cerulean and Quin sienna for greys. Hookers with Quin yellow in the grass. Quin burnt orange for trees. Cerulean jeans. And that’s about it.

As I said a simple sketch and painting.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 585 – Juno Beach

February 7, 2016Leave a comment

The Canadians built this beautiful museum to remember the D Day Invasion and the valiant men who fought there on June 6 1944. From above its shaped like a maple leaf.

The museum sits on the shore at Les Courselles in Normandie above La Manche, the Sleeve, as the French call the English Channel. Below are the beaches where the brave British, Canadian and Australian forces staged their D Day invasion.

Eventfully more than 4500 of them died during the invasion of Normandie.

Colors used. First a wash of Winsor yellow on the buildings. Next a wash of Cerulean and Quin burnt orange and Quin sienna. Shadows cobalt and dioxzine purple and more sienna and Quin burnt orange. Windows and sky cerulean. Grass yellow green and olive green with Quin burnt orange.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 584 Inside St Sauveurs

February 6, 2016Leave a comment

A quick sketch drawn while sitting in the lovely early morning quiet of the church. Not that Les Andelys is a hub bub of noise and activity!! It was lovely to sit in the still in the old rush seated chairs and admire the 16th century stained glass windows.

I think I really enjoyed drawing this one because we could not even stick our noses into the Rouen Cathedral or even see the whole facade due to the Christmas market construction at the base.

All that way and no good looks at Monets famed cathedral. Sigh! I guess I will just have to go back!!!

I coated the sketch with an initial coat of Winsor yellow and let it dry. I also used a lot of Quin burnt orange on the walls of the apex.

Shadows are burnt orange and Inathrodone. Not quite as dark as burnt umber and Inathrodone. A nice light alternative.

Windows – marine blue, ultramarine blue, purple and bits of Winsor yellow. Each color was allowed to dry before the next was added.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx