Painting My World: Transformation from a Bad Quick Draw Painting

'Dancers By the Sea' 10x8 pastel ©Karen Margulis
available $155

It's been a wonderful week in the studio! There is nothing better than returning from a trip to an empty calendar....a week of no obligations and no plans. In fact I didn't even leave my house for 7 days!! I had a week to enjoy the glow of a wonderful visit to Ireland and paint and write to my heart's content.

I have a couple more installments to my travelog. Today I am sharing one of the last events of Art in the Open....the Quick Draw. This event was open to any artist and the requirement was to paint one of the storefronts in Wexford in a specified area. The time limit was two hours. Everyone painted at the same time and then displayed their paintings for all to see and perhaps purchase.

If you would like a great look at the Quick Draw event have a look at this video done by one of the AITO artists Alvin Mark Tan. Here is a link to the video on YouTube. Alvin Mark Tan is a wonderful artist and great guy who conducted an Urban Sketching session at the festival. He was seen everywhere with his paints, sketchbook and video camera! I also recommend following him on Instagram @alvinmark

Now for my experience at the Quick Draw and how I transformed one of my quick draw paintings into today's Queen Anne's Lace paintings.

Painting Suki!

I have to admit I was a little concerned about the Quick Draw. I'm not really a painter of buildings and while the streets of Wexford are certainly picturesque I know I couldn't do them justice. My wheels were turning. What would I paint??....then while in the Wexford Silver shop the morning of the event it hit me. I knew exactly what I would paint....or who that is. Suki....the adorable little shop dog. Suki liked to hang out at the door and greet everyone. She would be the perfect model!

I set up in front of Wexford Silver at the appointed time. The horn blew and I started to paint Suki. Until the band started up. Suzi didn't like that and started fussing. The shop owner came out and to my dismay took her inside. A plein air painter's nightmare! Actually it wasn't all bad. Suzi returned when the band left and I managed to finish one small painting and start on a larger one. About that larger one.......it was bad. Very bad.

brushed down and ready for some alcohol

The painting actually started life as some buildings. I tried to paint the storefront when Suki went inside but I wasn't having fun with it. So I brushed off the buildings and tried for a close up of Suki. Short on time I didn't finish and wasn't at all happy with my composition.

Not wanting to waste a good board (Pastel Premier panel) I took it all the way home and did an alcohol wash. It now became the underpainting for my Queen Anne's Lace at Rosslare beach. Definitely a painting with an interesting journey!