Martha Kelly Art

Saturday was our regular meeting for the Memphis Urban Sketchers. Elizabeth had decided to convene us downtown near the Memphis in May festivities, which is also near my regular Saturday morning destination of the farmers market. I'm an early bird and like to get to the market pretty early to get my pick of things. I was also concerned about parking once downtown got hopping, so I put a cooler in the car, hit the market about 8:30, and then headed for our meeting spot at Beale near the Orpheum.

I've got a commission on my list for the Orpheum theater, Memphis's old Vaudeville theater that now houses Broadway shows and the opera and whatnot, so I set up to paint it while waiting for the 11:00 meeting time to roll around. It's a pretty complicated building with lots of architectural grace notes, so it took about the full two hours, a bit longer than my usual watercolor time. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, though, and I was also pleased to find some shade to paint in (not always possible when I need a certain view).

It was quite hot on Saturday. A couple of our group had had the foresight to scout out a good location ahead of time. Four of us ended up at a table with an umbrella on the upstairs deck of Alfred's, overlooking the main strip of Beale Street. It was lovely to sit in a comfortable chair with wait service and good spinach dip (since the 11-1:00 time frame is right through my lunch hour) and paint in comfort and companionship. I enjoy getting out with other artists, seeing what they are drawn to in the same scene, and swapping ideas. It's a lovely break from working alone at home so much of the time. We had several new and talented folks join us for the first time, and I love how the group continues to grow and attract new people. I'm often out of town for the meetings, but I love to be there when I'm home.

I was pretty worn out both my architectural concentration and almost five hours out in the heat by the time we were done. Elmore had finally turned on our a/c at home, and I happily did some sitting down printmaking indoors for the rest of the afternoon.

I've been mostly carving a new print block the last couple of days, but I did take time to do a commission this morning. I'm enjoying doing house portraits for folks, and this is a special one -- the people moving away commissioned it, but when I got there, it turned out that it's the same house my former English teacher and current friend and theater buddy is buying in my neighborhood. I'm so excited she's moving closer, and I can't wait to go sit on that porch. It's a great house. But it felt a little funny to paint it for someone else.

Otherwise, I've been working on a new print block of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Below is a snapshot of the block (12x17") at the end of work today. That's about 10 hours worth of carving so far, and I'm more than halfway through, but that total doesn't include the time doing the basic drawing and transferring the drawing to the block. Printmaking is MUCH more involved, which is why it's fun to go out and just do a watercolor sometimes. There will be a second and possibly third block for this print as well, depending on how many colors I want, but this first one is the most involved one to carve, since it has all the surface pattern of the drawing. The others will be much simpler blocks of color. I'll keep you posted as it progresses.

Highlands School in Birmingham, whose Head of School Kathryn Barr is a friend of mine, asked me to do a sketch map of their campus for their admissions brochure. They're an elementary and middle school, so they wanted something welcoming and artistic instead of just a grid map.

I'd never done something quite like that before, and I chose a place in their quad where I could see all of their buildings and approached it like a street scape. I had to move around a bit to get enough of a view of each building's front (a touch of magical realism, I called it to myself), but I was pretty true to my viewpoint, and I was very pleased with the outcome. I added letters to the drawing to be used as a key for the names and functions of the buildings.

Their campus is nestled in a wooded hill, so the final overview drawing felt lush and green to me, and a little whimsical -- just right for an elementary school. It was a fun trip, and they also asked me to do a couple of close-up watercolors for note cards, so the total project made the trip worthwhile. I also got in a great visit with an old friend who lives down there.

I'll post the results after their brochure comes out. They wanted to debut it themselves, so watch this space in May or June for the final project.