Martha Kelly Art

There's been some pretty awesome music happening downtown in the daytime lately. Today Jason Freeman posted that he was going to be playing in Court Square from 12-1, and Elmore and I decided to pack a picnic and head down. I'm still working on doing better people, so it qualifies as work (if I stretch it), and it was a perfect day to sit outside for a while. Plus we love Jason's music. He does old time blues on his own and is also the lead of Memphis' own jug band, the Bluff City Backsliders.

There was a confluence of cool events downtown today, so I took off from both commissions and work on the fall show to go just draw something fun. First was the "Food Truck Rodeo" in Court Square. The food trucks have just formed an association and had a mini-festival to celebrate. Today is also the Blues Awards, and the food truck folks had some good blues playing in the bandstand. I loved seeing the park so alive.

Elmore met me after his regular kayak outing, and we had lunch while I painted. Then we walked down to Beale Street, where yet more blues musicians were playing a free afternoon series of sets before the awards tonight.

We heard Mary Flower, whose finger picking blues I really enjoyed, and I couldn't resist painting her as well. I was drawn to the darkness of the indoor scene back lit by the windows across the front of B.B. King's.

We finished up the afternoon listening to Eden Brent, a favorite of ours and awesome boogaloo piano player from Mississippi. She's got a voice that will knock you out of your chair, and I don't know of anyone who crackles with so much energy during a live show.

I loved my Memphis afternoon. We've got a great city.

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.

I continued my painting tour of the south this past weekend by going to Vicksburg with Elmore for his kayak race. Since the race was 20 miles (at that distance, I need a lunch break and possibly a nap in the middle), I painted instead of racing.

It's a lovely town with many antebellum houses, and I'd enjoyed being there last year for the same event. A year ago I had only begun to try watercolors, so it was nice to be there with some watercolor momentum going and the wind in my sails.

Above is the Old Courthouse (now a museum), and below is the super cool Mississippi River Commission building.

I attended one of the Episcopal churches there Sunday morning, taking advantage of being out of town and away from my good Presbyterian community of folks to enjoy the beautiful liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer. After church I painted the house below.  I was trying to loosen up a bit, but mostly I just got sloppy (esp. with the greens). I think I may have my timing on the watercolors I do just about right. Rushing doesn't seem to improve the situation.

Finally I did one more view of the courthouse. The clouds were gorgeous that day, and I wanted to try, but I really need to get out and do a bunch of cloud studies. I'm just not happy with my skies in watercolor yet.

I recently talked to a Rhodes college class studying urban parks, and Overton Park in particular. It was a writing class, and the teacher asked me if the park influenced my writing. My answer was no, not very much. However, the park greatly influences my artwork.

Here's the first proof of my first big block (12x19") that I carved for my new Line-o-scribe press. It's about as big as the press can handle, but it's much larger than I've been doing, and I feel like whole new worlds are opening up before me. I'm working on a series of art deco inspired travel prints of places I love, including both parks in St. Louis that I painted last week.

However, I had to start much closer to home. This tree is my favorite one in Overton Park, and it's my closest sanctuary place. I continue to be drawn to it both physically and artistically. I've painted it a lot this spring. It's lovely to have such a wonderful muse just a few blocks from my house.

I fell in love with Tower Grove Park last summer when I visited St. Louis, and I've been wanting to get back to paint ever since. It was founded by Henry Shaw, who gave the land, built a huge variety of charming Victorian buildings and pavilions, and left money to help with its care. I love that one man could do so much for so many people in the future.

I'm fortunate to have two different households of friends and/or cousins who live just a block off the park and were willing to take me in for my painting trip. It was wonderful to be able to get up, walk out the door, and start painting with a minimum of fuss. It's a gorgeous old neighborhood, too, and if for some reason I could no longer live in Memphis, that would be my number one choice of where to go.

It was drizzly my first day there, which beautifully was a Sunday (the only day the cafe at the Palm House is open), so I bought a cup of hot chocolate and settled in to paint indoors in comfort and with wait service. Every urban sketcher's dream. The Palm House is converted from an original Victorian greenhouse, which has been happily reclaimed from its time as a bus barn.

My next project was the Old Playground Pavilion. I spotted it on my walk that first drizzly morning and am pondering a print of it for my new series.

I might, however, prefer the bandstand instead. Shaw built it with the busts of his favorite composers on pedestals around it, and every concert played had to have a piece by at least one of them. It's a gorgeous building with intricate details and a wooden floor that (I'm lucky enough to know from personal experience) is just perfect for waltzing. It's also surrounded by beautifully eccentric trees. This may be my winning scene. Either way, it was a thrill to paint at Tower Grove again, and I hope not to let so long go again before I get back there.

I spent four days this week painting (and dancing) in St. Louis. Elmore and I had visited last summer, and I was gobsmacked by both the botanical gardens and by Tower Grove Park, both created by Henry Shaw in the 1860's and 70's. It was stunning to me how one visionary man could give so much to so many and change the face of a city so beautifully.

I'd been wanting to go back and paint ever since, especially since gardens (ever since that  trip) have been figuring prominently in my work for this year's show. This past weekend offered both a contra dance and a waltz party, so it seemed ideal. I got to paint with the daylight and dance with good friends in the evenings.

I started first in the Missouri Botanical Garden because I knew that once I hit Tower Grove I wouldn't want to leave. (I'm in love with that park.) The top painting is of a delightfully colorful formal garden, full of small geometric shapes. Just above is an indoor Mediterranean garden (a temperate greenhouse) that reminds me powerfully of Turkey with all the colored tile. I was glad there was a bit of an indoor option for painting, since the Saturday weather was drizzly instead of the sunshine the weather forecast had promised.

Finally, below is the mausoleum of Henry Shaw, tucked in a forested glade full of bluebells at the heart of the Botanical Garden. He deserves such a beautiful place for all the beauty he has bequeathed future generations.

One of my cousins is kindly letting me invite myself up to visit this weekend in St. Louis so I can paint their stunning botanic gardens. Julie and her family live near the gardens and right off Tower Grove Park, which I fell in love with last summer. I can't wait to do some more painting both places. I'll have almost three days to do a little work, see friends, and get in a little dancing in the evenings.

Conveniently, the house Julie grew up in is right around the corner from me, so I could go paint it this afternoon while listening to the Cards game on the radio. I wanted to do something nice for her, since she's letting me come crash on my schedule with not a lot of warning. (I'm hoping she doesn't read this blog...) It's neat to be able to do something a little personal for the people in my life.

Once again, I'm having a crazy busy week. I called the contra dance weekend in Little Rock this past weekend, so I didn't get any painting done. I did, however, take a break in the afternoon and listen to part of the Cardinals game on the radio while I did a few pencil sketches from the steps of the church we were dancing at. All three of these sketches were done from that same spot on the steps. There's always something to draw, and usually several somethings, wherever you are. Elizabeth Alley and the Memphis Urban Sketchers have taught me to be more alive to sketching possibilities everywhere.