My neighbor and fellow urban sketcher Stuart Lacey has been suggesting we go draw at the stable that houses the carriage horses just north of downtown. I finally got it together to join her yesterday, and it was fabulous. Fortunately, we showed up just as the owner dropped in, and he very hospitably gave us the run of the place and told us to come back when more was going on and bring a group. I'm going to try to get the full urban sketchers down there sometime.

Stuart watched the farrier shoeing a younger horse, but I was drawn to the whole line of stalls and settled down almost immediately to do the above watercolor.

It was getting noticeably colder by the time I finished, so I didn't start in for another one. I did several quick pencil sketches waiting for Stuart to get done, and then we headed home for a little warmth. I definitely want to go back and paint more, though. What a fun afternoon.

Our fearless founder Elizabeth Alley was away this Saturday, so I was the official greeter for the Urban Sketchers meeting at the Peabody. Thanks to a recent newspaper article about the group, there was a huge crowd of mostly first-timers. By my count, we had at least ELEVEN TIMES the number of people (21 instead of 2) we had last time I facilitated (in 99 degree heat at Overton Park), so I'm calling the morning a howling success.

It is always great fun to get to talk shop with other artists -- we compared our travel art kits, our work habits, and our goals, and I think everyone enjoyed the chance to meet other people with the same interests. Lots of people lingered to chat a good while after the ceremonial duck march and the comparing of sketches. The duck master even came over to meet us and welcome our group to the hotel.

Photos from our outing:

One of the great privileges of being an artist is being able to preserve a special or beautiful moment in time and share it with others. I was painting the other day when the moon rose above a line of fir trees. I did the above watercolor sketch quite quickly, before moving on my next planned, much more detailed work.

The scene stayed with me, as several moon rises through the years have done, and on Saturday, I sat down and did a small carved block from it. Yesterday, I ran the block on the letterpress for new note-cards.

Most of the cards look like the one above, but instead of mixing the ink on a palette, I added the green and blue separately on the ink disc itself, so the first several (before it got mixed thoroughly by the rollers) have a more tie-dyed appearance (called a "rainbow roll" in printmaking). It's more subtle than the tree I did in yellow and blue (mostly because of the darker colors involved), but it's there.

The light and dark contrast of a single color block really changed the feel of the image away from the lightness and color of the original watercolor. I'm now working on a three color block that would let me get a little more of the original feel in a print. This scene hasn't quite let me go yet.

I had a standing morning obligation last week cancel, and the timing was perfect. The weather was gorgeous, so I headed to Dixon Gallery and Gardens. I started in the garden and painted first. I've been enjoying exploring their statuary in its natural surroundings -- a nice contrast between nature and man-made.

Then I headed inside to see the new Rembrandt to Rubens exhibit. As is always the case with smaller museum collections, there was a great deal of up and down in the quality, but the Speed has some lovely pieces that are visiting us just now. Aside from the stunning Rembrandt and Rubens of the title, they have an exquisite Pieter Claesz breakfast still life. Claesz is one of my favorites of the Dutch painters, a fondness dating back to my college art history classes, where I fell in love with the still life genre in general. There was also a quite lovely Van Ruisdel landscape. The Dutch pieces were definitely my favorites in the exhibit, but it's an interesting show and well worth seeing.

I hadn't painted at the local botanic gardens until yesterday. I started at Dixon (I wanted to see their new exhibit as well as paint), but after lunch I moved across the street. There aren't as many formal gardens as I had hoped (the Missouri Botanic Gardens blew me away last summer with their rich assortment of garden areas), but I did like the above view.

Just as I was finishing, I noticed the moon rising above the line of evergreens and did a very quick watercolor sketch.

The very coolest thing about Memphis' garden is the newish playground. Tree houses, sculptures, and play areas were all designed by local artists, and it is a charming and whimsical place. I did one watercolor of my favorite of the the tree houses.

By this time, it was late afternoon, and I'd been outdoors painting almost all day (with a short lunch break to see the paintings at Dixon). It was a wonderful way to spend a blessedly warm February day.

It was a gorgeous day here, so I took my camp chair over to the Greensward at the park and just settled in to paint. I did two different views in different media without even moving my chair. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Merlin lounged around in the sunshine and had some meet-and-greets with other dogs, so we both had a ball.

I had a crazy busy day yesterday, but I had a little time in the late afternoon to take Merlin to the park to hang out while I did a quick drawing. This is one of my favorite trees (though I know I say that about a number of them). It rises up on the far side of Rainbow Lake and glows in every sunset. I truly love the graceful white sycamores.

It was glorious the other afternoon, and I walked to Overton Park with my pack and chair and did several more watercolor and gouache paintings on tinted paper. Above is my favorite, of the Brooks Museum.

I tried a gray paper for another view of Brooks, and while I like the color of it, it wasn't quite dark enough to give the same richness of tone. I also missed the mark a bit with the drawing.

Finally, I tried a lighter brown paper, and I'm happier with this one. I've been fascinated by tree shadows for a couple of years now but haven't managed much work with them that I like. I'm going to try more in this medium.

I took Merlin to the Old Forest today. I've been greatly admiring the art of Wayne Attwood, and through the miracle of Facebook, he advised me on his technique when I admired it. He bought one tube of white gouache and uses it with his regular watercolors, which is lovely, because it doesn't require buying an entire new set of something else.

I bought some brown paper and decided to paint in the forest. I've always been drawn to the woods, but I've had trouble doing work there that I'm happy with. This might be a medium that works. I'll definitely be spending some more time there with the brown paper and gouache.

Here's the Shumard oak that's at the entrance to the Old Forest trail.

Dad took me to the Opera Memphis production of "Die Fledermaus" last night. It was marvelous. We have a new director with more of a theater background, and the comic opera was truly funny (not always the case). Just delightful.

I hadn't had the chance to draw yesterday, so I tucked my sketchbook and some colored pencils into my bag. It was challenging but also fun to draw in the almost dark. I added the color during the intervals with the lights up.