Martha Kelly Art blog - MARTHA KELLY ART

Published on: September 14, 2026

Road trip!

I went on my first road trip in a year and a half last week, and I kept it doable at four and a quarter hours door to door. I went to St. Louis, one of my favorite destinations. I have friends and cousins there, I love the trees in Tower Grove Park, there's a sanctuary space of an airbnb right off the park, and the food is amazing. Plus it was so good just to be somewhere besides home after a long time of not traveling.

The Tower Grover Farmers Market was gearing up the afternoon I got in, and I bought the best small tomatoes I've ever had – purple and red and lovely (though my crazy Diamine Ancient Copper ink washed them all a little too dark in this sketch). Not pictured was some amazing sourdough bread. My friend Christina advised me to get cookies from Cafe Dolce, and I am not one to ignore good cookies. I ate a couple before I even sketched them, but it was fun to dig out my dip pen and small bottle of ink and just dive into a celebration of good things. I always enjoy looking back at the good things in my sketchbook and being happy about them all over again. The good things included a Payne's grey printmaking ink (that I can't WAIT to try), a new watercolor to test, and some sashiki thread actually on a spool that will make my mending life happy. All of these were from the tiny but so well curated St. Louis Art Supply that is a delight to visit.

Early in the trip I also did a quick fountain pen sketch of one of my favorite trees, an old sycamore in the corner of the park. There's a handy bench, and I always go and say hello to her. This was just in my tiny purse sketchbook, but I wanted to mark the moment.

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Published on: September 6, 2026

Metal Museum opening

Saturday was the opening of the second campus for the Metal Museum in the perfectly named Rust Hall of the old Memphis College of Art. If we had to lose MCA, the second best possible outcome was the Metal Museum bringing back community art making in that space at the center of the park. I've taken and loved some classes at the old Metal Museum campus.

They'll keep that for apprentice housing and, I'm sure, wedding rentals by the river. But their space was limited – kilns came into the library space on trolleys for an enameling workshops. The new space has a dedicated enameling studio. I'm excited to take more classes four blocks from home, though I definitely miss the breadth of MCA being a part of this community.

The opening was on a first Saturday, so it felt right to have Memphis Urban Sketchers mark that moment with them. We meet earlier than the opening, so we could all get settled to sketch before things got crazy. It was hot, and I've been trying (and failing) to conserve energy before a trip next week, so I didn't linger to tour the new space, but I'll definitely go check out the galleries and museum store soon. I had a ball drawing the facade in my biggest sketchbook with my dip pen (my favorite thing lately) and paint on top. It was a good day.

Published on: September 3, 2026

Tea with Carroll Cloar

I went to Dixon today to spend time with the Cleveland Vuillard before it leaves this weekend. It's fun to go to a show enough to just hang out with your favorite paintings instead of feeling you have to give everyone equal weight the way I do the first time through. I called on Steinlen, Forain, Manet, Renoir, and Whistler. I'm almost as sad about losing the cool Parisian cafe menu they created specifically to go with this show. I'm still masking in public for my health, so a crowded cafe isn't good for me, and the air is also bad outside this week, but the auditorium where they have their lunchtime lectures was unused. I ordered the salad Nicoise I've really enjoyed there as well as some lovely hot tea and had lunch by a Carroll Cloar painting I really like. Afterwards I ran into one art friend and then made a new one as well as seeing various friends who work there. It was a lovely art day out.

Published on: August 26, 2026

Flowers from church

I've been putting the roof damage drama on facebook, and somebody at church noticed I was having a hard week. These flowers from Sunday's service appeared on my porch Monday afternoon, and they've been making my week brighter. Last night I decided to sketch them while watching a little British mystery drama (my favorite genre). I was really touched. I haven't had the extra bandwidth to get there much at all these last couple of years, and it felt lovely to still be included and cared for.

Published on: August 24, 2026

Storm drama

It was a wild weekend. Memphis had a storm with 70 mph winds and a downpour, and an hour later (why?) one of my older trees just broke and dropped a large limb on the house. Fortunately the biggest part was on the ground, but it's bad enough to be a headache for sure.

Oddly, and gratefully, I kept power while a third of the city was out, so the upside is that my family who lost power came over for breakfast the next morning. I had holes in my roof but power, and we ended up with an unhurried, impromptu family breakfast, which was a delight.

-As well as power, I found out that I also had bees. While I was staring at the roof, my brother in law noticed a swarm around the branch on the ground. A friend of mine used to keep bees, so I got her to alert the local beekeeper grapevine, and it worked fast! I'm still trying to get the limb off the roof so it can be tarped, but by golly, Jalen Prater with the Works Urban Farm showed up and got to work. He donned a beekeeping suit, got his smoker going, and managed to find the queen in all that mess. He carted off the chunk of tree with the biggest section of hive and took it to the non-profit urban farm to re-home them and give them a safe place to stay.

All of this took place just outside my work table window, so I got lunch and watched the show. Halfway through I pulled myself together enough to realize it was a golden sketching opportunity and did a sketch before he was finished and pulling away. It was impressive, and I am so glad the bees are safe. With any luck my roof will also be safe before the next rain gets here.

Published on: August 22, 2026

Sanctuary place

Dixon has been my refuge really always but especially since the start of the pandemic. I've been trying to get myself on a schedule to go once a week or so and just drink in a little art even if I don't stay that long. I'm not managing that, but I get there pretty often. Yesterday I went to see the stunning Vuillard that's on loan from Cleveland for just a couple of more weeks. I'm going to miss it when it's gone. And then I sat in the residence a good while. I love their chairs with a coffee table of rotating art books. It's such a peaceful place. I sat for ages looking at the Berthe Morisot across the way and the Courbet next to me. I noticed a statue that I didn't remember, which is apparently on loan for a bit. I decided to get my big sketchbook out again, after having fun with it the night before sketching Henry. Since Dixon only allows dry media, I'd actually had the foresight to grab another one of those graphite crayons for my going out sketching kit, and I used it with the neocolor watercolor crayons to do a big, fairly loose sketch. I put a little water on it when I got home, but only for the central figure.

Driving home Park I spotted Shreya's Wood Fired Pizza, which I had read about the Daily Memphian as having butter chicken pizza. They were just opening up, so I did a quick sketch of the wood fire oven while waiting on my pizza. It was delicious, especially the generous chewy crust. It's always fun to try a new place, and I was glad I did.

Published on: August 20, 2026

Big fat crayon

A sketcher I follow on IG, Mark Alan Anderson, inspired me to pull out my water soluble graphite crayon after seeing some of his vacation sketches where he got simple shapes and deep, rich darks. I had my biggest sketchbook within reach and one of these crayons in the drawer of my coffee table (and almost always a couple of small jars of watercolor water and some brushes on the table next to me), so I did a fast one of Henry as he kept moving (of course) in his favorite chair. It's always a happy thing to sketch a little. I turned in a Memphis Magazine illustrated page this week, and I'm slowing working on the memoir, but illustration often turns more careful and tight for me. I like the style, but it's also good for me to go fast and big sometimes to make sure I don't get too precious. This was fun. I need to keep my sketchbooks next to me and do more of these.

Published on: August 19, 2026

Memphis Listening Lab

I've been walking more inside than outside this summer with the bad air quality from all the fires. Fortunately we have a huge, converted old Sears distribution center in my neighborhood that has plenty of scope for a walk (even if I'd rather be in the forest). One of the many cool tenants is the Memphis Listening Lab which has a host of records, and you can go in, choose one, and just sit and listen. It's a magic corner of Memphis in line with our heritage as a music town. I sat outside their hallway and did this tiny sketch with one fountain pen and my gamboge watercolor marker (that always looks a little more orange on the scanner) at the end of my walk. I'm doing so much illustration work right now that I can't really show, so I'm trying to remember to at least occasionally take the time to sketch for my own pleasure.

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Crosstown a few months ago, and here's a bigger, longer sketch I did inside the listening lab then with the same marker for one pop of color and a fountain pen/brush pen combo.

Published on: August 17, 2026

Flowers

I got invited to dinner by a pair of lovely friends on Saturday night. I haven't had dinner out at someone's house (that's not our family get-togethers) in way too long. I bought some flowers at the farmers market to take as a hostess present, but I decided it would be a win win if I sketched them first. I got out my biggest sketchbook and did a loose sketch in green ink with my fat dip pen. Then I used my biggest brush but still fell back into the more careful illustration style I've been using lately instead of staying as loose as the original drawing, but I both enjoyed the process and am happy with how the page turned out. Henry nicely posed for me for a minute down in the floor, lifting up his head as he heard some other dogs bark. It's always fun to include him.

While I had the sketchbook out I leafed back through it. I've been using a big one more than ever before this year, lately with the dip pen. I came on this sketch of poppies using Neo-color watercolor crayons plus some paint (more farmers market flowers from back in the spring). It has felt too careful and anemic every time I flip through this book, so while I was sitting there with the dip pen and case of colored inks, I pulled out the Diamine Ancient copper that I love but that can sometimes be too much. It was perfect for this job, since I already had the paint down, and it wouldn't be washing everywhere while I painted.

So here is the updated version, bolder and looser. It's not my best sketch, but I'm much happier flipping through the book now. This one doesn't jump out at me as super disappointing anymore at least.

Published on: August 7, 2026

Food journal

Those of you who remember me 50 pounds heavier in my 20's know I've always had a slightly shaky relationship with food. Mostly sugar. My parents used to hide the treats from me. I said for years that I had a loop track going in my head saying, "Can we have a cookie? Is it time for a cookie now? What about now???" Incessantly. I spend a ton of my time thinking about what I'm going to put in my mouth next -- which is probably one reason art is such a joy to me, because it's the thing I'm most likely to lose myself in for a while and not think about food.

In my late 20's my dad was newly single and going on a ski trip/legal conference but didn't want to go alone. All of us in my family knew that I was never going to be a candidate for downhill, with its speed and athleticism, but Dad talked me into trying cross country. I knew I was going to be terrible at that, but I didn't want to also be embarrassed by my total lack of wind and stamina, so Dad and I started walking daily to get ready for the trip. As it turned out, I never could stay upright long enough for wind or stamina to be an issue. I did, however, find myself a happy winter occupation of going out snowshoeing with a sketchbook in my pocket.

By the time the trip had rolled around, I was already losing weight (slowly) and feeling physically better, so I kept up the walking and didn't actually diet (I hate going hungry), but I made some substitutions in my eating habits that felt sustainable long term. I lost the 50 pounds over a year and a half or so and managed to keep them off, finding a balance between eating what I enjoy and moving enough to offset it.

Then menopause hit, followed by long covid, which has meant an interruption to the daily 3 mile walks I did for decades, and it's been more of a struggle. I work at home right next to the kitchen and I'm a stress eater, so periodically I fall into putting more things into my mouth than I'm physically hungry for. When that happens, I do a day or two at a time of a food journal. The rule is that before I eat something, I have to draw it, so it makes me more mindful. It's also positive and satisfying activity, rather than a punitive measure.

A lot of these pages are done with a pair of ink brush pens, one dark and one lighter in tone, but I also use these pages to play with different media than I normally use. I keep them pretty quick so meals don't get cold. Another upside is more mindfully enjoying my mixed pottery collection that I use for my daily meals. Above are a teapot from Sauk Mountain pottery in WA (and the memory of sharing it with a good friend), a bowl and teacup with a Julian of Norwich quote by Melissa Bridgman here at home.

I like the idea of markers, but usually I reach for watercolor instead when I'm out sketching, so a food journal page can be a good reset.

One time I was away from home (and away from my regular big sketchbook for this) and tried watercolor instead, but it was too much of an effort to keep up. The food journal can't be too big a mental barrier or I won't do it at all. But watercolor was fun for a day.

I have been kind of fascinated by the advent of GLP-1s and read a lot about them. I'm mostly holding steady where I want to be and don't like adding medicine I don't need, but it is HARD to lose weight the old way, and I'm so glad for my friends who have found the relief they need. It's also been such a comfort to me to read the experience of others and hear the term "food noise." I come from a family of people who legit forget to eat lunch (never have I ever), and I thought I was a freak outlier with my internal cookie loop track. It turns out there are a lot of people wired the way I am, and that has been such a joy to know. Which is probably one reason I'm stepping in here and writing a much more personal blog post than I usually do. Another reason is that I'm still working on the memoir and getting more used to the idea of sharing personal details. When I do take that leap, I find the sharing makes bridges and helps other people, the way that reading about food noise helped me.

I don't hold myself strictly to these food journal days. It's meant to be mindful rather than punitive. Sometimes unexpected things happen during the day, and I fizzle.

Sometimes I fizzle super fast.

The flip side of all these food journal pages is a quantity of pages in my regular sketchbook celebrating treats. Yesterday was one of those days. I walked inside Crosstown (bad air lately with the smoke pollution) and felt called by the nearby cinnamon rolls at Lucy J's bakery afterwards. I've always loved Wayne Thiebaud's paintings of cakes and pies and all the good things. So often when I'm having something delicious, I like to enjoy the look of it by sketching it before eating it. I did a whole show one year, buying eclairs, Napoleons, and macarons in Paris and painting them before eating them. It spreads out and slows down the enjoyment for me. So here is a celebration of yesterday's deliciousness. I'm grateful to have found a moderation I can live with that has room for delight still built in.

Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.

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