My sister is in the choir at Grace St. Luke's Episcopal. I grew up half Presbyterian (my parents' church) but also half Episcopalian because I would go with my grandparents to the 7:30 service at the cathedral. I loved the older words of Rite 1, which sadly has fallen out of general use these days. My presbyterian church is still my home since it has my community and since I'm reformed enough to still feel awkward about genuflecting to objects... and also since incense makes my lungs crazy -- no one bothered with that stuff at 7:30 am. But GSL had an unusual Rite 1 service at 5pm yesterday, and I went over to hear my sister sing some of the anthems their choir will be singing in Wells Cathedral this summer, and as a surprise bonus to enjoy the ancient words of my childhood. It was exactly what I needed this week. It was a small service, and I had the balcony completely to myself, so I also was able to worship unmasked, which was a real treat. With my long covid, I'm still masking in public places. We sang lovely hymns, had a brief but meaningful message, and the music was exquisite. 

The cypress swamp at Rossville had been dry the last couple of times I went but it had rained so much lately it felt like a good time to go. It was. The light was glorious, and the swamp was full of migrating birds. I hadn't been an hour from home in a while, and it felt nice to get away a bit. 

I'm lucky enough to have sketching friends to meet up with and share a meal and sketch. They are important to my happiness and quality of life. We met at Dixon, hoping for food truck Friday but driven indoors by rain. I did four quickish sketches inside the cafe. My favorite is that top one with a limited palette but more depth and shadow than the others. My brown pen got cleaned recently and is too anemic with the water. I need to do a little more work on it, so I switched to a water soluble blue/black ink and then used my super tiny watercolor kit that rides in my purse instead of getting out my full one. It was a great catch up, and I love having happy occasions in my sketchbook to remember later.

I sketched my tea again this week. This is one of four art deco Bavarian china cups, each with a different pattern. I found them at the thrift store, and they're totally my new favorites. As a bonus, they look fantastic with my crazy fancy Paris brocante teapot, found at the Marche d'Aligre. They also harmonize nicely with Muddy's sweet potato pie. It was a fun morning, and I hope to do some more of these.

I also got back to a little forest sketching on a recent evening walk. I didn't linger since the mosquitoes were finding me, but I enjoyed pulling out my tiny sketchbook that I try to always have on me and do a quick line drawing. I'm still spending most of my time on illustration these days, but sketching feels great when I get to it and keeps me a little looser.

Facebook seems to think it's National Tea Day. I mean, who knows. But it's a day I can totally get behind. Before I saw it I had done this post breakfast sketch. I've been working on careful illustration work for days now, and it felt like time to get out a big brush and be really wet and messy. Mission accomplished. I started with Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, one of my favorites. The stoneware is hand-painted thistle from Scotland. My mom graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and she loved all things Scottish. These are the dishes of my childhood, and I found a cup/saucer/creamer set a few years ago in an antique store and was delighted.

The honey was a gift last week from a friend. I'm so grateful for my Memphis community of people who lift me up when I'm struggling and celebrate with me when I have something good happen. I love living in the place I've grown up and in the house my grandparents bought in 1941. I'd been having a tough day, and the honey was just the sweetness I needed. It's sitting on my counter giving me periodic treats and shining a little sunshine all around it. Fun to paint.

I'm trying not to "publish" my whole memoir here, but it's mostly what I'm working on these days, so I'm going to show bits and pieces. It's been fun to go through old photos and journals and ticket stubs and remember trips and people. I found a photo I didn't remember at all of my first dog Dougal lying on my lap while I played banjo. Henry gets across from me and glares and looks put upon. He is much less a music fan. Here are the photo and the version I did from it for the book.

You can also see the font I'm tinkering with. I keep going in and making minor adjustments. It's an app for my ipad, iFontMaker, that lets me draw my own letters. My first attempt looked scarily like Comic Sans (or a ransom note, as fellow illustrator Martha Park said of her own first attempt), but I tried again and came out with this, after numerous adjustments and probably more to come. If I'm going to do a whole book, it would be way easier to use a font (even drawing with an apple pencil requires me doing most words several times), and it's more legible. So I'm laying out with the font for now. Worst case scenario it's a good place holder for me to know what to write where if I decide I don't like the final look.

Three years ago I wrote about 19,000 words of a first draft of a memoir. What I learned is that prose isn't really my medium. But it was cathartic. I ended up writing a path out for my younger self from a bad place, and it was helpful. I also figured out that I had written way too broadly, and the story I'd like to tell is tighter and centers around a transformative summer in Greece I was lucky enough to spend there. I thought that maybe someday I would mine some of that outpouring for graphic storytelling.

This spring, as I am stuck in my house for most of the days thanks to a flare up of the POTS I've been trying to figure out how to live with, I'm toying with that project again. I don't currently have the physicality to do a lot of standing up work in my print shop, but sitting on the couch and noodling with small illustrations gives me joy. And going back to relive some of that travel when I'm feeling more closed in is also appealing.

I don't honestly know if I'll have the courage to put this very personal story out into the world, but I'm enjoying exploring it. There is nothing like the brain fizz of a new project to perk you up a little. So here's the first page. We'll see how much more makes it to the public sphere.

We had a deluge for a second first Saturday in a row with very little rain in between. Memphis Urban Sketchers (every first Saturday) were set to to to the Memphis Botanic Gardens. It felt a little wasteful to take a trip there and not have much scope for the gardens themselves, but there's a big main building with windows in multiple directions, a conservatory, and even some garden pavilions, so we went ahead. There was also a covered porch outside the main conservatory where I settled in. I'm a sucker for a good palm frond. But there was so much inside that I would also love to draw. I need to get back sooner rather than later.

The colors seemed to call for my Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, which I love, but which is not suited for everything. It was fun to pull that pen back out. I always seem to do a detailed, more time consuming sketch first one out of the gate (backwards of the recommended practice of a quick warm up or two, but there we are). Then I did a much quicker one of this crazy plant in a pot sitting out on the patio. It's very small, in my little 3.5x5" purse sketchbook.

After the first downpour I took advantage of the break to get back to the main building without being drenched, and it got a lot lighter. I pulled out my waterproof inflatable cushion (my key piece of non sketching equipment) and did another super fast but bigger one of this garden sculpture. I do love a spiral, and it stood out beautifully against a dark magnolia. I got lost in the spirals, and it's an under 10 minute sketch, so it's not too exact, but I ended up liking it best of the three. I probably SHOULD start with quicker warmups if I could get my brain to keep from diving in with both feet as I'm starting.

I've been doing a lot of illustration work lately, but not just sketching from life for personal happiness. Sunday was a gorgeous day, and the wildflowers are at their peak. Henry and I went early and walked up a small wash where we wouldn't hurt anything but also where we'd be a little off the path since it was a weekend. I wanted to settle in and sketch before chigger season, which bit me (literally) last year. I found a few bunches of bluebells that I didn't know grew in there.

I have a certain scale that makes the most sense to me visually as an artist. I don't usually sketch close ups of the landscape or huge panoramas. My brain (and probably my heart) do best with mid-sized landscape that's perfect for a person to walk into. But I love the wildflowers so much that I try to paint at least a few almost ever year, to greatly varying results. I wanted to mark the bluebells, and after butchering some trillium last year in a deep purplish ink, I reached for the Derwent Inktense pencils, which I have fortunately supplemented with a pink for the buds. I used paint on top but laid out the bluebells with a blue pencil. It's not amazing but it was fun to do, and I was happy with the colorful riot in my sketchbook as a celebration of spring. This is always my favorite season in the forest.

That evening I had kept my paints handy for illustration work but didn't have my sketchbook in reach. Going to get it would have disturbed Henry, who was looking cute in his favorite chair, so I did a small freestanding watercolor with no lines first, just drawing with the brush and a light grey to start with. He moved partway through (of course), but it was fun to get back to evening Henry sketching, and I'm going to try to remember to do it more.

I've been quiet here partly because I'm working on two illustration projects for Memphis Magazine that I can't show yet and partly because I was having some serious internet problems and couldn't share my scans. So I don't have a lot of new material I can share, but here are a couple of recent(ish) sketches that didn't make the blog. The first was an art lunch with friends, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I clearly had tea.

The second was a really neat lecture at Dixon a couple of weeks ago. I got to a number of those and usually sketch, so I'm trying to figure out different media and styles to vary the sketches from lecture to lecture. This was local artist Carl E. Moore, whose work I admire a lot, talking about his practice and his art. Instead of diving into paint I kept it just fountain pen and brush pen. I also used a higher vanishing line than I usually do. Often I'm drawing what's on the wall behind the speaker, but here I left more space for audience and kept his figure central to the sketch. I was pleased with how it turned out, which is not something I say a ton about my sketches. I love doing them, but they don't usually measure up to the image I had in my head before starting. This one was different than I meant it to be, but I was pleased with the result.