More In transit travel sketches.

Arriving in Paris. I was too jet lagged to sketch much yesterday.

But I did manage to shop. Found a thrift store and a couple of neat jackets. (Went back and did the sketch today.)

And, of course, sketched trees...

I have the ridiculous good fortune to be asked to house sit again in Paris. I'm giddy excited and flying out this afternoon. I can't wait to do some sketches there. I'm going to try to keep a real sketch journal this time as well as doing some watercolors for my spring show. Here's my first to get me started.

I know I keep saying this, but I really am trying to sketch more in those small corners of time I have in my day. I did the above sketch when I got to a restaurant first and was waiting for friends to join me.

I sketched Mr. Darcy (again) the other night. I was playing my banjo as watching him sprawled out on the couch, and I just couldn't resist reaching for my sketch book.

Then I spent all weekend demonstrating at the Pink Palace Crafts Fair. I was mostly carving a block (what I was out there to do) and talking to people who came by, but I took a quiet moment to do this sketch. For some reason, I really like the shape of a line of port-a-potties. I know I've drawn them before.

I went into Asheville yesterday and did my favorite thing there --- browsed my way through bookstores. Malaprops is my favorite. It's a smallish new book store, but they always have unusual and enticing selections that I've never seen anywhere else. This is my main reason for supporting local book stores instead of just ordering online. Browsing can't be beat for discovering new treasures.

I left with one utterly charming picture book for kids (though bought totally for myself --- monsters and patchwork cats and tea and toast were irresistible) and one grown up picture book, a travelogue by a 27 year old woman having an adventure in Europe.

She sketches her way through the trip and is an accomplished cartoonist. I love her storytelling and labeled sketches of food and sites. My friend Elizabeth Alley is also a master of those quick, narrative sketches. The book made me want to document this trip, but I'm such a landscape artist at heart. All I've managed so far is a series of watercolors out the window of the view from my work table.

Here is last night.

At least I got fired up to paint reading Knisley's book. (I also loved her emotional honesty about the life choices she faces. A very courageous book. I highly recommend it.) I would love to try more narrative in my work, and maybe I'll push my limits this trip. Though I didn't bring a second sketch book, so I may have to truck into Asheville again if I really catch fire...

Here are this morning's series of watercolors. I lingered over breakfast and tea and just kept painting.

And my work table with simultaneous breakfast and painting going on. Now on to some printmaking.

I'm carving a new block, but I'm also taking a little time to get out sketching on the farm. I'm still playing with markers and pens and seeing how I like them.

I went out sketching a couple of days ago with printmaker Nancy Darrell. Here are he sketches of me sketching. She, too, wants to work on people more.

I'm nominally off the grid for a bit, staying with friends in the mountains, but I found out that the neighbor cabin down the hill has wifi to share on the porch, so I can do a few blog pieces too.

I'm starting slowly, recovering from recent travels and the calendar push, but I did a couple of pen sketches yesterday, and today I'm drawing out another England print, which I'll post when I have the full design finished. Baseball on the radio tonight (thank goodness for a crazy strong signal from KMOX in St. Louis), and sketching tomorrow with the printmaker next door. Life is good.

I've been bouncing back and forth between doing computer work to put the calendars together and working on final prints for my England show at Playhouse on the Square in November and December. These are just snaps of them. When I get a chance I'll have them scanned in (they're too big for my home scanner), but it will give you an idea of what I've been working on.

It feels nice to sign and date a whole stack of work (I've also been scanning in all the England watercolors) and realize just how much work I've done over the last few months.

This one was a problem child. I originally planned a color block for underneath, but somehow the carving got too offset. A friend on FB suggested just printing the key block since it's so graphic. Getting the tree dark surrounded by light sky and not clogging up all the small bits made this one quite tricky to print, but I got a number of good ones in the end. They'll all dry while I'm out of town next week and be ready to be packaged up or mounted when I get home.

Opera Memphis continues to do opera outside the box under director Ned Canty. I think this is the third year they've done "30 Days of Opera,' popping up and doing free bits of opera at the dog park, along the parkway during rush hour, at an arts fair, really just about anywhere. Today they were out at WKNO, our local public radio station. They did an hour's worth of opera on the patio at lunch hour, broadcast on the radio, of course, and invited folks to show up with their lunches to listen. I love sketching at music events, and I've been working hard to put together my 2015 calendars and prep for fall shows, so I decided I was due just a fun sketching break and went out. Plus I love seeing all the 'KNO folks as well as Ned. I got a ton of hugs, did some fun  sketching, and enjoyed breaking away from my computer for a while. Thanks to both organizations for a neat event!

I've been a board member of Park Friends for some years now, as well as a (thankfully) past president. It's a small volunteer group that does clean ups, trail maintenance, tree planting, and other projects in Overton Park, the large park with a tract of Old Forest that I walk in daily with Mr. Darcy. It's Memphis's Central Park. I also paint there regularly, and this park, four blocks from my home, is a huge component in my quality of life. I tell people I live in the heart of the city and walk in a forest every day.

I spent a quite intense few years as president. The city was trying to dig up our one big open picnic field for a storm water retention basin. I went to public meetings, engineering meetings, storm water meetings, and city council meetings, and thankfully, another solution was found that left our park intact. I felt so lucky to be able to have the flexibility in my work to take that time for something really important and join with other citizens to find a different path. I've been glad not to be president after all that, but I am so grateful for what our group does for the park I love. So I've put together a calendar to benefit Park Friends. 55% of the proceeds will go to that organization.

The images included in the calendar: