We are now in one of my favorite places. I was here as a teen with my grandmother and utterly fell in love with the cathedral town of Wells. It's small enough that you can walk straight out the back of the Bishop's palace and be on the footpath to the next village, so that's exactly what I did yesterday morning. I did a couple of paintings from the footpath before the family got moving to go see Bath.

Here's the cathedral green, with our hotel (the Ancient Gatehouse) on the right. It's part of the medieval wall around the cathedral. I'm up under the eaves sleeping under half timbers.

We spent the afternoon in Bath seeing Jane Austen sites. Marian and I had tea in a tinty tea shop built right into the Pulteney bridge. Here's the view out the window from our table.

And I did one watercolor of the sycamore grove (of course) at the center of the circus.

We stopped by Salisbury on the way to Wells today. It's one of my favorite cathedrals, with its tall, graceful spite and cohesive architecture. It also happens that my favorite painter's best friend was bishop there, so John Constable painted it extensively on his visits. I certainly felt that bit of extra pressure as I sat down with my watercolors today, but I couldn't resist trying anyway.

By the time I'd reacquainted myself with the marvelous Medieval stone frieze of Genesis in the chapter house, I didn't have a lot of time left, but I wanted to try my hand at the soaring nave. The architecture is complex, but I tried to keep it extra loose, due to time constraints. I'll have to look at it again tomorrow to see how I really feel about this one.

We arrived in Wells tonight and had dinner in the Ancient Gatehouse hotel, right in the wall of the cathedral close. I can't wait to start painting here tomorrow.

The family walked through the water meadows to St. Cross today. It's called a hospital, but it's really the Medieval alms house that The Warden is based on. We toured the church, saw the courtyard where the"brothers" live to this day, and then spent a lot of time in the utterly gorgeous garden. I settled in to paint and did two right off, sitting underneath a gorgeous sycamore at the center of the garden.

I loved this topiary hedge. Not sure I completely captured it. Here's a photo.

I wasn't that happy with the next one. I liked the color and pattern, but it feels static. I'm going to blame the jet lag.

I decided to loosen up and do a quick sketch of the sycamore just in my journal.

Marian showed back up at this point, and we went in search of tea. We didn't find any, but one of the brothers found us, told us about living in the States in the 60's for a bit, and very kindly carries us off to your his quarters where the alms men live. Lovely high ceilinged sitting room with a tiny narrow bedroom and kitchen. Such a treat to see and very kind of him.

I went back to do a larger watercolor of the sycamore after while Marian struck off to walk more. (The parents were long gone.)

I sketched a second sycamore in my journal on the way home.

And did two watercolors of a St. Catherine's hill. I've been waiting years to paint the Engliah countryside. I'm delighted to be making a start today.

Probably more of a museum day tomorrow, so I took advantage of the easy afternoon.

We landed at Heathrow and drove straight to Winchester. Our first stop was a sidewalk lunch at the Eclipse Inn from the 17th C. I couldn't resist a quick journal sketch to get warmed up. And it was lovely to sit there with the family and be embarking on a journey together.

Everyone else napped, but I do better if I stay up, so I camped out on a gorgeous day in the cathedral close and did two sketches of the east front.

I love the tree arched avenue leading to the main doors.

A walk in the late evening sunshine, but I was too pooped to paint any more. Bed quite soon.

My most excellent father is taking his bride, my sister, and me to England. Given that he's now married to our favorite high school English teacher, who got all three of us hooked on Jane Austen, we're going to do a bit of a tour of JA country -- places she lived, worked, wrote about, and died.  I did a similar trip many years ago with my best friend from high school who wrote her master's thesis on JA, and I'm looking forward to revisiting some of the places we went.

I'm also going to go north on my own and paint for a week in Yorkshire. I fell in love with the North York moors when I was an exchange student in college, and I've been trying to get back ever since I started to seriously paint outdoors when I traveled. I can't wait.

Above is the stack of watercolor blocks I bought for the trip, and with luck I'll have to buy one or two more....

Watch this space for updates from the trip. I'll be posting snapshots of my work as I go along.

Tower Grove Park, one of my most favorite parks (and places) had an anniversary picnic on Sunday, and the board of directors put on an art show to go with the food trucks and concerts. What a beautiful idea. I really wanted to go, since I love making art in that park, and it was fun to get to show it right there. Thanks to the park board for letting this Memphis girl crash the St. Louis party.

My friend and fellow artist Bonnie Hopkins was kind enough to ride up with me for the night, help tote stuff, and just keep me company. I was so glad to have her along. And I was also really grateful for seven of my dance friends who made the effort to come out on a Sunday night and support me.

In between visits, I did a small sketch of one of the original composers' busts that circled the 1870's band stand in the park. It's now inside the Piper Palm House, where the exhibition was.

Below are two sketches that were in the show of the Palm House. It was originally a Victorian greenhouse to supply plants for the park, complete with stained glass at the top of the arched windows. Amazing. They have a Sunday brunch inside it each week, and otherwise it can be rented for weddings to support the upkeep of the park. A perfect venue.

More of my Tower Grove watercolors are here, along with a bunch from the Missouri Botanical Gardens as well, both of which were founded in the 1870's by Henry Shaw, one of my heroes.

Karen Jackson and Dan Klarmann were two of the friends who stopped by, and Dan took this of Karen and me talking. I love how it captures the afternoon light and the way the stained glass paints the floor in the afternoons.

At the end of the show, Bonnie and I visited the food trucks and sat outside in a gorgeous evening to hear the last few songs of the jazz band. Perfect. I took a food truck self portrait.

Then we took advantage of the late light and perfect temperature to walk a circle of the park, especially since Bonnie had never been there. Here's a catalpa tree we stopped to visit with as we walked. It's one of my favorites.

The new moon was rising over the bandstand as we circled back to our car.

Finally we joined the rest of St. Louis in treating ourselves to Ted Drewes frozen custard. They talk about it every single night on the baseball radio broadcast, and I always go when I'm in St. Louis. Amazing stuff.

This is the eighth and final print for the season of Easter. It's been a long time to do a weekly print series, but I learned a lot and especially enjoyed playing with the varied color inking.

I think I've written that I've done several art series for Lent but never for Easter. Lent seemed long enough (six weeks), and eight full weeks of Easter surprised me, but I do believe it's right that a celebration of the Resurrection should outlast the journey to the cross. Last year I read some excerpts of N.T. Wright about the way the church as a whole observes Easter. He is an Anglican bishop, but the observations are applicable to most denominations, I think.

Since his words affected my thinking so deeply, I thought I'd finish the Easter season by quoting a couple of passages here. Thank you for taking this Easter journey with me.

"It's a great step forward that many churches now hold Easter vigils, as the Orthodox church has always done, but in many cases they are still too tame by half. Easter is about the wild delight of God's creative power -- not very Anglican, perhaps, but at least we ought to should Alleluias instead of murmuring them."

"But my biggest problem starts on Easter Monday. I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday...and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration."

"Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don't throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don't do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn't take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It's long overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system." (All quotes from Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright)

This series of prints has been my attempt to live Easter this spring. For those of you who do not celebrate Easter, thank you for your patience, and I'll be moving on to travel painting quite soon. My family is taking a trip to England in June, and I'm looking forward to painting a country I love.

This is the seventh of the eight week series of Easter prints, done for various churches that subscribe to my artwork and use it in their church bulletins. I based this one on a painting I did at the woodworking school Country Workshops, located on a gorgeous piece of land that is one of my favorite places to paint. You can see the original painting and then the pencil sketch and the trace of it (to transfer to the block with carbon paper) below.

Here are the block and the color print. I had fun mixing the colors on the block with three different rollers, blending as I rolled. I was totally absorbed in the process and didn't think to take photos at the time, but I'll be doing this again. I've learned a number of things from doing this series, but the color inking has been the most fun thing to play with.

The type printed on top was the last step, after the original block

I don't do a tremendous number of people sketches, but for some reason I really love drawing musicians. I'm lucky to both know a number of fine musicians and also to live in a city rich with live music. These sketches are usually in pen and wash, since it's a quick medium that lets me try to capture fleeting moments. I found a whole series of these sketches that I hadn't scanned in when I picked up a sketch book recently, so here they are.

The Mighty Souls Brass Band.

I went back to the Tennessee Brewery last week. The five week temporary beer garden is still going on through June 1, and I love this building. Plus, one of my favorite local bands was playing. Den of Strings is a Django Reinhardt inspired jazz band (one of TWO here in Memphis, and I love them both). Mr. Darcy and I went down to hear music and hang out for the early evening. I love that it's dog friendly. And it was fun to draw the band against that lovely backdrop.

You can see my first sketch of the Brewery as well as a bunch of photos of this exceptional building in my first blog post about the place.