Memphis Urban Sketchers met on Saturday for our monthly outing. This time was Overton Square, and we had folks all over -- front, back, in the Memphian hotel lobby, you name it. I settled out front at the main Madison/Cooper intersection because I love all the shopfronts and signs. I sketched Bosco's across the street because I'm a sucker for stripes, and then I did a fast one of the Lafayette's sign. After we gathered and showed our sketches several of us walked across to Bosco's and had lunch on their patio. I'm also a sucker for an umbrella, so I did one more quick sketch while waiting for our food. It was a great day with friends, and I'm so glad for a group that goes out and makes art together.

I've been working my way back into my longtime printmaking project of trees at Rowan Oak this week, but I gave myself a holiday for Leap Day yesterday. Thursdays have long been special to me, and it was not only Leap Day but also the 4x4 anniversary of Muddy's Bake Shop, my favorite bakery for both the treats and the warmth and welcome when you walk in the door. They opened 16 years ago on Leap Day and made Memphis instantly a better place.

I also dropped by a couple of thrift stores with a carload of donations, and I ended up coming home with two new-to-me cashmere sweaters for a total of $13.50. A big win. And I feel lighter in my house at the same time.

After lunch I treated myself to a trip to Dixon. I saw their current show of married artists Paul Wonner and Theophilus Brown a few weeks ago, and I can't stop thinking about it. Especially Wonner's portraits. I went and sketched in the semi dark with only dry media, so these are both too saturated and not at all worthy of the paintings that inspired them. But I loved spending the time looking that deeply at paintings I admire from an artist I hadn't known before this show. He was in California with Thiebaud and Diebenkorn, and I can see that throughline. His painted lines have multiple colors making them up, just as Thiebaud's do. One of my longtime favorite artists. I plan to go back and sketch more while the show is still there.

I did two straight days of adulting on so many different fronts, so when my friend Christina suggested lunch on Friday, I was more than ready. We both gave ourselves the beautiful afternoon off and had a leisurely lunch at Cafe Eclectic, enjoying the sunshine on the deck. Henry had a ball too, especially when our nice waiter brought him a plate of bacon. I did a sketch with the black waterproof DeAtramentis ink I'm using for M is for Memphis in a bent nib pen.

We walked into the neighborhood afterwards and sat to sketch. For the second sketch I used my Ancient Copper ink by Diamine. It's water soluble, and I love it in the trees, but it's always a little more iffy on a building. I dove straight into the roofline without looking or measuring as well as I would have liked to once I screwed it up, but overall it's a fun sketch of a lovely day and a hillside of daffodils on a block I walk more days than not. So happy. And we had a lovely visit while we sketched. Afterwards Henry and I took a long loop through the forest at owl time as the sun was getting low. A perfect afternoon.

I'm still working slowly toward M is for Memphis. It's a mix of new sketches (the drummer at the I Am A Man mural, based on a photo Jude Dippold took when we were there a few years ago) and sketches from previous outings, like the sculpture and plaza I did with Memphis Urban Sketchers. It's fun to have a way to use some of my sketchbook images I'm proud of and also fun to be revisiting and sketching places around town. I've got a few days to work hard between a house guest and a visit to my sister, so I'm diving in. Obviously I is for I Am A Man, along with the IBC (International Blues Challenge) that's such a big deal for Memphis.

We had a truly lovely week this past week, perhaps as cosmic atonement for the awful snow and cold, and I made the most of it. I've been outside sketching and lunching and walking and generally hanging out. Friday Jude and I had brunch at Cafe Eclectic. I get there a lot, but they're four blocks from my house, dog friendly, and are consistently willing to serve outdoors, unlike some places that shut it down no matter what the weather through the winter months. With a separation anxiety dog, I'm grateful for anywhere that lets me bring him to hang outdoors when the weather permits.

For the afternoon we wandered around downtown, letting me take photos for the M is for Memphis book, and we ended up at the river for the late afternoon and sunset. This sketch was when the sun was higher, but the sunset put on a real show, and it was lovely to sit and watch. One of the best things about Memphis.

I've mostly been doing book work lately, illustrations meant specifically for M is for Memphis. I'm excited about how it's going, but I also feel myself tighten up a bit when I'm painting for a purpose like that. It felt good yesterday to take advantage of a sunny 60 degree day and go get chai with my partner and then head over to the park for some sky studies. The clouds had been amazing as we sat on the cafe deck, but they were moving rapidly out by the time I got to the park and was settled on a picnic table with Henry tethered beside me to hang out.

I did one quick cloud study as the front piece to a new sketchbook. I'm kind of excited about this one. It's a Handbook watercolor book, like my normal bigger (8x8") size, but it's 8x4" or so. I had a vertical one this summer that was 8x10". It was fun to branch out of my normal landscape format double truck and have something more upright, but it was SO much real estate to cover that I was a little reluctant to start a piece if I didn't feel I had a good long time. I don't need a sketchbook that makes me reluctant to open it. The nice thing about that one was that it was slightly landscape format, but tallish, when open. This one is purely square, which isn't my favorite, but it's good to mix up my shapes, and I love the size. I stumbled on it in an art store out west and have been waiting to finish my last bigger Handbook to start the new one. I had fun and did a sycamore tree I love against the blue, blue sky once the clouds had gone. I'll be curious to see how this format feels as I use it more.

Memphis had eight solid days of snow and ice, so I treated myself to a staycation writers retreat. One of my two big goals for this year is to get a new alphabet sketchbook done. It's M is for Memphis, which my local bookstore has been nicely requesting. They sell a lot of P is for Possum and would love a broader Memphis book as well. I've been tinkering with the alphabet for over a year, but the last few weeks I've made a strong start on actually getting art together and putting it on pages. I'm doing a good bit of new work (A is for Arcade at the top)but also plundering my sketchbook to see if I've banked sketches over the years that would go well in the book. I sketched the Arcade's sweet potato pancakes several years ago and will add that sketch to the overall piece of the building itself. I go back through my sketchbooks fairly regularly for inspiration for prints or paintings, but it's fun to be able to pull out those done-on-the-spot images to use as they are.

This is going to take most of the year, but I'm hoping to be able to have it out for fall. Fingers crossed. Books always take longer than I think they well, but I'm pleased with how it's going so far.

Well, it's been a crazy start to the year. I had a cold after New Year's and was low energy for a week, then I went down to Ocean Springs for a few days, just to get out because it had been ages, and now Memphis has been snowed in since Sunday. Nuts. I'm so glad I got down to the coast and spent a couple of days fully outdoors before the crazy freeze got here. It was tempting to stay down there, but I figured my 100 year old house needed shepherding through single digit cold.

I've been using the time as an at-home writers retreat and starting a new book. It's been great to have an exciting new project to keep me company, and I got so distracted I forgot to post all of these Ocean Springs sketches. The first morning I made tea and walked down to the beach with a thermos and my sketching things and tried to paint the sunrise. It moves so quickly that I never capture what I hope to, but it was lovely to sit out and try.

Next I decided to drive out to Gautier. I'd never seen Oldfields, the family home of Sissy Grinstead Anderson. She and Walter lived with her parents and the two oldest kids for a few years after his round of serious mental struggles. He did gorgeous work there. The house had fallen into disrepair and is being stabilized and restored by Mississippi Heritage, thankfully. It has a truly glorious live oak tree in the side yard and a view of Horn Island. I was shocked to see a suburb had sprung up around it, but I guess that's not surprising with its bluff view. I sketched the tree (of course!) and a corner of the lovely house.

And while I was on a pilgrimage kick, Mattie Codling the curator at WAMA, suggested I visit the Evergreen Cemetery where the Anderson family is buried. It's a gorgeous old cemetery overlooking the bayou, begun in the middle 1800's, and the family section is lovely with modest flat stones that have matching trees carved into all the Anderson ones, with Sissy (Agnes) having a star instead. She certainly earned it. She raised four children largely on her own and tended to Anderson's legacy after his early death from cancer. Remarkable woman.

It's powerful to visit and sketch the graves of people you admire. I got to sketch Vincent and Theo's graves a few years ago, and I was glad to spend some time here as well. A live oak tree up the hill and keeping watch felt perfect for this artistic, nature loving family.

I spent the lovely last day of 2023 outside at the park with Henry. We sketched and walked and sat and watched the sky and did a circuit of the neighborhood too. It felt lovely. January 1 was much less lovely, though I'm very glad to see a new year coming in.

I still made art that day, meaning to start the year as I hope to continue it. Henry and I had stumbled across a full length mirror in the Old Forest a few days earlier, and I took a series of photos. I can't stop thinking about how magical that pool of reflective light felt in the midst of the forest. I have two big projects on my plate, but I'm giving myself permission to follow the shiny object and do a small graphic essay. That's especially true at the holiday season, but I do try to take advantage of the more persistent inspiration when it shows up. It may not mean much to others once I finish it, but I'm enjoying the process and the play this week and am hopeful it might be something lovely when finished. After struggling to take my normal forest walks for a lot of the past year, it feels lovely to be starting out in a place that inspires me and feeds my work.

My friend Christina and I went out sketching in the neighborhood again. I was super drawn to the tree and then struggled a bit with the house behind it (partly because I used a water soluble ink without thinking and had to add a bit of gouache to the trim later to keep it from being super muddy). I finished with a super fast line drawing of a different house that was a lot less intricate and more fun. Of course. And I rounded the page out with a Christmas present from my potter friend Melissa Bridgman. So lovely.