My favorite Airbnb in St. Louis is the Rabbit Hole, right across the street from Tower Grove Park, my favorite place to walk and paint. It's a converted 1918 garage and run by the hosts in the main house who have also turned into friends. I've sketched it several times over the years from different angles, and this trip I sketched it again.

The first one, in my biggest sketchbook, is a dip pen in Diamine golden brown ink. I had meant to do watercolor on top, but a friend dropped by just as I was laying out the main sketch. By the time the visit was over, it was darker than I had hoped, and by the next day, I decided I really liked the loose line drawing as it is, with its big white open bed at the center, so I left it.

I did do a second version, smaller and in gouache. I keep seeing artists I admire so much do amazing things with gouache, and I've been wanting to try it again. A trip felt like a good time to dive into an experiment, and I had a good time. Last time I tried, my papers all curved and cracked, but I've learned in the meantime to let it dry either taped down or on the watercolor block I used (as in this case – a 6x8” block, and I just travelled home with it still tight and flat). That seemed to work, so I'll look forward to doing some more when I come up for air from my memoir, which is still taking up most of my creative space at the moment.

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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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.

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.