I got used to showing Mr. Darcy's trip this spring by drawing him doing different things. I'm not being as organized about it, but I'm also enjoying drawing myself in bits of my own trip this time. I've been looking at all kinds of paintings of women "a la toilette" in the Orsay -- by Morisot, Degas, Cassat, and many more. It was a popular theme, and I absolutely love the tiles in the bathroom here, so this morning I decided to have a go at doing my own version. I'm also still working on getting better at people, and I'm a willing, free, and available model for myself.

This evening at dinner I also wanted to remember a sweet moment from my long walk home. I stopped in a bakery I like but don't go to often enough for them to know me, and I asked for the smaller version of the pain au chocolat. The baker, bless him, seemed to think that I needed fattening up and added a mini croissant, "un petit cadeau," to my bag. That kindness made me smile for blocks, so I did a sketch when I got home.

Here are morning and evening sketches done a couple of days ago. I'm looking at more art and making less this trip, at least so far, but it's nice to have something in my journal each day. I'm also still working on desk work -- self portraits here in the apartment and a bit of Mr. Darcy. It's nice to be able to play here and not feel like I need to create a whole show to bring home with me. I like having free time in an inspiring place to simply do whatever wants to come out at the moment.

I've been having quiet mornings and walking to museums in the afternoons. Today was the Orangerie, which had an exhitbition of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works from a collection in Tokyo that was well worth seeing. Then I couldn't resist going upstairs to the rooms with the enormous, all encompassing late water lily paintings of Monet. It was crowded, but I still love sitting in those rooms. (The back room is never as pushed as the front one.) And I always want to sketch. Today I didn't even try to get any details of the paintings. I just did a quick sketch in the general palette, which happened to match the French ink I just bought. It was fun to go for the impression. I had done more precise work this morning, working on the Mr. Darcy book, so it was nice just to surf art and sketch loosely for the afternoon.

I followed about the same pattern yesterday and went the Musee d'Orsay instead. I didn't even sketch inside, just a quickish view from out on the roof, yesterday being one of the rare and unpredictable days they allow people out to enjoy the stunning view.

The weather is overcast and chilly, and the light isn't calling my name for painting in a serious way, so I went to my favorite Saturday markets today instead. First to my local one for tomatoes and avocados and a small umbrella (necessary equipment to carry in Paris, though gratefully I didn't need it today), and then to the Marche d'Aligre, my favorite brocante, which is my favorite French word, meaning any second hand store or flea market or sidewalk sale. One word fits all for second hand goods. It's an alluring word. It was quite thin for August. The booth where I got my favorite teapot last year wasn't there. But I got another long sleeved shirt, which I feel I will need this trip, and I got my favorite mint tea, with a huge sprig of fresh mint and pine nuts floating in the top. I sat and sketched and wrote in my journal and generally breathed deeply and stopped moving for the first time in a long while. It felt good. I'm enjoying the quiet time to walk and contemplate here after feeling underwater with the church book project (marvelous though it was to be asked to do) for much of this year. Two weeks at home with multiple repairs and business to attend to followed it, so Paris, where all I have to do is feed cats and myself for the moment, is quite a restful change.

I also sketched on the way home. The city had taken an expanse of cobblestones off to the side of the Pantheon and erected benches, one of them with enormous gargoyles scattered down its length. One of the things I love about Paris is its creative use of public space. It continually plays with different options to invite people out into its spaces to mingle and enjoy. I love that, coming from the land of everyone being sealed up in their air conditioned cars and houses. It's hard to mingle in Memphis. So I sat to sketch a bit and then bought some Angelina's hot chocolate to drink in the park on the way home. Bliss.

I did a lot more walking today and once again ended up in the Musee d'Orsay. The nice thing about getting a pass is that I can go and do several rooms deeply without having to see the whole museum. I can also take time to sketch. They move and switch out the artwork. This Redon wasn't out last year, and it really moved me. I love the figure rising out of the ocean. So I sketched him standing up (and halfway in the dark -- they keep the symbolism rooms super dark for some reason) and then sat down out in the middle and sketched a few people. I need to get in more practice doing people, and Paris is a great place for that.

I also did one quick sketch in the Tuileries. I had tried to do a gouache study at lunch, but I had forgotten the actual gouache in my jet lag fog. I'll have to go back and do it a different day.

I got to Paris today for what has become my annual August stay. I was pretty groggy, so I only did one quick sketch. I also went to the Musee d'Orsay to renew my pass and revisit some favorite pieces. I'm looking forward to the exhibition of Cezanne's portraits when I have more brain power.

​I also did did a quick sketch leaving Memphis, since I couldn't resist going ahead and testing my new grey sketching ink.

I enjoyed running my press again for the first time in several months. I had a commission to print -- an edition of prints for Dixon Gallery and Gardens, but I can't show those yet until they unveil them. It was only 140 or so, and I still had energy and ink, so I decided to get a jump on Christmas presents and run some stationery as well. I always enjoy having something nice to use, and I had a bunch of paper that was a bit too light for postcards, and stationery is the perfect use. These are all solo letters I've either been given or picked up at a huge, marvelous flea market in Paris. I adore the "k" and wish I had a full font of that, but antique dealers routinely break up sets and sell off individual letters. I don't often reward that behavior, but I have occasionally picked up one or two letters. I've also gotten some nice wooden decorations to use with my posters.

I used my iPad (new to me this summer, since I was doing so much work on the road) to record my press in action. It was fun to get a little video. It's a beauty when it's moving, so silently and gracefully.

I came back across the country with my marvelous friend Jill, who came out to help me drive home. We took it pretty quickly, wanting to get home and see my family, and she had stuff to do too. But I did do one sketch in the Badlands, which we got to see briefly at sunset and then again the next day. I've been covered up with printmaking and playing with gouache any time I wasn't doing that, so this was my very first journal sketch since early July, and I realized how much I'd been missing it.

Several years ago I did an Arts and Crafts inspired series of travel prints. Not the big national park places, but places that were my peculiar heart places. I've added a new place this summer, and I decided to add a new print as well. This is smaller than that first lot, t-shirt sized, since the bakery owner here might use it for just that. The idea came together quickly my last week here, and it was fun to have a small, autonomous project just for fun, after the big push of finishing the book illustrations. I printed several by hand yesterday to leave a few here (I'll be traveling back across the country starting tomorrow, so art blogging will be on hiatus for a bit), and I'll print some more when I get home to my press. I may do a second one with the iconic concrete silos that welcome visitors. It would be fun to do them of my favorite nearby parks as well. We'll see if I have the time and oomph for a whole series.

Here is the block in progress plus the first proof, so you can see how I refined it for its final form.