Memphians are still fighting our own city council to save the central area of our huge central park from being paved for yet more parking lot for the adjacent zoo. It breaks my heart. So I went down for the second reading of a resolution to hand the zoo the land. I was pleased to see a large turnout of people who waited patiently for a couple of hours and stayed to both speak and listen to all the other supporters speak as well. I'm so nervous for our park and hoping for the best. Overton Park is my main muse. It's where I walk every day and paint regularly. It's historic. It is needed respite from asphalt and city life. I have been heartsick about this all year.

I did the self portrait because it was good to be back in that space again and also because I was still testing out my new watercolor graphite. Below are a couple of more I did at Zuivre on lunch breaks from more serious painting or museum going.

Since I had been drawing the eclairs and fondant in Paris, I figured I should pay tribute to a lovely dense Dutch cake as well.

I'm back home finally and beginning to scan in sketches from the later part of the trip that I haven't yet posted here. I met my parents in Amsterdam, so I had less solo time for keeping up the blog the last few days of the trip.

I got to hear Rene Miller and Dede Macchabee (I have no idea how to do accent marks on my American keyboard - sorry, y'all) several times while I was in Paris. They sound great together, with Rene's marvelous blues picking and Dede's 1930's kind of sound. They also look great and are fun to sketch, so I did them several times. Above is my favorite one, in a new watercolor graphite I found in my "local" art supply store that I walk past daily in Paris. I had a great time playing with it. I saw it several days earlier, but the Dutch landscape drawing exhibition (previous blog entry) decided me on going back to try it. Their subtle graphite and wash work was completely alluring.

It's a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like is that, since it's graphite, it will press down and rub against the opposite page once you flip over and are drawing on the back of a graphite page. In spite of that, it's quite lovely.

As a minor sidetrack to the blog, here's the sketchbook page where I tested it out the first time. I was quite pleased with the cat sketch on the left.

Back to Rene and Dede.

Here's one in fountain pen and ink wash. A bit cleaner than the graphite but also without the subtler shading.

One more in fountain pen and watercolor. Dede wears the most stylish shoes.

I got in at dinner time last night, slept heavily, and had an art show to go to today. I have no room to complain, since my heroic potter friend Melissa Bridgman did all the work. Our work shows well together, and she wanted to split a booth even though I wouldn't be home yet. So she hauled down all my work, set it up, and manned the booth for the weekend. What a great friend.

I did this sketch this afternoon as I was finally watching the booth so she could go be heroic for someone else. My friend Christian Stanfield of the Side Street Steppers had speakers set up down there for his wind up gramophone dj show, and he ended up with a bee swarm inside one of them. Melissa also happens to be a beekeeper, so she went home to get her gear to try to help. I left them to it after we had the booth packed up and came home still in a jet lag haze. Hopefully I'll be more fully on top of things tomorrow.

The Memphis Urban Sketchers sketched at the fair on Saturday, and I was sorry to miss them. It felt good to do one quick one today.

My next to last day in Paris was a lovely transition for the next bit of my trip. I had seen a poster for an exhibition of Dutch landscape drawings, so I set off to find it. There's a Dutch institute in Paris, which I am delighted to know about. They had a gorgeous landscape exhibit, and also a show of recent Dutch printmaker Jozef Van Ruysdevelt.

I did two sketches (looking at skies) in the landscape show. Huge, glorious watercolors and wash drawings.

I didn't draw in the print exhibit, but I did buy the catalog, which did my suitcase no favors at all. Given that the language choices were French and Dutch, I figured it would not be available at home. I also took a picture of his sketchbooks displayed in a glass case, which gave me a thrilling flashback to my Dixon show last fall. And I love seeing people's sketchbooks now that I'm having such fun keeping my own.

I had a very chocolate sort of day on Friday. One thing I love about walking in Paris is seeing all the gorgeous shop windows, designed to lure people in. We largely don't mess with those in America since everyone is driving cars and going by too fast to notice. (As an aside, my home bookstore of 140 years and counting does delightful new window displays each new season, but Burkes is in the minority.)

I had been passing and admiring the window of this chocolatier for two weeks now, and on Friday it was finally warm enough to contemplate sitting in the shade to paint it. It's a complex and layered scene that I'm not sure will be comprehensible, but I hope the visual richness and whimsy of the paper flowers will make up for that.

I also painted my lunchtime eclair that day, largely because it's from my favorite bakery, and they had given me a nifty sticker to close the box that I wanted to preserve somehow, so I devoted a sketchbook page to it.

Finally here is a bakery from a couple of days previous. It was rainy that morning, and I lucked into a visually charming bakery that also (quite rare) had a table inside where I could sit and paint. Nowhere in France is really warm on a cold day, since all the shops and cafés keep their doors open regardless, but I was out of the rain and in close proximity to pain au chocolat, so I called it a win.

One of the amazing things about Paris, besides the bakeries, is the museums. It's marvelous for an artist to be able to go sit and look and sketch stunning works of art. I visited the Orangerie the other day. Walking into those two oval rooms of enormous water lily pieces that completely surround and engulf you is a stunning experience.

I did a first sketch of the room at large, going for impression instead of accuracy in rendering the actual paintings.

Then in the second room, I did a more intensive study of maybe my favorite of the works. It's darker than most, with subtle tonal changes, and I loved the process of looking deeply enough to try to copy it.

Finally here is a Klimt study I did Friday at the Musee d'Orsay. I must have had extra patience that day. I had already done two highly detailed watercolors, and this is the painting that called my name to sketch ad I wound down. I love Klimt's richness and texture, and when he does trees and landscapes, I swoon.

I walked home utterly, fizzingly happy. Painting in Paris is such an amazing thing to get to do. I am extremely lucky in my travels.

After a few lovely painting days it was back to clouds and rain. And cold. So I've been a wimp and have been doing some sketching around home.

I hadn't sketched my teapot this trip, and it's always fun to do. I also had a request to sketch the fondant I love, and who am I to disappoint, especially when the request involves acquiring baked goods?

I did one of my home away from home, including my wooly slippers that I have been wearing almost nonstop this trip.

And finally I painted Square Leon-Serpollet, the lovely local park that is currently ablaze in tulips.