After my Thanksgiving post, I went back to the forest to paint for the afternoon. It was an utterly gorgeous day, so I took my sit-on-the-ground camp chair and my journal as well as a couple of sketchbooks and spent the whole afternoon in the forest. It's been raining ever since, so I've been doing the non-photogenic indoor work of pulling prints and cleaning the house for my Open Studio Sale (Dec. 12-13, 12-5 both days).

It was largely a lovely afternoon, but there were a few bad minutes in the middle of it. I have known for years that going out into the world and settling on the ground with your things spread around you opens you up to whatever the universe chooses to send you that day. 99% of the time, it's wonderful. I've been brought cushions, invited in for tea, given a lap-full of tangerines, given art made my other people who loved to see what I was doing too, and I've met marvelous people on three continents. Occasionally it's a little dicey. You can't just walk away quickly from someone who's harassing a woman alone, as happens occasionally, when you've got your easel set up.

On Thanksgiving it was a dog issue. Mr. Darcy and I were well off the pedestrian road through the forest, painting out of the way, and he was settled at my side. A woman walking three large dogs drifted too close to us. Mr. D is more protective when I'm sitting and was growling, but I had him sitting right beside me. Then the three dogs swarmed him, towing their owner along with them, and I basically had a dog fight going on in my lap. I couldn't get Mr. D away because I was pinned on the ground (if I'd been up and walking it would have been ok), and it took the woman at least five tries to pull them off of us. Mr. D got a number of scratches, none bad, and I have a huge bruise turning purple on my shin, but we were very lucky. It could have been much uglier.

It was definitely a day I was grateful for the mentally balancing act of sketching. I had a half finished sketch (on now-bent paper, but still) to finish, and I'd gotten myself back to a better place by the time I was done. I stayed out, went deeper into the woods to get away from the holiday/Saturday dog owners who tend to be more incompetent handling their dogs than the daily park users, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. But it was one of those occasional reminders that making art can be a dicey enterprise.

I wasn't particularly thinking this way at the time, but yesterday's late afternoon sketch is perfect for Thanksgiving. Not just because of the colors and the light and the gratitude for the beauty that I felt while doing it, but also because of this place. One thing that I am continually grateful for as an artist is the deep sense of place that spending a lifetime drinking in landscapes gives me. This place, this forest, makes me happy every day. I am unbelievably lucky to live four blocks from a forest, right in the heart of Memphis. It is an endless font of beauty, a refuge, a place to savor each day. A landscape painter could not ask for more.

I've been doing tons of the business side of being an artist lately and very little sketching. I've missed it, so I eased back in recently with a couple of quick sketches of Mr. Darcy. Of course.

Memphis has a great public radio station that does something unique in my experience (and I listen to a lot of NPR as I travel). Every single day and usually twice a day, they have a short program called Checking on the Arts. They interview artists, actors, musicians, people putting on fairs and booking concert halls, anyone doing something artistic in Memphis. Lots of stations get occasional bands into the studio, but no one I've heard has daily features that include visual artists as well. As a listener, I've gone to a number of plays I might not have, once I've heard the director or actors talking about the production, and I hear about lots of things I want to get out and do.

As an artist, it is gold. Especially since I've gone solo and don't have a gallery doing publicity for me, it is a beautiful thing to have a station willing to put me on the air and let me talk to the city.

And they do an amazing job. I got in this time, and Darel Snodgrass had a printout about my new show sitting on his desk already. He always does research ahead of time, asks great questions, keeps things moving along, covers everything that needs to be announced (challenging this time, because I have a lot on this year), and he does it all with warmth and enthusiasm. Here is this week's interview about Dixon, MTS, my holiday sale, and more....

So very many lovely people turned out for my opening at Dixon Gallery and Gardens last night. I am still buoyed by the wave of love and support that washed over me. The museum people have gone out of their way to be kind and, really, utterly marvelous. (Plus it's the sign of a good party when you get sent home with cake at the end of it.) Family, friends, dancers, art buddies, jam buddies, profs at MTS, park people, and a whole host of lovely people from unexpected places turned out for my big career night and made it special.

Very kindly, Frank Chin turned out with his camera and got some lovely shots for me to remember the evening. I was so grateful.

AND the Tom Lonardo Trio played, which was so special for me. Tom and Tim Goodwin were two of Di Anne Price's "Boyfriends," and I spent many years' worth of happy Sunday afternoons hanging out at Huey's and listening to them. Di Anne had a song for every contingency in my life. It's still so odd to be navigating the world without her soundtrack for company, and without her calling me "baby." As she did everyone she cared about. But having Tom and Tim there for my biggest career moment meant an awful lot, and I even got one beautiful celebratory dance toward the end of the evening. Such a treat.

Well, I thought I'd turn in the show and be a little more free, but that hasn't happened. I'm working till 10 tonight on the slide show to go with my lecture at Dixon tomorrow. It will be fun to give a talk in the auditorium just off the gallery with my show hanging.

So I'm definitely behind on posting here, and I'll try to catch up, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of how the exhibition looks. It's beautifully lit and hung, and the setting (and those amazing glass cases for my sketchbooks) just look so MUSEUM-Y. I'm thrilled.

I like how they have the paintings and prints done from the same sketch hanging together, so people can see the difference between the lush and liquid oil paint and the linear sharpness and pattern of the prints.

I don't want to add to the glorification of busyness because I am a moderation kind of girl, and I do build in good life breaks like sister lunches, girlfriend teas, and daily long forest walks with Mr. Darcy. But I had not taken a whole Day Off since the first weekend of October (which  in itself was nice enough to carry me through the month by itself), and I did greatly enjoy myself yesterday. Truly, I'm not great at taking a whole day off unless I'm off dancing somewhere. I tend to draw a lot even on vacation, but that's the fun part of being an artist. I've been doing a lot more of the nuts and bolts work lately, though, and a day off sounded good.

So yesterday I treated myself to a massage to celebrate the end of the show. I got myself a Muddy's cupcake for lunch to celebrate National Chocolate Day. I took a long walk and a snuggly nap with Mr. Darcy.

And then I had a two hour design committee meeting for Overton Park. Sigh. So I sketched. Because what else are you going to do in a two hour design committee meeting? (Even though it was good, and I was glad to be there to have some input.)

My very kind brother Alpha helped me deliver my show to Dixon this morning. It was exciting to see all the pieces all dressed up and ready to go out on the town. It was even more exciting to pull up behind a huge Rodin statue to unload my work. I continue to be thrilled at this opportunity to have an exhibition in a museum, the kind of museum that has huge traveling shows by Rodin come through.

I got a sneak peek at part of the Southern Impressionism show in the main gallery, and I can't wait to see the whole thing. The museum reopens Sunday, November 1, after its summer of renovation, and my exhibition will be a part of that.

The official reception for my show will be Thursday, November 19 from 6-8, with my old friends the Tom Lonardo Trio playing jazz. I can't wait. I'll also do a gallery talk on Wednesday, November 11 at lunch time, talking about my art hero John Constable, how he shaped my art and subject matter and work habits. I'll also talk about the process of making multi-color prints with multiple blocks. It's a slightly arcane process for most of us, but great fun.