MARTHA KELLY ART
  • HOME
  • PRINTS
    • Landscapes
    • Small Landscape Prints
    • England
    • Paris
    • Figures
    • Odds and Ends
    • Letterpress
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
    • Paris
    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • House Portraits and Commissions
    • My Palette
  • OILS
  • BOOKS
  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketch Journalism
    • Sketching tools
    • Pastel Studies
  • LITURGICAL
    • Special Bulletin Sets
    • Year A
    • Year B
    • Year C
    • "The Garden"
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • PURCHASE

Creation Print

3/22/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Here's the first proof of a print based on the creation of the animals. I'm working on a triptych, if they look right together, or perhaps just a series of three, for my upcoming show at Memphis Theological Seminary. They're based on a series of watercolors I did for MTS worship back last fall.

The sky needs to be lighter and bluer and more gradated, but I'm overall happy with the carving. I started a second proofing round last night. Below you can see the carving underway and also the bottom block proof, with one main gold color but pink rolled in spots for the pig and cow udder. I've also got an Adam and Eve underway, with a moon and sun drawn out but not yet started.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

3/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I spent one stellar day in the MFA last week. It started with a harp demonstration in the musical instruments collection. Neat to see the ancient instruments played and the history explained. Of course I sketched. Both the demo and the audience.
Picture
Most of the rest of the day I just looked at art. The John Singer Sargent room blew me away. I'd seen small reproductions of the huge portrait of the four sisters, but walking into the room with it in person just blew me away. I stood there with tears in my eyes for a good while. If I'd had more time, I would have sketched more, but I wanted to see my main highlights (Sargent, two Constables, Inness and the Hudson River school, a couple of just lovely Pieter Claesz still lifes) thoroughly and deeply.

I did take a lunch break in the early afternoon and sketched a bit as a palette cleanser. I also wrote down several quotes that really grabbed me from the tags. The presentation in the museum was stellar. Such a pleasant, light, open place to see the art. I loved it. I could spend days there.
Picture
I did one more quick sketch at the end because, after illustration Revelation several years ago, I was intrigued by this Medieval madonna who was conflated with the pregnant madonna on the crescent moon in Revelation.
Picture
0 Comments

Mighty Souls in the Memphis News

3/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
My second assignment for the Memphis News came out in the paper while I was gone (and I'm grateful to FB friends for posting it for me to see). I had seen at the last minute that the Mighty Souls Brass Band, one of my favorite local bands, was going to play at Dixon Gallery and Gardens. It was the perfect chance to enjoy some good weather and give a simultaneous shout out to two of my favorite Memphis institutions.

You can see their story posted online here.          

I also did a second sketch while I was out there. This was my warm up, with the watercolor coming afterwards.                                                                                                                                                                
Picture
0 Comments

Music and Dancing

3/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

I've gotten to several dances while I've been in New England. It's such a hotbed for national bands and callers. I've seen Notorious and Lisa Greenleaf at local dances. Just amazing. These are the people we fly down south once a year for a special weekend. And the people have been incredibly welcoming. I've never walked into a dance hall not knowing a single dancer before. People have asked me to dance right at the start, kept asking me, talked to me at breaks, and truly made me welcome. I've even very grateful.

Picture

I got a banjo lesson from Larry Unger and a ride down to the waltz in Connecticut he was playing yesterday. He also let me draw his unbelievable banjo wall. For my lesson I got to play a 1903 White Layde, and then he let me noodle around on his 1870's fretless with gut strings. Both were a joy to play.

Picture
Picture

The waltz was three hours, so I did sat out a few and did a little sketching. Each half page is one tine's worth of sketching, so about 4 minutes each.

Picture
0 Comments

Art museum

3/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

I went to the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum yesterday. It's a lovely place with a gorgeous garden atrium and a fine collection of Sargents, who is one of my favorite painters. I had never seen his watercolors in person before, so that was a treat.

I was sad that both lighting and hanging of pieces precluded you from really seeing some of the art. A beguiling line of tiny Whistlers were way across a room, behind furniture and a rope, and in dim light. You just couldn't see them at all. Some of the Sargents were also high and dimly lit. I understand staying true to the spirit of the founder, but I wish they could improve the lighting a bit.

Also the second floor was completely closed for renovations, and the paintings don't go on alternate view until the day after I leave. So I missed the Dutch collection (what's left of it) among others. But overall it was a lovely place to wander around and see art.

Picture

One neat thing was that they have an artist in residence program. There was a really lovely exhibit of the latest one. She had done tiny, text heavy drawings of the musuem, and they fit into various small boxes. Lots of them had a library stamp on them for the date. Brilliant. Nicely in the urban sketcher style. I did a very quick sketch to remind myself of the overall feel.

Picture
0 Comments

Walden

3/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

I got to walk through a pine woods to visit Walden today. I had read a good but of the book on the plane on the way up here to prepare, and it was lovelier than I expected. Much, much bigger. Down south we would call it a decent sized lake instead of a pond. And it has a full beach ringing it. I was delighted to get to walk and watch clear water and pick up a few stones for friends from the water's edge. In Memphis, our water is the Big Muddy. A clear beach was an unexpected treat.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Lincoln

3/2/2016

0 Comments

 

I'm in Lincoln and Concord today, and the history is breathtaking. Everything is so much older than down south. The trees are equally stunning. There's a proliferation of beeches here, and I'm a total sucker for them. And then there's this gorgeous one outside the Lincoln library, which is in itself gorgeous.

Picture
Picture

The cemeteries look different too. Our ones are replete with Victorian monuments. Here they are lovely-shaped slate headstones with interesting and different relief carvings. I did this one as the front piece for my travel sketchbook.

Picture

Here's one of the beeches on the walk back

Picture

Also drove into Concord and saw Louisa May Alcott's home.

Picture

And a place where both Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived and wrote

Picture

Did one more very quick sketch of an inn where George Washington slept. Sadly they no longer have banjo music on Wednesday nights.

Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

       online store


    Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.


    Get studio email updates from Mr. Darcy and me.
    Submit

    To subscribe to this blog, by email:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner



    Categories

    All
    Artist In Residence
    Art Workshops
    Calendar
    Chalk Line Books
    Commissions
    Country Workshops
    Daily News
    Dixon
    Exhibition
    Food Sketches
    Fountain Pen
    Fountain-pen
    Gouache
    Graphic Essay
    Graphite
    Illustration
    Letterpress
    Liturgical
    Markers
    Memphis Theological Seminary
    Memphis Urban Sketchers
    Museum Sketching
    Musicians
    Oils
    Open House
    Overton Park
    Paris
    Pastels
    Pen And Wash
    Pink Palace Crafts Fair
    PNW
    Prints
    Publications
    Radio
    Self Portrait
    Still Life
    Tea
    Television
    Travel
    Trees
    Urban Sketching
    Video
    WAMA
    Watercolor
    Wedding



    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    June 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010

  • HOME
  • PRINTS
    • Landscapes
    • Small Landscape Prints
    • England
    • Paris
    • Figures
    • Odds and Ends
    • Letterpress
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
    • Paris
    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • House Portraits and Commissions
    • My Palette
  • OILS
  • BOOKS
  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketch Journalism
    • Sketching tools
    • Pastel Studies
  • LITURGICAL
    • Special Bulletin Sets
    • Year A
    • Year B
    • Year C
    • "The Garden"
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
  • PURCHASE