Category: Food Sketches - Martha Kelly Art

Rainy Day in Paris

8/19/2019

The weekend was rainy, and I had a lovely time anyway. I went to the market to buy my favorite tomatoes, and then I had tea in my favorite cafe right next to it, which has a totally fun Art Deco mural inside. Just as I was finishing up, the heavens really opened, so I settled back in and did a second, quicker drawing.

With the worst of the rain past, I walked through sprinkles to get to the Musee d’Orsay and spent most of the afternoon there. I looked more than I sketched, but I did do this quick one of one of Pompon’s animals. I was totally charmed by this wading bird. Home for wine, supper, and a good book after. I had the leftovers from my yellow curry (see last blog post), so it was an excellent day.

Flaneur

8/17/2019

I had a lovely, unhurried day yesterday. I painted all morning at the house, working on the still life show again (colored macarons are totally fun to paint!), and then I just walked out into the city and followed my nose for the afternoon and evening. I went into St. Eustache, which I’d walked past for years, and enjoyed doing two loose sketches in my bigger sketchbook there. I kept the palette super simple and just used French ultramarine blue and burnt umber, mixing all the grays from warm to cool between those colors.

Then I walked on to Ile de la Cite and found an adorable bicycle crepe stand, complete with stove going, at its tip. I got a crepe and sat on the bridge to eat it. By the time I’d finished, I wanted to sketch the view I’d been looking at.

I ended up having dinner at my very favorite place here, with the most delicious yellow curry you can imagine. I got a sidewalk table, drew as I ate, watched the world go by, and had three different people tell me “bon apetit!” as they walked past. Just lovely. I brought the rest home for my dinner tonight, catching the metro home after I’d finished. It was a lovely day.

More Gouache Still Lifes

8/12/2019

It’s been raining some here, keeping the weather thankfully cool and giving me a chance to do some painting indoors. I went to two big flea markets I love over the weekend, but I also came home after each one and did a small painting or two. Here are the still life ones. I’m very happy with the Mille feulle one, and pretty happy with the peach. At the bottom is the Cherokee purple tomato. My oil at home of several of those is my favorite of all the still lifes I’ve done so far, but this gouache totally bombed. I got it way overworked, and I don’t think the composition was that strong to begin with. I also struggled with the teapot one and walked away, but I may go back into that one again and see if I can spruce it up just a bit. A couple of artists I really admire on fb sent me encouraging words about that one.

Patisserie Still Lifes

8/9/2019

One of my projects here in Paris is to round out Daily Pleasures, my still life show for September. It’s hanging an alarmingly brief time after I return home (Playhouse schedules by the school year, so if you’re the first or second show, there’s not a lot of warning, and I already had my travels set.) I visited my frame builder before I left, picked out a frame to go with these tiny gouache pieces (I had already done two I liked, so I knew it would be a good fit for the show) and arranged to make my frame order the last week I’m here so they’ll ready to go when I get home. That way I can see how many and what size pieces I end up with. I love oils, but gouache is much easier for traveling.

I started with a big watercolor study in my sketchbook, which I had fun with. I really enjoyed doing some flow-y watercolors in Reims. I used it as a study to do a gouache of the same composition, but that one really fell flat. Working gouache-sized the scale was wrong, too small for the paper. I wrestled with it for a while, and finally I started over without the teapot and with a simpler composition that suits the size of the objects to the size of the paper. I’ll keep looking at the first one (below) just in case, but I came to feel that I was throwing good paint after bad by continuing to work on it. I’m much happier with the simpler piece.

Last of Reims

8/8/2019

I was in a total frenzy sketching Reims — both a new place to me and a scarcity factor. I’ve been really lazy in Paris, both settling in (unpacking, buying groceries, just walking around my favorite spots), but I plan to get going here soon. I had two afternoon naps, though, which has been marvelous. I’m still dealing with a little jet lag and a little it-was-crazy-getting-organized-to-be-gone-again exhaustion. I figure a few days of vacation are good. I walked to my very favorite market/flea market today, which took ages from the place I’m staying this summer, but it felt good to just let loose and walk.

So here are the last of my Reims sketches, and I’ll work on having some Paris things to show here soon. Above is just outside the building where I stayed, a few blocks from the cathedral. I also painted the Joan of Arc statue just outside the cathedral, and I sketched a bottle of champagne that was (delightfully) in my Air b&b along with a white peach, cut up in a bowl. It’s good to remember treats and savor them again later.

Reims

8/6/2019

I’ll mostly be cat sitting in Paris again this trip, but I decided to take a couple of nights and see somewhere different at the beginning of the trip. A gothic cathedral with some Chagall windows was a definite winner. In fact, they have a whole series of mid century windows that are exquisite and beautiful, both theologically and visually, even though the Chagall ones are the total standoust. The back rose window from the 30’s is dedicated to Mary, and around her are three trees, a moon and star, and the sun. I love the emphasis on creation in a lot of the newer windows.

Today I painted about half and half inside and out, partly because the weather today was half and half, half rain, half dry. I started with the outside view in my big sketchbook, knowing rain was coming later. Then I looked the other direction and did a smaller sketch of a Carnegie library in a charming Art Deco building.

Lunch was at a sidewalk cafe while the weather was still fine. In the interest of this page loading efficiently, I’ll save the cathedral interior sketches for my next post. It was a good first day to hit the ground sketching.

New York Sketches

7/29/2019

I've finished scanning in my New York sketches, so here is another batch. I spent almost all Saturday in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was so overwhelming (and with so many people in some areas and so few benches in another) that I only did these two tiny sketches. I had a ball, though. So much amazing art, even with half the European galleries closed. I spent time with the Dutch, with El Greco (where I met a lovely woman at his self portrait and talked landscapes, art, and trees), with the Americans of Sargent and Whistler, 19th Century landscapes, and so many other lovely paintings. It was a blast. I sketched more in the Frick and will put up a whole post of those.

Other sketches were one more from the Walter Kerr theater that I forgot I had last post and from dinner at Becco with my friend Jennifer. This last one is a larger watercolor sketchbook (8" square instead of my normal, purse-sized 5.5"). I did one sketch out on the sidewalk and a little more as dinner progressed. I always like to draw a pretty dessert.

Back to Oils

7/16/2019

I got home this week, having recently done those two small gouache still lifes, and I was ready to dive back into oils. Here was the first one, just 8x8”. But it suits the tiny cherries. I don’t tend to blow things up too much. I’ve found there’s a scale I feel comfortable painting in, both for landscapes and still lifes, and it’s not successful when I try to exceed it by too much. Process shots below. I started with a gray chalk for the drawing.

Daily Life Sketches

7/11/2019

Alongside the gouache studies, I’ve been doing some more standard (for me) journal sketches along the way. Here are some from the last several days. Two of them were bicycle trips to the bakery to have a treat. I’m a late bloomer on a number of fronts, and I got my first bike out here. I never learned to cycle as a kid, and Concrete is a perfect place to catch up. There is almost no traffic in town along with quite wide streets, and best of all, there’s a green line that runs through the center of town (to within a couple of blocks of anywhere I want to go) and also goes out of town and as far as I could care to go. I can pack up art gear and take off on my new bike, a second hand cruiser. The next image has my bike in the background and bakery tea in the foreground. I wanted to record this moment in my journal.

Here is the view a few miles out the trail from town. It’s been my regular walk here, but I can go a bit further on the bike and paint new places.

Plus another blueberry pancake sketch from Perks diner here. A totally awesome place. Flower at the grill collects heart shaped rocks like I do and has begun to make me heart shaped pancakes when I come in. <3

Painting and Drawing

5/23/2019

I’m back to fast moving work again. I’ve had several paintings going lately, including the one above. It’s a little smaller than most of mine plus quite simple, so it was really a two session affair. Again, after struggling with a print that won’t get there, it felt good to dive into something where I could see immediate results.

Pen and ink has also been a lot of fun lately. I started my food journal this week (for three days before the holiday, anyway, and then we’ll see), and that’s got me doing some fast sketching with a fat, felt tipped pen plus a little tone with a brush pen. I’ve carried that over into a new series of self portraits, just for fun. I joined a facebook group called Self Portrait Sundays, so that’s inspired me to do another batch.

I spent the evening at my work table last night with baseball on the radio and a commission to finish. When I was done I did another quick self portrait and also a sketch of my studio helper Mr. Darcy. I haven’t been drawing him much lately and have been missing that. Plus at the bottom is yesterday’s food journal page.