.....This time I played. That's my bass, still in its case, with the empty chairs waiting to be filled. I decided sketching was better than sitting around and thinking about being nervous. Andy Cohen sometimes asks me to play bass for him when he's in town. It's always a wild ride, because he usually does plenty of songs we haven't rehearsed and often songs I've never heard before, but it's fun, and I get a front row seat to watch him perform. And it's sweet that he wants me. Usually I just play in a weekly jam in someone's back living room. It was a double bill, so I did get to sketch for part of the concert. Below are Andy and his wife Larkin listening to his friends open the show. I realized when I scanned this in that I went from dinner on Monday to Saturday night without sketching, but I had a home show to put on in between, so that took up a lot of the week. Here are the other concert sketches. My watercolor marker didn't work as well as I remembered it doing before, and I ended up soaking through the page and getting more bleed than I normally. Or like to. But it's just a sketch book.
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Ironically I spent most of last week thinking about Paris, being really happy, and singing along to my René Miller's albums I bought from him there. I love stretching trips out by making art from them. It feels like I'm still living in that world when I'm inhabiting it and making art from it. I even found myself dancing through the woods on my walk singing René's songs. Then Friday happened. And I'm just heartbroken for the city and very grateful my friends are all safe. I'm going to keep working on this print of René and Dédé singing at the Marche d'Aligre. I did a sketch of them on site, sitting at one of the cafe tables, and then I came around the front and took the photo below. This sketch is from last year, but I'm working on a series of musicians, and I think I'll try one from this summer as well, René playing with Stephen Harrison. The Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the Memphis Farmers Market yesterday. I am having a crazy busy week, but I decided to take time to go see some of my people, and I was very glad I did. It was fun to catch up with everyone after my trip, and I always enjoy drawing down there. I did a good bit of printing, calendar work, and board cutting in between, but I also went for the second and third sets of Le Tumulte Noir playing at Huey's tonight. They're an incredibly talented across the board gypsy jazz group, and I even got a little surprise swing dancing when I happened to sit next to a few dancer friends. Such a perfect way to spend an early Sunday evening. They gu The guys are really fun to sketch and very nice about my doing it.
I enjoyed my fast train sketching on the way over here, and I'm going to try to stay in that mode for a bit and not get too labored. So here are some early sketches from Abbesses, the cool area just up the hill from me. I met my friends Audra and Pascal for a sidewalk bakery visit. They're musicians who came to stay with me last year as they toured though the States. Audra even wrote a song that has Sun Studio and Mr. Darcy in it. I can't wait for the cd to come out, because it's lovely. I sketched Pascal looking incredibly French, leaning against the bar with a coffee at his elbow. They both draw too, so they're nice enough to get it. It's really lovely to get into town and have such a warm welcome waiting. I'm looking forward to hanging out with everyone and hearing them play. All my friends here seem to be musicians, which is marvelous. I had a way fun week last week. A longtime friend and favorite swing partner came to town, and several of us friends went out three nights in a row to hear live music and do a little dancing. Not my normal life, but it was fun to take advantage of the opportunity. We started Wednesday night with hearing the Side Street Steppers on the deck at Central BBQ. Thursday night, without a favorite band playing anywhere, we played tourist and went to Beale Street, where there's always live music of some sort. It was fun to go down and walk the few blocks and check out the offerings. We found a fun rockabilly show at Jerry Lee Lewis's place. The Jason James band put on a polished and accomplished show of songs that came from Memphis's Sun Records heritage (Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johny Cash). We did a little dancing and sketching and enjoyed the lead singer's rapport with the audience. Then we moved on down the street to a smaller blues club that was playing some authentic Memphis blues and did some more dancing. It was lovely. Then we found a patio with something more in the soul range. We hit the trifecta of Memphis music that night.
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online store Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee. Get occasional studio email updates. Categories
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