MARTHA KELLY ART
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Waterscapes

11/22/2021

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I've been working flat out on several corporate commissions this week, so I haven't had time to make any art for public consumption here (though that's a lovely problem to have). Here instead are a couple of small oils from the show at Eclectic Eye that's up in Memphis through January. These two are both 9x12" and $275. I have several small, Christmas present (for someone you really like) sized pieces in the show as well as some of the largest oils I've done in years. It felt good to stretch out to that size again (36x48"), but I've also deeply enjoyed doing the tiny, fast ones either from my sketchbook pages or from my recent morning walks while the memory is fresh. These two are from my summer out west.
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Gearing up to print

9/5/2021

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I’ve done a lot of carving over the last year, and I’ve done some printing too, but I haven’t at all kept up with the volume of blocks. So now is the time. I’m settling into printing at least the first batch of each edition for the WAMA show next year. Nicely I still have some months, so I can do it in stages and keep going on some more creative work as well. Friday, after my Thursday sabbath (see my last post), I printed the first 10 of this Skagit river print. It’s really detailed and delicate, and my regular, somewhat heavy paper was moving too much on the block as the press went across it, so I was getting blurry prints. I ended up choosing a lighter paper that will stick better to the wet ink and not smudge. I got 10 of 30, and that was plenty of work by the time I had puzzled through the earlier issues. Now I know, though, and the next batch will go faster.

Then yesterday I cut a blank block the same size as my show poster, a carved poster print to celebrate the fact of a museum show. I did one for Dixon and am now doing one for Walter Anderson. When you get to put your name and a museum name together, it’s worth doing a print to celebrate. As I did with Dixon, I’m doing a bunch of different color tests. It’s fun to have some rainbow options. So yesterday I cut the background block, figured out the paper size, cut a stack of paper, and then made a diagram to keep the block carefully centered on the paper so I can layer two blocks and not have them weirdly offset. Then I stopped and played with my new dog a while. Today I did a whole series of different colored backgrounds (each one requiring multiple color mixing and blending the colors on the block itself with rollers). They’ll dry for a day or two, and then I’ll print the intricate block with all the lettering on top.

I’m finding myself still in slow motion as I try to get back into my work groove. I think it’s been hard for everyone to stay sharp and focused through this whole pandemic period. So I’m giving myself some grace, taking more time off than usual, but getting one good printing session done each work day. I’ve got time, and that feels like a manageable approach for now, and I’m grateful to be able to do this.

Last year felt very slow as well, but I ended up with a stack of museum prints and also a book I wasn’t expecting to do, so sometimes I’m doing better than I think I am on the productivity front. Anyway, for now printing, plus dog time and some pleasure reading breaks plus extra trips to Dixon during the Thiebaud show (which feeds my work in a roundabout way). Solidarity to everyone doing a little slogging at this point in the world. And gratitude to everyone managing to make a little beauty along the way.
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Walnut Ink

8/1/2021

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When I am feeling a little lost, I often buy new art supplies to play with. So I've done a lot of that this last year and a half. One of those has been a bottle of walnut ink from the Art Center in Memphis. I love having a really good, locally owned art store that will not only stock my specific needs for me (18x24" linoleum blocks instead of just 12x12" ones) but that also has a wide array of alluring things to browse and try and play with. If you are lucky enough to have such a store, please support it. Online ordering just isn't the same. 

So I came on this summer trip with a bottle of walnut ink and a very old dip pen that had been handed down to be and that has been sitting in a cup ever since, lonely and untried. I'm having a ball. The walnut ink nicely has a tight fitting top, and it rides around safely in the daypack with my art things, so I've been using it on site a lot lately. ​
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I've used watercolor so steadily that it's easy for me to fill a page of my sketchbook with swirling, eye catching color. Facing a double spread with just the nib of a pen is a much different proposition, and I've enjoyed the challenge. It's more similar to the printmaking I do, which is graphic and pattern oriented as well. I'm feeling a distant kinship to Van Gogh, whose ink drawings I have loved since I discovered them in high school. One lovely thing about switching mediums is that you see the world around you differently since you're looking for different opportunities in a sketch. Just that gift alone is worth switching things up regularly, and I was overdue. I also do love feeling that tangible through line with my art heroes who have gone before. It's similar to the feeling I get cooking stew, a sense of the history of people standing and stirring pots and making a life giving force. Suddenly it's not just me and the stew but a host of ancestors standing at my shoulder as well. 

It's been a delightful change, and I plan to keep my hand in for sketching in line as well as paint. 
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Friday Harbor day

7/29/2021

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I'm slow getting these scanned in (it's been a somewhat eventful summer), so here is a report on one lovely day taking the ferry out to Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands back in the middle of July. Jude's cousin Liz, an artist and photographer and all around delightful person, was visiting, so it was the three of us. I sketched on the ferry the way I did several years ago. I've been doing passenger seat sketches this summer, and the ferry is about the best version of that -- not as fast flashing past everything, but a kaleidoscope of a changing view. Such fun. 

There were many more people in the way of the view in July than there had been in September, but it was still fun. I think my favorite ferry sketch was this simple one done only with green ink in a brush pen. 

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We had a lovely lunch on a deck at Blue Water. My friend Chrissie says, "Always get the pink drink." I got the orange one instead, a mango mimosa. And of course I had to sketch it to remember the treat. The crab cakes were another fantastic treat for this generally landlocked Memphian. Later I bought books (always a treat) and peppermint ice cream with hot fudge on top, but I didn't take time to sketch it. Just dove in. Sometimes you have to just savor instead of sketch. 

I'm not sure if it's the mimosa or not, but my favorite sketch from that day is the vertical with the view of the bay, the mimosa clearly featured, and the teal of the ceiling paint making a lovely contrast with it. 

I had also sketched the entryway of the restaurant while we waited a few minutes for our table. It was fun to have just a full on sketching kind of day.
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Trees along the way

7/26/2021

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My last post was about Feature Show Falls, which was indeed a stunning feature (even if the name vaulted me back in time to my Rocky Horror Picture Show days). Almost as stunning, though, were the trees on the trail to get there. Especially this one, growing over a rock. After lunch at the falls, I left the others to explore a little further and came back early to sketch this one. Along the way I did a few other, much quicker sketches, of other gorgeous trees. Sometimes it's fun to just do line gestures and leave the paints in the box. 
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That original tree was so stunning, and my sketch of it so inadequate to convey its magnificence, that I'm adding a couple of photos from that day as well. The second one is for scale. It was just remarkable. 
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Feature Show Falls

7/24/2021

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​We hiked the other day to a gorgeous, tall, lushly green waterfall and miraculously had it all to ourselves for the whole of a picnic lunch and sketching break. It was glorious for this Memphian and flatlander to sit and drink in the beauty. I did a couple of sketches there also just sat to enjoy it a while. The road to the trail head was appalling or I would go back every week, but I'll definitely be returning again next trip out here. 
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Local parks

7/13/2021

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Eight miles in each direction there is a state park, and they are two of my favorite haunts out west. I spent a morning walking in Rockport, the more forested of the two, and did the trail sketch above and then sketched the moon hanging among the treetops. 

Another recent day I went to Rasar and found that they had hayed the big meadow there. I was sorry to lose the field of daisies, but I hope the revenue is good for this fantastic park. And I had fun sketching the tractor that was still siting in the middle of the field after the fact. 
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Ladder Creek Falls

7/13/2021

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The power station built in 1924 in Newhalem was piloted early on by a Scottish horticulturalist who put in public gardens and trails for everyone to enjoy. The standout spot is a trail built along the side of a gorgeous high waterfall that turns corners and falls again to a different spot below. I couldn't get the whole thing in a sketch, but I loved this section that peeks out from under a stone arch at the top and drops in several levels. It was a magical place to sketch. 
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More car sketching

7/4/2021

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We've been driving around a lot to various appointments, and I've used some of that time to sketch and keep loose from the passenger seat. These sketches are a great test of memory, and they make a day of errands go faster. I'm still using the little Sennelier kit for ease and smallness and to keep testing it out. 

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Sennelier again

7/3/2021

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I've been taking the new small set of Sennelier watercolors out to keep testing them. I miss some of my regular colors, but as I've said, I love the sap green that is a little cooler and darker than the Windsor and Newton one I generally use. The lighter green is fun, but it skews a little acid, and I try to tamp it down a bit instead of using it straight. I ended up loving those top two that I did, but the second time out for bigger pieces (instead of the tiny, quick passenger seat sketches I've been doing), I couldn't get the colors right, and everything felt overcooked. I'm pretty much at a loss to explain why I had such disappointing results the second time after feeling pretty good about the first outing, but there you are. I miss the transparency of my normal W&N set, and on the forest piece, I really missed the burnt Sienna that I depend on a good bit. I think the cobalt blue is also a little edgier than I'm used to, and that didn't come into play much until the tree trunk study. Overall, it's fun to switch things up sometimes, and I enjoy having this kit that's the right size for a purse or tiny project, but W&N still has my heart. 
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    Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.


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  • HOME
  • PRINTS
  • WATERCOLORS
    • Memphis
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    • England
    • France
    • Greece and Turkey
    • St. Louis
    • My Palette
  • OILS
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  • SKETCHES
    • Quarantine Journal
    • Memphis
    • Overton Park
    • Mr. Darcy
    • Mr. Darcy's Odyssey
    • Musicians
    • Tea
    • Dutch travelogue
    • Shakertown travelogue
    • Sketching tools
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