 I've been doing so much show stuff lately that it was lovely yesterday to take a whole day for sketching and friends and art. Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Dixon yesterday, one of my very favorite places. It's been crazy cold this past week, but it was warmer today and very sunny. I found if I sat in the sun, it felt great to sketch and drink in the outdoors a while. I did the top sketch, a little labored but fun, chatting with one friend. Then I went inside to warm up as the sun shifted and had a great conversation on illustration with another friend in the cafe. I drew two more friends, and the paradise blue ink ran unflatteringly into their faces (which I should have left white given the ink I was using), but I loved the half done bookshelves behind the scene.  I had about fifteen minutes left to draw in one of the galleries, so it's wonkier than I would like (and I can't get the lovely muted teal color in pencil), and I added the left bit outside after we were breaking up but still chatting.  After THAT a few of us went back to midtown and ate takeout Golden India outside on the patio in the sunshine (I'm still reveling in all that time outdoors after some indoor days), and finally I sketched Henry on his favorite chair just before bed. I was totally going yesterday, and it felt great to just flat out draw. None of them are fantastic, but it all felt so good just to do.  
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 I've been chasing around after shows lately and not sketching as much as I like to. I'm trying to remember how happy I am when I take the time to sketch instead of watch tv or stare at my phone, so I've put my Inktense pencils by the sofa and have been doing some evening sketches of Henry (of course). The pencils take less set up and effort than paints, so they make it easy to sketch when he's snuggled in and being cute. The first two are the same evening, still in my boots from Thanksgiving dinner.    After years of using a square format sketchbook that opens up to a strong horizontal, I fell in love last year with a more upright version, slightly larger than my small square sketchbook but smaller than the larger watercolor version I had been using. It didn't feel as time consuming to open and just do something in, so it became my easy go-to for almost all situations. The smaller square book (5.5x5.5"), though, fits beautifully in my small purse, though, and I enjoy switching up formats sometimes. I'm trying to remember to reach for it and use it as well. Here are a few recent(ish) sketches in that book. 
  I took a day trip to Rowan Oak to call on my show last week and also spent a perfect afternoon walking through the woods to the University art museum and sketching my way back. I am continuing my love affair with the trees on Faulkner's property. I could see a whole second series of prints coming at some point.  I also checked in at the house and took a little video of my show Faulkner’s Trees. It is such a thrill to have my prints in this amazing place.  I went without sketching for at least a week after my long trip because I came home to full on family events and house guests. Joyful for sure, but I've also enjoyed getting back to sketching in my daily(ish) life. The first was a forest walk and sketch of the colors changing and a couple of great tree trunks. I started using pencils more with my paints (mostly Inktense water soluble pencils) on the museum trip, and I've kept enjoying them. I like the extra texture they bring. Next is a farm sketch from Saturday. I went out and had a great visit with my folks, a great walk with Henry (we spotted the Christmas tree I want, though I'm not going to cut it yet), and a little bit of sketching time for me.  Last is also pencils, using more colors than just one or two base ones. It's the view from the deck of Casablanca yesterday. I had a lovely time sitting out in perfect weather, drinking tea and having lunch and sketching with my best sketching buddy Christina. Always a pleasure.   I've slowed down on the sketching as we've hit both some rain and some busy days, but I did get in this across-the-fields view of a farm down in the Skagit River delta. I love that area. The walk-in scale of the farms and the rows of poplars with large mountains and even bigger skies rising up as background. There aren't a ton of good places to pull over and park, and I rarely get a chance to sketch down that way, but this was from the nursery that we'd visited the previous week. We made a second stop to revisit their gift shop and let me do this sketch of a view I'd been thinking about ever since I was there. The linework is in Kaweko Paradise Blue ink that was my find of the summer. I like the way it melts a bit with the paint I put on top.
We also went on into Anacortes and got the last Sunday New York Times paper from the bookstore there, which is the only place in the region I've found that carries them. I'm happily reading on it this week, spreading it out till I get home to my regular subscription. I do love a real newspaper with breakfast.  We've been making the rounds in Washington, visiting favorite restaurants and bookstores while I'm here. We took the girls to lunch at Slough Foods, a charming spot on a slough with outdoor seating and fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches. A few days later we visited the LaConner Brewing Co., which has a great rotating selection of hard ciders, and I tried their pizza for the first time, which was excellent. I've eaten more cheese in the last week than I have in the last month, but that's what vacation is for, I guess.  We also stopped at a fun nursery with extensive grounds, an antique schoolhouse building, and a decidedly UK feeling gift shop. I'm still thinking about the Aran sweaters there, but I confined myself to sketching. Yesterday was two rainy soccer games, cheering on the girls, and hanging out with family. It was lovely. I'm feeling rested and ready to dive back into shows when I get home.   Rasar State Park is one of my favorite spots in Washington. It has forest, beach, river, and meadow with mountain views. On an unusually sunny afternoon for late October in the PNW I headed there to walk and sketch and drink in a bit of sunshine. There's a perfectly positioned picnic table, lovely for perching and sketching, that I drew the overall mountain and cloud view from. I did a couple of trees on a smaller path. The tree watercolor uses Diamine Ancient Copper ink to its best advantage. I forget occasionally and try to use it with buildings, and it bleeds all over beejeezus, but it's perfect for the organic nature of trees. The day had a ton of moisture in the air, and the paint took forever to dry, which meant it would often bleed into the color next door. That totally worked on the tree sketch, a little less so on the landscapes, but it was an interesting challenge. The odd one out is a walnut ink sketch with a dip pen of a nurse stump. The stumps of fallen trees will often "nurse" a new tree growing up and out of them, and the visual effect is dramatic. I also love the symbolism of new life, or new opportunities springing forth out of destruction, as has happened more than once in my life. I walked three miles and did four sketches, and it was a total win of an afternoon.    I'm so excited that my new book is here! At least the first 300 copies are. After Novel asked for 100 copies to start, I ordered more immediately, and hopefully they'll be here by the end of November (fingers crossed!). Both local bookstores, Burke's and Novel, have been completely supportive. Burke's has me scheduled for a book party for Cooper Young Night Out on Thursday, December 5th from 5-8pm. I'm going to take the individual watercolors I have from the book to sell as well and really make it a party. Not all the images will be there, since some are from my sketchbook and a handful are from previous commissions that I scanned in before delivering them to the buyers. This book was so much fun to do. I couldn't even scratch the surface on all the cool places in Memphis, but I put in as many as I could fit. I hope everyone will enjoy it and use it as their jumping off place for exploring all their own favorites.    I'm taking a second quick trip before the holiday sales start in earnest. Washington state is a little drizzly some days, but yesterday I caught a lovely sky walking across the boardwalk into Anacortes. It ended up being a perfect four mile walk that ended at Pelican Bay bookstore. I hit the Watermark bookstore too, for a New York Times, which I have to drive an hour for up here, so it was a pleasure to get the Sunday one for several days' worth of reading. I also hit an antique store on the way home and found a really beautiful set of bird china, cup and saucer, cream pitcher, and a sugar bowl with no lid, but it's perfect for setting the tea bags in after pulling them out of the pot, and I hated to strand it by itself. I've never seen china like this before, and it was just too lovely to leave. I did a celebratory sketch last night that got a little muddy (it's been good to get back to sketching after several turnaround days at home with lots of business to take care of), mostly because I chose a very bleed-y blue ink to start with, but it was still fun. 
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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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