Martha Kelly Art blog - MARTHA KELLY ART

MARTHA KELLY ART

Weekend sketching

11/30/2023

My sister and her husband came to stay for the Elmwood party and stayed into the holidays, so I've given myself a bit of time off. It was such good family time, celebratory time, hang out time, and I'm grateful. After they left, I got out a couple of times over the last weekend. I went to Six at the Orpheum, and I got there a little early to sketch. It's such a magnificent building, and I always love sketching there.

Then Saturday my friend Christina was still doing homework for her architectural sketching class, so Henry and I walked over with her (after some excellent curry from Flipside Asia at the farmers market) to draw (me) and watch the world go by (Henry). I love sketching outings with friends.

Now I'm back to work and doing the Metal Museum Artists Market this Saturday from 10-4. Comfy shopping inside a huge heated tent, and a well curated group of local artists. It's my first time doing the show, and I'm really excited to be part of it. For those of you in Memphis their address is 374 Metal Museum Dr. The best way to get to the museum (and avoid the marathon traffic) would be to come down Crump Blvd, take a left on Florida St., take a right on McLemore, McLemore will turn into Riverside Blvd, and then take a left on Metal Museum Dr. We'll be easily south of all the hooplah.

Good day

11/15/2023

In spite of starting it with tea and toast at 4am (menopause sleep loss always ramps up for me in the fall), I had a great day. I took Henry to daycare and went out to WKNO to record a radio interview about the Sunday party at Elmwood. Darel brought the new banjo that he MADE HIMSELF in for me to see and let me play it. It plays incredibly beautifully. I am so impressed with his wide ranging talents. After a big Costco run, since I was out east anyway, I treated myself to a Gulf coast scallops tortuga and a mango drink at Los Tortugas. I did a super quick sketch while waiting for my pick up order. I ate it at Shelby Farms and also got some grocery shopping in and a short nap before bringing Henry home. A good day.

Also here is one recent sketch of Henry. He's the best.

Broad Avenue Art Walk

11/4/2023

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the Broad Avenue festival today. So much fun. We got there a a bit before it got rolling, met at the coffee shop, and then scattered to sketch. I did the little square one of the mural hanging out and greeting folks as they arrived, then did the overview of the street (bottom) that felt kind of anemic, and finally rushed through the water tower and food truck before we met again at the end. I would have done more paint, a full sky, probably covered the whole page if I'd had time, but I like it spare. I'll try to remember to be restrained more often, but history suggests I get carried away and cover everything without stopping to think...

Some of us hung around afterwards for take away paella on the street and then a cupcake from Muddy's. A pretty perfect Saturday.

Weekend happiness

10/28/2023

I started my weekend a bit early having lunch with my sketching friend Christina. She's still taking her architecture sketching class and wanted to draw a house in my neighborhood, so we headed there after. I'm so enjoying the second hand nudge from her class to sketch more, and it's always delightful to go out with a friend. I did this one with a dip pen and Earl Grey ink by Diamine, continuing my Inktober ink+paint trend recently. Today Henry and I walked over to the Dia de los Muertos festival outside Brooks and hung out with friends watching the whole parade of costumes and humanity go past. Henry discovered that he likes avocado, and I stuck around to do a sketch of the enormous feathered headdresses from a dance troup after my gang had gone on to get their growing preteen some weekend ice cream. I kept it simple and fun, not moving into color and just enjoying my still kind of new Majohn bent nib fountain pen.

The other thing I've been doing is starting a continuing ed memoir class, and my first essay assignment was to write about a period of bounded time (a summer, a year, a weekend, a trip). I sat on my back porch the last couple of mornings and wrote about my first trip across the country, solo except for Mr. Darcy (my last long term dog), in a small RV that crazy summer of 2020. I think it could be a fun graphic essay, so I've been pulling out my sketches from that trip to revisit. I may never end up with a full length book, but I'm really enjoying these bite sized pieces of memoir writing that I can also illustrate.

Random Inktober sketches

10/25/2023

I've lost a little steam on Inktober because I FINISHED MY BOOK and formatted and submitted all the files and am now waiting on a proof before I order a stack of them. But here are several I did along the way, and I'm trying to get back to it and finish strong now that the book is done.

I've been taking my sketchbook to the dog park, and sometimes I just visit with friends, but sometimes I manage a sketch. One woman brought her supper in and managed (barely) to eat on the picnic table with all the dogs checking in to see what was going on. In a similar portable food vein, I did a small nocturne of a food truck under the moon at a recent outdoor performance of The Tempest. So fun. Both of those are in black ink with my new bent nib fude pen. Below is a dip pen with Diamine spring green ink and lots of watercolor on top.

More church sketching

10/17/2023

My friend Christina is taking a Liz Steel architecture sketching class, and I'm reaping the benefits. Churches were the assignment, and there are two within a couple of blocks of my house, so Henry and I got to go out sketching with a friend. Her class and Inktober both have been keeping me out and sketching more this month, and it's a great pleasure.

For a second time in a row, the church looked deceptively simple to sketch until we really got started. I got the light grey too dark, but it was still fun to do.

Saturday night and Sunday morning

10/15/2023

The Stanley Brothers had a classic album called Saturday night and Sunday morning of hard living songs and then gospel songs. Here's my take on the same phrase.

More Inktober

10/13/2023

I'm doing better with Inktober than I can remember. I missed one day so far, but overall I'm sketching daily, and it feels great. Above is black document ink from DeAtramentis with watercolor on top. Below is more traditional Inktober with just black ink and maybe an ink wash.

Today Henry and I delivered new prints to Elmwood ahead of their big do this weekend. Kim nicely wanted to have some on hand to sell. So we celebrated meeting that deadline with a walk through the cemetery and some sketching. These are two different sketches on the facing pages, but they harmonized really nicely into one composite landscape.

Then I was starving, so we went to Casablanca for lunch on their dog friendly deck. Lunch is my favorite there because they have the best black tea in town (lots of spices and honey plus ginger brewed in), but I can't have it at dinnertime that close to bed. I had half a shwarma platter and a lot of celebratory tea, and I'll add some broccoli tomorrow and have another fantastic meal tomorrow. Leftovers are the bomb for a single woman who doesn't much like to cook.

Neighborhood sketching

10/12/2023

After some days of black and white sketches for Inktober, it felt good to get back to paint. My friend Christina wanted to sketch this church a couple of blocks from my house, so Henry and I walked down with her on Sunday and sat to draw it. It was more complex than either of us realized, but it was a fun puzzle to put together. I used the black waterproof ink I've been trying lately (in my new favorite drawing pen), with paint on top.

A day or two later I left line behind completely and did a watercolor only sketch of Henry one evening, but I'm also still using just line. He is so very fun to draw.

Back to color

10/9/2023

I'm still being remarkably on top of sketching for Inktober, but over the weekend I went back to using paint as well instead of just doing black and white. Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Rhodes College, and I used a dip pen with Diamine Ancient Copper ink (which scans a little hot, but I love it in person) for both of these challenging architectural pieces.

Afterwards, Christina and I went to lunch at Cafe Eclectic, and I sketched the bungalow across the street in waterproof black ink and added paint on top. I mostly like water soluble ink that melds with the paint, but black just gets muddy, so I'm trying it in my new pen for Inktober.

Later that afternoon, enjoying the beautiful weather, I picked up Henry at daycare, and we walked at the Greenbelt Park along the Mississippi. I love the cottonwood trees that line the river. It's the same black ink. I feel a bit like I'm making a coloring book for myself (and it would probably be a good exercise for me to do paint first and then line), but I also like that the line stays more prominent. It varies from sketch to sketch for me whether I like it or am annoyed. Anyway, it's all good practice, and I had a ball sketching outside this weekend.