I gave myself the day off work on Saturday, which for me meant getting out and sketching. There is no bright line between life and work because art is always what I wake up wanting to do. I went to a fun estate sale where I bought a couple of plates that remind me of Paris, and it was right near Dixon. Ceres had magnificent plantings around her when I was there last, but I hadn't had my bigger sketchbook or watercolors with me. I walked through my favorite parts of the current exhibit again (hint, Paris!) and then headed for the garden. I've been trying to mix things up and draw in Inktense pencils for a change of texture lately instead of reflexively reaching for my fountain pen. I was happy with the plantings, a bit less happy with the statue, but there it is.

The day was glorious, and I was starving, and Christina was happily free to meet me for a patio lunch at Cafe Eclectic, a favorite spot. I drew a wonky green umbrella and had a wonderful lunch with London fog tea latte and a biscuit on the side. I also drew the charming dove who made a nest right on top of one of the patio tables in a redbud tree. That one is in my small sketchbook, just a few minutes of standing and sketching with paint added sitting down afterwards. She has been remarkably unconcerned with the hubbub around her. It's such a treat to see a bird's nest up close.

It was a great day out. I came home happy, opened the windows and watched a little British mystery. Pretty perfect.

I grabbed my small sketchbook on a slow weekend morning, and my Inktense pencils were on the coffee table, so I did a bit of sketching just for me. I'm doing a big illustration project that I can't show right now, and it was fun to do a bit of loose, no agenda sketching before diving back into that job. These are the water soluble pencils that get really deep and rich with some water, but I was happy with how it looked like this and didn't push for anything else.

The Backsliders are one of my favorite local bands, but they haven't been playing as much lately. I try to get out and catch then when I can. Sunday the two band founders were playing a skeleton crew set and got joined by their bass player a bit later on. That's Jason Freeman on left with the rockabilly 'do and the guitar, and Michael Graber on the right, mostly on mandolin. Khari Wynn joined in with some amazing acoustic bass. I'm out of practice drawing people, and people with instruments are so visually enticing but also more complex. I kept it simple and sketched with a document brown ink in my Lamy All-Star fountain pen. I didn't do any of these guys any favors, but it was fun to try to capture them. The first (clearly disjointed across the page gutter in both the continuity of the curved bench seat and in the scale of the figures) is in my bigger sketchbook (5.5x8") that's my go-to these days. Then I downsized to the small 3.5x5.5" that lives in my purse and did a bunch of super fast, smaller attempts. I had fun and got to hear some great music, and now this day will live in my sketchbooks to remind me, even if none of these turned out how I had hoped.

The last sketch is Jason's dad out dancing to his son's music. Don and June show up to almost all his gigs, and as I'm watching my own dad decline (but also continue to show up for my art events), this connection touched me.

Here's a small snippet of video for you to see them in action.

I've posted about it before, but a few months ago I got a smaller sketchbook (3.5x5.5" I think) to easily fit into my small purse. I'm trying to make it easy for myself to sketch out in the world when I have pockets of time instead of automatically reaching for my phone. I've got a selection of pens and markers in a pocket of that same small purse. Then, of course, I ended up needing a non-black purse the other day for errands and grabbed only a couple of fountain pens. I recently got myself a new mint green Lamy All-star with a converter for using bottled ink. I also got some nicely complimentary Diamine Aurora Borealis ink to go with it. So that and my regular black one were the two I grabbed. Of course, that's the day I ended up on a perfect cloud day sitting and waiting for some paperwork in an office with a stunning view. I was kicking myself for not having watercolors with me. But it was fun to draw the way above the treeline view anyway, and I told them I may go back and camp out in their conference room for 45 minutes or so sometime with my full paint set.

From there I went to Dixon to see the new show and for a bit of something for myself after all the family business. Ceres is my favorite to draw, and she had some lovely tall plantings around her. I need to get back there with my paints as well.

The last sketch is some new brown De Atramentis waterproof ink I've been testing out. I added yellow watercolor marker to a line drawing I was happy with and then wished I hadn't, but that's sketching for you.

I got down to Rowan Oak for the first time in several months last week, and it was lovely to be back. I saw both curators, Bill and Rachel, who are beyond kind to me, and I did one full sketch of maybe my favorite tree there. This is the Osage Orange back by the servants quarters behind the main house. I love its funkiness. There was even a convenient picnic table in the shade, and I had a lovely, peaceful time getting reacquainted with an old friend. The print of this tree was the last one I finished before my show Faulkner's Trees last year from a bit of a different angle. Always choose the picnic table with shade if it is offered. Plein air pro-tip #1.

Rowan Oak has kept my entire show and talked their Museum Friends supporting non-profit into buying it for the museum, which I am utterly delighted about. It's down at the moment since another artist had a show on the way, but they're planning to find spots for several of them in the hallways in the short term and hope to hang the show as a group in the future visitors' center, which would be amazing. They love that my show honors Faulkner's conservation and land owning side and say Faulkner himself would love to be remembered that way.

They now have the ability to sell a few small books and souvenirs right there at the museum. Previously only the art museum on the main part of the campus had a gift shop. My year got away from me last year, and without their ability to sell a catalog of the show on site to visitors I didn't go through the large undertaking to put together a book. Now, though, that they are able to sell a few things and that they own the entire collection, I think my next book project will be putting a book together of both the prints and a good number of my sketches as well. I think it would be fun for Rowan Oak visitors to be able to take a taste of the place home with them. And as Kevin Sharp, the director of Dixon says, exhibitions are temporary but books are forever. I'm thrilled that this particular exhibition is being preserved as a collection and bucking that trend. Such an honor for them to want the whole show. And it's a special place for me. I'm thrilled.

My friend Mandy who works for Novel bookstore in town had a brain wave a few years ago and realized that the Scholastic book fair day was the absolute best day of school and that grown ups should get to have a little of that happiness too. So she invented the Skol-astic book fair at a local brewery. Various bookstores and comic book artists and other book nerds set up tables in the huge indoor space. Burke's Books invited me to join their table for an hour's worth of book signing, and since it was a dog friendly space they said please bring Henry too, since he's part of the family.

At the last minute, my dad asked if he could come too and be there for me, which was lovely of him. It was super low key, but it was sweet to have him there. I did a little sketching while I was sitting there so as not to follow potential buyers around with sad puppy dog eyes (which is why I usually knit through my own shows -- I'm available but not intrusive). I mostly sketched Henry, of course, who was hanging out happily. It was fun to watch people see him and then spot him on the cover of his own small book Portal. He made a couple of sales.

I also sketched Dad. People are hard, and it looks almost nothing like him (except for the bushy eyebrows), but I'll have the record in my sketchbook that he wanted to come down and support my art. That's priceless.

I got jumped by a bunch of family business on my return from New York and spent a week or so not sketching. I have managed to jump back in over the last week, starting with a farm sketch out at the family farm, followed by a pastel de nata at a new chain bakery in Memphis. I have loved these in Paris and been unable to get them in Memphis, so I had high hopes. It was ok but not great sadly. Phyllo instead of pie crust. Not satisfying enough to be worth the splurge but fun to sketch in my small sketchbook.

Then Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the main library yesterday. It's a bit of an overwhelming building to take on perspective-wise, but I love the colors and light. It was fun, even if I flunked corners of the architecture.

I did a super quick sketch in my small sketchbook at the end. I love the trees in there but didn't have time to do much I was proud of, but it still felt fun to try.

I've been working to update my website lately, and I've added several book covers to my illustration page. A Troubling of Goldfish is new this summer, my second for Corey Mesler who also owns (with his wife Cheryl) Burke's Book Store which turns 150 this year (!) and has supported my own books since I started. I'm delighted his publishers wanted to use my work. The tree on the grey textured cover is from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church, USA. That's my biggest illustration job to date, finished several years ago.

The newest cover is one I designed for my Dad's book, Poems of a Green and Pleasant Land. Dad wrote his way through most of British and Irish history back in the 70's to 90's, before self publishing was easily available. It's felt great to circle back to this project and be able to put it together for him and have a physical book in his hands. The hard copy proof came today, and I'll put the order in as soon as the Ingram website finishes its maintenance this week. Burke's is going to stock a few for the history nerds out there, and I'm so grateful to them for keeping all our family books.

Memphis Magazine let me illustrate their back page feature "The Last Stand" last month. I loved having an open ended invitation to tell a story. It was a quickish turnaround, and I didn't manage a full narration, but I went to two farmers markets after getting the assignment and had fun conversations as well as seeing the rich visual bounty of such places. I ended up doing a graphic feature called "Farmers Market chit-chat." I keep saying I'd like to do more visual storytelling, and it was lovely to get the invitation. See the whole spread here.

And of course Henry made an appearance.

I'm continuing to play with small prints and varied backgrounds. The very back layer of both of these is the same simple, uncarved shape, yellow in the top and orange below. Then I put a second sky layer on each before adding the black figure block. It's Glastonbury Abbey on top and Stonehenge below. I've missed ancient places lately (though a visit to The Cloisters helped a lot!), and doing these prints was a way to revisit them mentally.

I like to do one small sized, mostly for me project in the summer. It's a good time to play before the fall shows ramp up. These are small and achievable sizes, and people may or may not follow me into my ancient stones preoccupation. I might or might not do full editions of any of them, but at the least I'll have a selection of small, achievably priced prints once the fall shows do roll around.