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I got to go sit in with Darel Snodgrass for a little bit of Memphis's npr pledge drive yesterday. I got to talk about why WKNO supports local artists in a way I've never heard anywhere else, and I also got to talk a little bit about the Skyward show hanging next week. I hung out for three different breaks during classical music, so of course I took the chance to do an #inktober sketch as well.
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I love tea and really enjoy sketching tea things. Mostly I sketch my pottery ones, but I was out not too long ago and sketched my iced chai, and I just realized I forgot to post it anywhere. It's fun to take that small break out of your day and do a sketch for no more reason than that you want to.
The teapot is a new one by Melissa Bridgman. I adore her work. I didn't really need another teapot, but I also adore bunnies, so we ended up doing an informal trade not long ago. The cup is my longtime favorite one, also by Melissa, where she
The teapot is a new one by Melissa Bridgman. I adore her work. I didn't really need another teapot, but I also adore bunnies, so we ended up doing an informal trade not long ago. The cup is my longtime favorite one, also by Melissa, where she
sketched her own bees and also a honeycomb design. One of the things I love about Melissa is that she doesn't do the same patterns or shapes over and over again. Everything is fresh. So this teacup is unique, and I love its old fashioned delicacy as well as the generous saucer I can use for my tea spoon or perhaps a cookie. I'm old fashioned in always wanting a saucer, since I use milk (that creamer is the tiny one I found in Paris this summer with a bird on it, and it's gorgeous) and want to stir in the milk and have somewhere to put my spoon. Tea is a ritual with me, a small bit of daily pause and happiness in the midst of my usual busy. I love everything about sitting and having a small pot of tea in the day somewhere.
I'm also trying to make the most of Inktober this year, which I'm usually too busy to really celebrate. I cleaned out a fountain pen I've had and put new grey ink in it that I've been wanting to try, and I also broke out a blue marker for the top sketch. I used markers a bunch several years ago and have gotten completely away from them in favor of watercolor, but they have their own fun, graphic feel, so I'm going to work on reclaiming a bit of marker work this month as well.
I'm also trying to make the most of Inktober this year, which I'm usually too busy to really celebrate. I cleaned out a fountain pen I've had and put new grey ink in it that I've been wanting to try, and I also broke out a blue marker for the top sketch. I used markers a bunch several years ago and have gotten completely away from them in favor of watercolor, but they have their own fun, graphic feel, so I'm going to work on reclaiming a bit of marker work this month as well.
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I've been doing a bit of sketching while also pulling prints for the fall show season and continuing to work on oils on paper for November. It's "Inktober," which a lot of artists I know really post for online, and I'm always a little spotty since this is always deep into show prep for me. But I want to do it as much as I can. So I've started off the month with a bunch of ink gestures.
Being an artist means I don't go out to a lot of fancy evenings, but I decided to actually buy concert tickets to Rhiannon Giddens last Friday. My sister really likes her, and I had loved the snippets I'd heard on npr. She absolutely knocked it out of the park. It was one of the best and most powerful concerts I've ever seen. She did a wide range of songs, nailed every single one of them, told gripping stories, and also told hard truths in a way that brought a room together instead of dividing it. What a gift in this (or any) age. Go see her if you get a chance. I did just a couple of quick sketches (on the left just below) in near darkness because I wanted to have this moment in my art journal to remember.
The next night I ended up at the symphony (which was good, but which didn't rock my world the way Rhiannon had). Fortunately after the break (which is always the place I lose most of my ability to really concentrate on something both purely auditory and non-verbal), they had a piece about Ellis Island which wove in spoken accounts of various immigrants who had gone through there. It was powerful, and I also enjoyed sketching the actors. And the hats.
Being an artist means I don't go out to a lot of fancy evenings, but I decided to actually buy concert tickets to Rhiannon Giddens last Friday. My sister really likes her, and I had loved the snippets I'd heard on npr. She absolutely knocked it out of the park. It was one of the best and most powerful concerts I've ever seen. She did a wide range of songs, nailed every single one of them, told gripping stories, and also told hard truths in a way that brought a room together instead of dividing it. What a gift in this (or any) age. Go see her if you get a chance. I did just a couple of quick sketches (on the left just below) in near darkness because I wanted to have this moment in my art journal to remember.
The next night I ended up at the symphony (which was good, but which didn't rock my world the way Rhiannon had). Fortunately after the break (which is always the place I lose most of my ability to really concentrate on something both purely auditory and non-verbal), they had a piece about Ellis Island which wove in spoken accounts of various immigrants who had gone through there. It was powerful, and I also enjoyed sketching the actors. And the hats.
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It's that time again! Calendars are going to the printer this week. I'll have them in time for the Pink Palace Crafts Fair, as well as all my fall shows. They'll be at Burke's Books, of course, and likely other places through the fall. I'll keep you posted here.
The easiest way to get one, of course, is to order it off my website and have it come right to your mailbox. You can order one right now for $18 in my online store (operated by Square) at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art/
If you're in Memphis and can pick one up at one of my fall shows (Pink Palace, my Friday, November 3rd opening at Eclectic Eye, or my holiday open house Dec. 15-16th) or from me sometime in midtown, choose the pick up option to avoid shipping. Otherwise, I'll be so happy to send it right to you.
The easiest way to get one, of course, is to order it off my website and have it come right to your mailbox. You can order one right now for $18 in my online store (operated by Square) at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art/
If you're in Memphis and can pick one up at one of my fall shows (Pink Palace, my Friday, November 3rd opening at Eclectic Eye, or my holiday open house Dec. 15-16th) or from me sometime in midtown, choose the pick up option to avoid shipping. Otherwise, I'll be so happy to send it right to you.
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I had a couple of quiet days on my own at the end of my Paris trip. Some of that, of course, was packing madly, because I acquired too many art books plus a framed print plus a little bit of breakable tea crockery, so it was more challenging than usual.
I knew I would be coming home to working hard on my fall shows, so I gave myself permission to really have a little bit of vacation --- sleeping in and lingering over tea in the beautiful apartment I stay in and going to the Musee d'Orsay to sit with my favorite pieces. I also had tea a couple of afternoons in Le Lithographe, the cafe just across from my building there. I'd been wanting to paint inside (usually I would sit out on the sidewalk to watch Paris go by) where there was a lovely tiled Art Deco piece next to the bar. I painted it small the first day, and since I'm thinking about Art Deco ornamentation a good bit at the moment (thanks to one of the art books I bought), I went back and painted a second time with more detail.
I knew I would be coming home to working hard on my fall shows, so I gave myself permission to really have a little bit of vacation --- sleeping in and lingering over tea in the beautiful apartment I stay in and going to the Musee d'Orsay to sit with my favorite pieces. I also had tea a couple of afternoons in Le Lithographe, the cafe just across from my building there. I'd been wanting to paint inside (usually I would sit out on the sidewalk to watch Paris go by) where there was a lovely tiled Art Deco piece next to the bar. I painted it small the first day, and since I'm thinking about Art Deco ornamentation a good bit at the moment (thanks to one of the art books I bought), I went back and painted a second time with more detail.
I also did a couple of more sketches in the Orsay. They move their paintings around a lot and swap things out. One of my favorite Odilon Redon pieces was gone (one of my favorite pieces period there), but this double panel was new to me this year, so I sketched it. As was the Vuillard, who painted a woman sketching with that hallmark "sketch face," as a friend of mine calls it.
One other thing I did was got myself one last cup of Angelina's hot chocolate and carried it into the Tuileries to sit and drink and (apparently) sketch. It was a lovely send off from a city I love and hope to return to next year.
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I've been taking some day trips out of Paris lately and went back to Chartres, where I hadn't been in five years, since my first time in France. It was good to be there again and to think of the changes in my life since I first had my feet on the labyrinth. It's also a lovely town, and I got a pot of tea and sketched the two very different towers after coming out of the church. I didn't paint any of the gorgeous Medieval glass, but it is an amazing part of the visit.
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I spent a week up north in the first apartment I ever came to here with my usual cat sitting gig. It was great to be back in that neighborhood again, and I did a bit of painting to celebrate that time. A couple of more self portraits (including a slightly meta sketch at right of the one above plus my Paris teapot and a second hand rose my friend Rene gave me that had been left in his tip box while he busked. Amazingly it perked up when I got it home and in water. I also painted the view out the window and Dusty, the resident cat.
Dusty is a pretty active cat, so I could only manage a brief kind of gesture sketch. She's got many more lovely stripes than I managed to capture, but I'm also trying not to overwork pieces here. I get too caught up in details sometimes, and drawings lose their energy. I'm trying to use my Paris sketches as a time of correction back in the other direction, even if some of them end up very impressionistic indeed.
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I got used to showing Mr. Darcy's trip this spring by drawing him doing different things. I'm not being as organized about it, but I'm also enjoying drawing myself in bits of my own trip this time. I've been looking at all kinds of paintings of women "a la toilette" in the Orsay -- by Morisot, Degas, Cassat, and many more. It was a popular theme, and I absolutely love the tiles in the bathroom here, so this morning I decided to have a go at doing my own version. I'm also still working on getting better at people, and I'm a willing, free, and available model for myself.
This evening at dinner I also wanted to remember a sweet moment from my long walk home. I stopped in a bakery I like but don't go to often enough for them to know me, and I asked for the smaller version of the pain au chocolat. The baker, bless him, seemed to think that I needed fattening up and added a mini croissant, "un petit cadeau," to my bag. That kindness made me smile for blocks, so I did a sketch when I got home.
This evening at dinner I also wanted to remember a sweet moment from my long walk home. I stopped in a bakery I like but don't go to often enough for them to know me, and I asked for the smaller version of the pain au chocolat. The baker, bless him, seemed to think that I needed fattening up and added a mini croissant, "un petit cadeau," to my bag. That kindness made me smile for blocks, so I did a sketch when I got home.
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Here are morning and evening sketches done a couple of days ago. I'm looking at more art and making less this trip, at least so far, but it's nice to have something in my journal each day. I'm also still working on desk work -- self portraits here in the apartment and a bit of Mr. Darcy. It's nice to be able to play here and not feel like I need to create a whole show to bring home with me. I like having free time in an inspiring place to simply do whatever wants to come out at the moment.
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I'm spending time with the surrealists in the Musee d'Orsay again. I can't exactly explain why I'm so drawn to them, when they do art so different from mine. But sitting with Redon's portraits, plus walking and thinking and having solitary time again, are all making me do self portraits again. The last spurt started here last year, also looking at Redon, and I've done my seemingly annual self portrait in that style just a bit, with floating flowers.
I did a second one once I got rolling as well. I've been carrying this poem fragment around in my mind and wanting to paint from it, wearing this vintage slip, for some months, but I've been covered up with the worship book illustrations and afterwards the Mr. Darcy book. It was finally time to let this one out as well.
At right is the Redon study I've done so far this trip, a painting called Eyes Closed. I loved the juxtaposition of the figure with the sea.
After getting properly dressed for the day, I went and had lunch in Luxembourg Gardens and ended up doing a sketch of Genevieve, my favorite statue there, since I was already revved up and going on the female figure. This one is less detailed than I've done in the past, and it's nice to try different things with a familiar subject. I'll probably be back to working on Mr. Darcy tomorrow, but it felt good to branch out a bit today and paint something current.
I did a second one once I got rolling as well. I've been carrying this poem fragment around in my mind and wanting to paint from it, wearing this vintage slip, for some months, but I've been covered up with the worship book illustrations and afterwards the Mr. Darcy book. It was finally time to let this one out as well.
At right is the Redon study I've done so far this trip, a painting called Eyes Closed. I loved the juxtaposition of the figure with the sea.
After getting properly dressed for the day, I went and had lunch in Luxembourg Gardens and ended up doing a sketch of Genevieve, my favorite statue there, since I was already revved up and going on the female figure. This one is less detailed than I've done in the past, and it's nice to try different things with a familiar subject. I'll probably be back to working on Mr. Darcy tomorrow, but it felt good to branch out a bit today and paint something current.
