Facebook art sites have this fun thing going the last several years called #inktober. The idea is to do and post an ink drawing daily or weekly or whatever you can manage. At the moment I am out of sketching mode (which I was in all summer while I traveled) and now frantically making paintings and prints from those sketches for my upcoming exhibition, so this isn't particularly well timed for me. But I did take myself to the theater on Saturday night to see Charles III, and given the state of the parking in Overton Square these days, I wanted to get there early to not walk blocks on my own after the play. So I had time to sketch the lovely moon I saw rising over what's now Circuit. It's good to live where you are a recognized eccentric instead of a cause for alarm. I was squatting under and against a street light to sketch when one lovely woman came up and asked if I were Martha Kelly and said she'd just ordered a couple of my calendars. Lovely!

I do fewer black and white sketches overall, so I'm largely doing inktober with foutain pen sketches as a base for watercolor instead of my more normal pencil, but it seems to be a fairly loose prompt for drawing, so that's always good.

I've been working hard on oils on paper and prints since I got home from Paris and only sketching occasionally, so it felt great to take a few days' vacation from the studio work and sketch a bunch instead.

And of course I spent some time sketching in Tower Grove Park as well, one of my longtime muses.

The next day was the Shaw Art Fair, which I'd been wanting to check out for several years. Thanks to Carol for the shout out to come visit for it, and also to her and Larry for joining me and hanging out at the fair a bit. I was there latish on Sunday to hear the band Cave States, which did a fun, much more modern music show with a great mix of instruments.

Park Friends Music Nights have started back again for the fall. We had the Side Street Steppers open the season for us, and Mr. Darcy and I had a night out together. I did a good bit of sketching, as I tend to when I'm listening to live music, and I tested out a new golden brown ink in my favorite fountain pen.

I was kind of low energy, and it was also a little bit low light, so I didn't do any watercolors. Just stuck to line drawings.

Of course I had to draw my date...

The next morning I took my sketching things along for my morning walk to check out that ink in the forest. I really love how it melds with the watercolor.

I also drew my favorite tree (again) on the way home.

My work for the Daily News has given me a leg up on the calendar this year. Here is one of Jerry's SnoCones I did for them over the summer. I'm laying out both Memphis and Paris calendars this week and will have them available for order soon. I'll have a bunch of full page watercolors like this one, but following in last year's footsteps, I'll also include a few more sketchbook feeling pages as well. Here's my musician one for this year. A sketch of Breeze Coyolle's band on top and Le Tumulte Noir on the bottom.

I also think I'm going to be a little self indulgent and include my show from last year at the Dixon. It was such a highlight for me that I want to just keep savoring it a little bit. I'll probably make that one March for my birthday. I'll post the full set of images and get them up for order soon.

I also did a quick sketch at Sunday lunch. It's very, very rapid, but I wanted to mark the occasion and remember the good company. Just a fast sketch in my art journal will bring back good memories later on.

I tend to say hello to places by sketching them. This is the door where Vincent van Gogh lived with his brother Theo near my "regular" neighborhood in Montmartre. I buy my meusli across the street and always say hello. I went by while I was up in the area and felt the need to sketch it again. This time a sweet older man came out of the door just as I was finishing up. There are always tour groups stopping outside, and the residents must be unbelievably sick of it, but he came to see my sketch and asked if he could take a photo. Then he asked if I'd ever been inside and if I would want to. He so kindly backtracked, opened that magic blue door, and ushered me into the courtyard beyond. It leads to a small alley between two walled gardens, and there are several more buildings that back up together in there. It's this lovely, quiet, secret spot.

We turned around to see the back of the house, and he pointed out Vincent's third floor window with the closed shutters. I wanted to sketch in there too but didn't feel I could ask. It was so kind of him to offer this to one more tourist camped outside his door. I was really touched.

I was on my way to bed last night and going to close the curtains when I saw the moon rising over the Paris rooftops. It took my breath away, and I had to sketch it before going to sleep. I was tired and tried not to, but it kept calling. And I never really regret it when the call is strong like that.

Here are two more quick journal sketches from the last few days, done in the midst of other work.

I was having such a lovely and non stop social life that I forgot to post sketches from Saturday morning. My visiting friends came with me to hear Rene and Stephen play outside a cafe at the Marche d'Aligre. It's my favorite market in Paris, and I love getting to hear the guys play there. I can sit and have tea and listen and sketch. It's perfect.

Of course, I only get the back view of the guys, but I still love it.

Last year I did a self portrait in the shiny teapot. Here is this year's version.

Later that day I did one quick sketch at dinner with Chrissie and Ella. We had a beautiful celebratory dinner, fancier than I ever do on my own, and I so enjoyed the sense of occasion with them. Sharing this time in Paris. Just marvelous to have them here to experience it with me. Ella's trip at 16 is reminding me so much of the trip I had at 17 with my grandmother. It's a beautiful way to teach young people to step out into the world and fully live, and I was so delighted to be able to see it from the other side, especially with such exceptional company.

It was a cloudy day yesterday, so I decided to do an indoor painting I'd had in my mind. I did a couple of journal sketches of Les Nymphees last time I came to Paris and decided I'd like to do one for the fall show as well. It's a stunning place to sit and paint for a while.

I moved to the other side of the room to do a quick journal sketch afterwards, and I met some lovely people in the process. An elementary school teacher with a small flock of students asked if she could show them my work, so she talked a bit, and I got to practice my French with the kids.

As that was happening, a budding young artist from Wisconsin was looking on and very interested, so I offered him my sketch journal (carnet de voyage in French, as the teacher was saying) to look through. He sat for ages, asked me questions about various ones, talked about the museums he'd seen here (he's just spent a year in Spain with his family), and promised to send me a drawing or two of his own. That meant a lot. I love seeing young people excited about art, and his dad was really supportive. I was lucky that way too.

I took a late afternoon/early evening walk after the museum, which felt great. First I stopped and sketched from my favorite bridge over the Seine (pedestrian with benches, so nicely quiet except the guy hawking the padlocks that sadly damage the bridge as they're left by tourists) and then sketched a couple of statues on the way home. One in a gallery window and one in Luxembourg gardens. I keep sketching this one. I find that one of the ways I say hello to "old friends" is to sketch them again as I return.