I had such a lovely day yesterday! I went to the Bastille market with my visiting for the weekend friends Chrissie and Ella, who have been having a marvelous mother/daughter adventure. I was so honored to get to be a part of a small piece of it. They are fabulous company. We wandered and shopped and took in the scene and met new people. A new sketcher friend may join me this Tuesday at La Liberte to hear Rene Miller play. She was sketching the guys (also Stephen Harrison on bass) as I was. A nice mother daughter duo from the states that Chrissie and Ella started talking to may come as well.

We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe after the market. And then later I was lucky enough to be invited to Camille's home to jam and have home cooked galettes (savory crepes). Camille is the excellent banjo player from the Cuckoo Sisters who made me so welcome last weekend. An American banjo player also came as well as a couple of the other band members (a couple are out traveling on holiday now). It was such fun to get to play tunes, and Camille had a bass for me to play as well as my banjo, which was great fun.

I was honored to be included and am delighted to be getting to know more of the rich music community here in Paris. Once again I was too busy playing
music to sketch during tunes, but I did sketch Camille's gorgeous cat, even though I didn't do her justice.

I'm having a slow day today to recover from the nonstop socializing, but it was an utterly delightful weekend.

I'm doing a mix of watercolors for my fall show and journal sketches. In love having a journal of the trip, so it's worth the time that way. I've also found myself making prints from images I wouldn't have thought of for finished art because I have a sketch I like in my journal that keeps calling to me.

I've been sharing the more finished work here lately, so here are a bunch of journal sketches from the last few days.

The place I'm staying this summer is quite close to Luxembourg gardens, which is one of my favorite spots in Paris. My sister who used to live here talked highly of it before I came, and it is more peaceful and with many more books to retreat into that the very public Tuileries. It's also more visually diverse, so I'm enjoying spending more time there.

Technically speaking, the fountain above isn't part of Luxembourg, but it's on a spit of park that extends directly south. If parks and roads didn't change names every block, it would be part of the park.

Today I also did a couple of quicker, smaller sketches to try out some new ink. I found a lovely 19C art supply store near the gardens and finally bought a bottle of brown ink for my fountain pen. I've been wanting to try it a while, and with all the ochres and browns in Paris, this seemed like the moment.

After a full Monday off, I dived in on Tueaday and did two exhibition watercolors (as opposed to journal sketches). The first was a funky cafe in the neighborhood that caught my eye on my first trip here. It was a fairly complex scene and took a while, so I was happy I'd found a cafe table in the shade across the street to paint at. When I was finished I did a quick journal sketch of my tea things. They had a delightfully deco set.

I walked on to Luxembourg gardens and had lunch there while sketching the next scene. The clouds moved into a nice formation, so I set aside lunch temporarily to catch them before they moved.

With two paintings done, I treated myself to a nap before going to see my friends play music. I sketched there too, of course.

I didn't really do them justice this time. Here's what they really looked like. I can try again next Tuesday.

One of my favorite things to do in Paris is to go out on the weekends and hear my friends play music. Rene is an American who has been making a living in Paris as a musician about 24 years, and Stephen is from the north of England, here about as long. They both play with multiple people, but I love Stephen's marvelous bass playing added to Rene's wide mix of songs, and it made me happy they were playing together this weekend.

And not only together, but at my very favorite market, the Marche d'Aligre. Funky and off the beaten track. I scored a table at the cafe just behind them on the corner, had mint tea, and settled in to paint. (Above.)

The next day they were at the Bastille market, a much bigger and bustling place. My favorite soap maker (I get the fig and raspberry scents) goes there, so I got soap and also hung out to sketch. Sadly, after doing a couple of sketches of Rene I was pleased with in the spring, I am back to making him look like a muppet. He's very nice about it, though. And I am pleased with that recent print of him and Dede, so hopefully I can do some more in that vein while I'm here.

I had a historical kind of day on Saturday. I walked through both Yorktown and Williamsburg. It was fun to see the old houses and history, but once again, I notice that what I actually sketched are the trees. I have realized recently that one reason I like old places is that they also tend to preserve their old trees. I sketched the tree above on the fringe of the Yorktown battlefield.

Just for variety, I tried the bridge nearby as well, next the farmers market they have. I've been trying to work more in markers again, but this one wasn't particularly successful.

I finished with one more garden, somewhat hidden away, with a gorgeouly gnarled tree at its center. It was a lovely shady place to sit, and I couldn't resist sketching as well. Many thanks to my patient tour guide who hung out while I did all this. I was just on a panel at Crosstown Arts about art and travel, and one of my fellow artists said one key piece was to pick patient traveling companions and also make sketching just the thing that you do, so they know it's a part of who you are. Good advice all around. I tend to travel solo usually but am grateful to my periodic traveling companions who do end up being kind and patient while I sketch a bit.

Mr. Darcy was charmed too. We were both sad to see them go this morning, but I loved having a slow morning and breakfast out with them before they left. The thing I miss most about calling dances regularly is hanging out with the musicians, who seem to always be quality people. Joe was also kind enough to agree to jam with my local group here after the concert, in spite of being in the middle of a multi day drive. It was joyful to my house to have all of that music and laughter fill it, and I was so delighted to be able to have my friends meet and hear him.

I had another deadline for the Memphis News and wanted to sketch in Overton Square, the newly refurbished entertainment district that had been moribund for decades and is now thriving again. A massive rainstorm had hit in the midafternoon, though, so the patios were still empty in the early evening. This gave me the perfect excuse to catch the first set of Breeze Coyolle (NOLA saxophonist) who plays with my friends Tom Lonardo and Tim Goodwin on drums and bass respectively. I sketched them, enjoyed a lovely hour of music, and then went outside to do my watercolor just before it got too dark. Perfect. (I'll post the watercolor after it's in print.)

Then I went off dancing for the weekend and sketched one of the bands there. The Mean Lids gave an exquisite, totally unplugged concert for us one evening, and I had to reach for my pen.

I did the more formal one above and finished with this second, freer form page below that I like better. It seems to take me a page or so to loosen up sometimes.

I'm back home finally and beginning to scan in sketches from the later part of the trip that I haven't yet posted here. I met my parents in Amsterdam, so I had less solo time for keeping up the blog the last few days of the trip.

I got to hear Rene Miller and Dede Macchabee (I have no idea how to do accent marks on my American keyboard - sorry, y'all) several times while I was in Paris. They sound great together, with Rene's marvelous blues picking and Dede's 1930's kind of sound. They also look great and are fun to sketch, so I did them several times. Above is my favorite one, in a new watercolor graphite I found in my "local" art supply store that I walk past daily in Paris. I had a great time playing with it. I saw it several days earlier, but the Dutch landscape drawing exhibition (previous blog entry) decided me on going back to try it. Their subtle graphite and wash work was completely alluring.

It's a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like is that, since it's graphite, it will press down and rub against the opposite page once you flip over and are drawing on the back of a graphite page. In spite of that, it's quite lovely.

As a minor sidetrack to the blog, here's the sketchbook page where I tested it out the first time. I was quite pleased with the cat sketch on the left.

Back to Rene and Dede.

Here's one in fountain pen and ink wash. A bit cleaner than the graphite but also without the subtler shading.

One more in fountain pen and watercolor. Dede wears the most stylish shoes.

Here is my favorite photo from the evening. I wish I could have captured that feel in the sketches.