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I turned in my second set of illustrations for Chalk Line Books at the new year. They're reprinting vintage crime fiction and have asked me to be their illustrator, assuming these become popular. The second book I did for them was Night Squad by David Goodis. It's fun to just be handed a text and allowed to choose the texts I want to draw from and create a whole vision of the book. And it was a perfect snuggle on the couch with my dog project as I was recovering from the bustle of the holidays.

I've taken a little time off after my crazy fall. From September to December I had three shows and two Cape May business trips plus various commissions and all the calendar sales. It's been nice to have a slow January, catch up with friends, do some individual projects, even throw in a little bit of waltzing and fox trotting along the way. I'm learning a new fiddle tune on my banjo and walking daily with Mr. Darcy in the forest. But I'm also back working on various things, so I'll be posting more regularly again.

Here's a second illustration from Night Squad.

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You can preview (or buy) the first book I illustrated for Chalk Line here on the Amazon kindle store. If you click "look inside" and scroll down, you'll see my first illustration. I'm even mentioned in the Book Description; "The Chalk Line Books version of “Sharecropper Hell” also features the evocative illustrations of artist Martha Kelly."

Woohoo!
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Mr. Darcy and I have spent a lot of time like this this past week. I managed to sprain my ankle on Christmas Eve, so sitting up with it down on the floor at my work table is less comfortable than being on the couch just now. Mr. Darcy likes this new approach to working. He's been keeping me company very happily.

Above is a new letterpress block, and below are illustrations for the new e-book I'm working on called the Night Squad by David Goodis. This is my second project for the new publishing imprint called Chalk Line Press.
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I met professional photographer Jackie Kane while I was up in Cape May. Since I'm working up there on my own largely (though the staff there always make me very welcome), it's fun to get to meet and talk to fun and interesting people. I met a couple of artists this time (I'm talking about you, Doug!), and it's always neat to talk shop. An added bonus was Jackie turning her talents to take shots of me while I was working. (The full set of them is on her site here.)

She found me on the coldest day I actually did work outside (middle 30's), so I'm embarrassed about the hat situation. I need my broad floppy hat instead of my cuter winter hat to give me shade while I work, so I had a stocking wool hat on underneath it. Sigh. A fashion plate I am not.

But it's kind of fun to get to see my set up through someone else's eyes.
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Here's my favorite one. It really embodies the act of creation to me.
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You can see lots more of Jackie's work here. She's got a great eye and gets that beautiful light I never manage to achieve in my photographs. Her Ferris wheel at night series is super cool.
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 Cape Resorts, the hotel group I do illustrations for in Cape May, NJ, has a holiday slide show of my watercolors going across the top of their website. It is such fun to see my work being used.

I'm just about to head back up there, too, and paint their Christmas festivities for a second year in a row. It's a busy week, with the MBG Paris show a week ago (and still up till New Year's), my home show this past Sunday, and my upcoming departure Thursday morning.

The home show was great fun. I loved having so many friends come through, and I made some new ones as well, which is always lovely. The show wound down the last half hour when my friend and touring musician Andy Cohen showed up with his guitar. I got out my bass, and we played a little music before our respective evening engagements. A perfect way to end a fun day.

And now I'm gearing up to go back to a place I've really come to love. I just hope the snow is all gone by Thursday....

More screen shots from the Cape Resorts website:
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Today on Thanksgiving I am grateful for family, friends, communities of people in church and dance and music who surround me, and also very thankful to be able to do a job I love. Well, a number of jobs these days, but they're all art related. I love doing exhibitions, travel paintings, landscape commissions (especially in Cape May!), and illustrations.

I've been wanting to do more illustrations, and recently I was contacted by a new e-book publisher, Chalk Line Books. They're reprinting vintage crime fiction and want me to be their in house illustrator. The first one, Jim Thompson's Sharecropper Hell, just went up on Amazon. You can preview the book and scroll down for the first illustration here.

Yesterday my editor dropped off the second book for me to work on. I enjoy working from a text and finding the images that speak to me, and I'm having fun doing something new.
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I've got an exciting new project in house. There's a new e-book publishing company in Memphis, and they're reissuing classic crime fiction. They've enlisted me to illustrate their initial set of books, and I'm having a ball. I've been wanting to do more illustration. I love reading a book and figuring out which images would be the most powerful to represent.

Here are a couple from my first book for them. They're pen and ink drawings based on the book Cropper's Cabin by Jim Thompson.
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Last year I was lucky enough to get to do watercolor illustrations for the Memphis Magazine City Guide issue. It seems to have been well enough received for the art editor to want to have some more artwork instead of their usual photography. In a neat twist, he's enlisted the Memphis Urban Sketchers to provide illustrations, spreading the love around a bit and adding some interest. I can't wait to see the different artwork he uses. I've submitted a few myself, and it will be interesting to see what makes it to print.

There are certain categories each year (arts, dining, who's who, etc.), and blogs and hospitals are some of the more challenging topics. I decided to offer artwork for those, figuring he might need a little help in those areas.
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I stopped on my way home from kayaking this morning to paint Le Bonheur. I love the view of it from right in the middle of Poplar Avenue, but that's not a safe place to paint. This was the best angle I could get from the sidewalk. As an added bonus, I scored some shade as well.

Yesterday my very kind housemate agreed to let me paint him as he did some schoolwork on his laptop. That's always a bit of a risk. You never know how you're going to look in someone else's artwork, and I appreciated his taking it. I've been enjoying doing more figural work, but capturing  likenesses us still very hard for me.
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It's been nuts since I got home. I had a couple of nights back, and then I left again for a dance weekend with my sisters. I loved spending time with them after being gone for a month.

I hung out with awesome women (that's one of my sisters front and center):
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danced to my favorite band with friends (and sisters, though no one got a shot of that):
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and got dipped a few times:
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Now I'm back to work. I was supposed to be in Cape May this week painting for Cape Resorts Group again, but bad weather cancelled my flight. So I have a little time to do some commissions here, catch up on my sleep, and get up there in the next few weeks more rested and ready to go at full speed. Overall a very good thing.
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My Cape May watercolors have been featured in the Concierge Magazine printed for the Cape Resorts group for use at all their hotels. It's fun to see them in print, and I'm especially pleased with the cover. That was such a fun Victorian house to paint. It's one of several cottages they rent out.

Seeing this makes me want to go back there again. I hope I get to soon.
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    Martha Kelly is an artist and illustrator who lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee.

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All the work I've done for Cape Resorts Group in Cape May is being used by Stella Bean advertisers. They are building a new website for the group that incorporates my paintings, but Kevin Philip is also creating fun extras, like e-cards to send out for the holidays.

Below is the storyboard for the Congress Hall one, which uses three of my watercolors to make an animated card. You can flip through the document below to see the progression, and you can follow these two links to watch the full e-cards.

http://www.pebagraphics.com/cape/

http://www.pebagraphics.com/virginia/


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