Martha Kelly Art blog - MARTHA KELLY ART

Published on: October 7, 2017

Crosstown

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the new/old Sears Crosstown building this morning. An amazing array of agencies came together to renovate this long vacant building into a vertical village. I can walk there from my house, and it is stunning. A ton of restaurants, a YMCA, the Church Health Center (a big deal here in Memphis), a high school to come, various businesses and non profits, all sharing one vast roof in a building with enormous windows. I've got a few friends now living in the apartments and had been before, but it was fun to meet the crew and hang out in the atrium and sketch.

I did a couple of sketches with fair concentration, and then as the meeting time was approaching, I did a couple of quick ones just to fill the time. In honor of "Inktober," I had bought a Pigma graphic 1 pen to try (see the top two sketches) which our founder Elizabeth Alley always calls her #fatpen. I think I mostly like my fountain pens better, but it's nice to have a fatter pen that doesn't melt with watercolor for times when I'd like that. It definitely has a more graphic feeling than using my usual water soluble ink. It's fun to try new things.

Published on: July 4, 2017

Small town 4th of July

I've always lived in Memphis except for college in a smallish Kentucky town that was still considerably bigger than Concrete, WA, where I've been spending several months. I love the small town events more than anything. Today was the 4th of July parade, that lasted maybe five minutes. Highlights were the mayor dressed as Uncle Sam plus the 4-H club with a number of dogs and one goat. I had a ball sketching. There was also a fun acoustic band at the picnic afterwards to give me something to listen to.

Published on: May 30, 2017

Huckleberry Cheesecake...

Or "Things We Don't Have Down South."

I've got several truly intricate blocks to carve for the book project, which have been taking all my attention lately. But I've been missing sketching, and I decided to do a quick lunchtime sketch to remember this delicious thing that I have certainly never run into back home.

Published on: January 20, 2017

Bunnies and Cupcakes

Here are a few quick sketches from my week. My favorite is the installation of enormous, inflatable bunnies at the Brooks Museum of Art. It's an installation about invasives and the damage they do by Australian artist Amanda Parer, but she admits it's also winsome, and the child in me is utterly delighted. I was also excited to do such an interesting nocturne piece, and I'll have to go back and do more before they depart Memphis.

There was also cake in my immediate past (Muddy's Bake Shop, my favorite), and a trip to the Metal Museum. It's been a lovely week.

Published on: November 8, 2016

Election Day

It's election day, and I walked around the corner to vote. I saw neighbors, I bought iced brownies at the bake sale that's always there (which means I never vote early unless I'm gong to be out of town), and now I'm going to get back to making art.

Published on: June 22, 2016

Yorktown and Williamsburg

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 also sketched quickly in the Yorktown graveyard. I'm a sucker for old cemeteries, and the side of this raised grave was both beguiling in design and covered with colored lichen.

We moved on to Williamsburg after that, and I enjoyed walking through the village. I was especially drawn to the gardens there. This tree branch echoed the curve of the gateway into the churchyard and completely beguiled me.

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.

Published on: June 17, 2016

Markers

I had such fun the other night on a panel discussion at Crosstown Arts on art and travel, two of my favorite things. I flipped through a bunch of old sketchbooks getting ready and realized that I haven't been using markers lately, and I've also been using much less text and narrative in my sketchbooks. Both of those add texture and depth, so I'm going to try to move back in that direction. Here's my first marker sketch in a while.

Published on: May 24, 2016

Memphis Hebrew Academy

I got to visit an art class this week at Memphis Hebrew Academy. It was delightful to watch the girls' enthusiasm as they leafed through my art journals. I took a bunch of my journals and travel sketchbooks and talked about what keeping these books means for my work and also my happiness. More and more I feel that my job is to spread the good news of keeping a sketch book and show the ease of using a brush pen in daily life. It's a rewarding thing to watch people think, "hey! I can do this!" That also happened recently at a women's retreat. Giving people the tools to express themselves and watching them play is a beautiful compliment to the time I spend at home alone making my own art.

The MHA art teacher Chany Fleischhacker wrote a blog post with more of her lovely photos at http://artbeatofmha.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-visit-from-martha-kelly.html?m=1

I so appreciated the joy in these images.

Published on: April 11, 2016

Press Box

I got to go do an illustration of the Redbirds game for the Memphis News, which won't be published till next week, so I can't show it. My editor gave me the press pass, though, and said I could also go up to the press level and sketch from there. So after I did my main illustration, I decided to enjoy myself by doing a little sketchbook work from the press box. So exciting to be up there watching the announcer work. Plus they had cookies. And a great view.

Published on: March 2, 2016

Lincoln

I'm in Lincoln and Concord today, and the history is breathtaking. Everything is so much older than down south. The trees are equally stunning. There's a proliferation of beeches here, and I'm a total sucker for them. And then there's this gorgeous one outside the Lincoln library, which is in itself gorgeous.

The cemeteries look different too. Our ones are replete with Victorian monuments. Here they are lovely-shaped slate headstones with interesting and different relief carvings. I did this one as the front piece for my travel sketchbook.