It's been a busy show week here. My show got on the walls at Eclectic Eye and will be there until January 3rd, and we had a lovely opening thrown for us by the EE folks. I haven't had anyone throw me an opening where I didn't have to lug my own wine and snacks over in ages, with the one notable exception of Dixon a couple of years ago (which was such another category of exhibition that it almost doesn't count, but in an amazing sort of way). So it was a great evening. But with the framing and hanging and publicizing and tag making and all the other stuff you do around a show, I made very little art this past week. So it was marvelous to get out Saturday morning with the Memphis Urban Sketchers and just draw and see people.

I tend to get carried away and do a WHOLE WATERCOLOR PAGE most of the time in my sketchbook. I was feeling (maybe leftover from inktober) the urge to be a little more minimal and a little more line oriented this time, so I tried hard to restrain myself.

It was a misty, drizzly morning, and it felt a lot like sketching in Paris or Washington State. I spent a lot of it under my umbrella, balancing that as I sketched, and you can see how the rain drops caught me anyway in the last sketch. I was so impressed that we had a good group of folks coming out on such a morning.

I will have two calendars this year, and they're being set up by the printer right now. I'll have some at my fall shows (Paris watercolors at Playhouse on the Square in November/December, at the Pink Palace Crafts fair, and at my open studio show with Melissa Bridgman Dec. 10-11), but I don't order too many extras. If you know for sure you'd like one, your best option is to pre-order online through my Square store so yours gets included in the order to my printer. They're 8.5x11" and $18, just like last year. You can order for shipping or to pick up, but please only use the pick up option if you're planning to come get one at one of my shows or in midtown Memphis. Orders are open right now and will affect how many I order to be printed.

Here is the full set of images (all new and all done on site ) from this year's My Memphis Calendar:

And here are all the Paris images, again all done this year sitting on the sidewalk, or, when I was very lucky, at a cafe table with a little tea.

I got in at dinner time last night, slept heavily, and had an art show to go to today. I have no room to complain, since my heroic potter friend Melissa Bridgman did all the work. Our work shows well together, and she wanted to split a booth even though I wouldn't be home yet. So she hauled down all my work, set it up, and manned the booth for the weekend. What a great friend.

I did this sketch this afternoon as I was finally watching the booth so she could go be heroic for someone else. My friend Christian Stanfield of the Side Street Steppers had speakers set up down there for his wind up gramophone dj show, and he ended up with a bee swarm inside one of them. Melissa also happens to be a beekeeper, so she went home to get her gear to try to help. I left them to it after we had the booth packed up and came home still in a jet lag haze. Hopefully I'll be more fully on top of things tomorrow.

The Memphis Urban Sketchers sketched at the fair on Saturday, and I was sorry to miss them. It felt good to do one quick one today.

My earliest is the last Stillman and Birns that I used. I like their paper a lot, but the 6x8 size is only in spiral bound, and scanning in sketches across that gap is challenging. Their bound sketchbooks open up to a pretty square format, and I really prefer a rectangle to work in. So this was my last hurrah for their books. The first half is the second half of my 2014 Paris trip, but I kept working in it on my return, and a good third of it was 2015. A couple of my favorites were a marker sketch of Mud Island and sketches of Mr. Darcy.

My first handbook journal, January to April, hooked me on their books. They're a great size to fit in my purse, take water media nicely, and even have a small pocket in the back for museum tickets and other momentoes. This was my hands down favorite page from that one.

I also got back to Shakertown in Kentucky, one of my favorite places to sketch.

During that period I also went to Amsterdam and spent a week sketching both the city and inside the museums.

And then on to Paris for one utterly beautiful week. 

Finally, I'm two thirds of the way through the small handbook I started in October. Sketching ground mostly to a halt during my really busy pre-Christmas season, but I got over the Dixon at the end of the holiday to sketch my show, which was the single biggest moment of my career.

I also (always) continue to sketch my beloved Mr. Darcy.

Memphis has a great public radio station that does something unique in my experience (and I listen to a lot of NPR as I travel). Every single day and usually twice a day, they have a short program called Checking on the Arts. They interview artists, actors, musicians, people putting on fairs and booking concert halls, anyone doing something artistic in Memphis. Lots of stations get occasional bands into the studio, but no one I've heard has daily features that include visual artists as well. As a listener, I've gone to a number of plays I might not have, once I've heard the director or actors talking about the production, and I hear about lots of things I want to get out and do.

As an artist, it is gold. Especially since I've gone solo and don't have a gallery doing publicity for me, it is a beautiful thing to have a station willing to put me on the air and let me talk to the city.

And they do an amazing job. I got in this time, and Darel Snodgrass had a printout about my new show sitting on his desk already. He always does research ahead of time, asks great questions, keeps things moving along, covers everything that needs to be announced (challenging this time, because I have a lot on this year), and he does it all with warmth and enthusiasm. Here is this week's interview about Dixon, MTS, my holiday sale, and more....

My week has mostly been prep for my Dixon exhibition. Work is due a week from tomorrow, so I've been working on getting final prints and framing. But I took a break to join the Memphis Urban Sketchers at the historic Elmwood Cemetery, one of my favorite places to go sketch. Because we were outside, Mr. Darcy could join me, which is always a treat, and it was fun to catch up with my friends after my recent travels.

After sketching a remnant of us went to lunch. The group kindly agreed to eat outside on the patio so Mr. Darcy and I could join them. We ate at Tart, and they immediately brought out a bowl of water for Mr. D, which won me over. And the beet/goat cheese salad was lovely.

The Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the Memphis Farmers Market yesterday. I am having a crazy busy week, but I decided to take time to go see some of my people, and I was very glad I did. It was fun to catch up with everyone after my trip, and I always enjoy drawing down there.

I did a good bit of printing, calendar work, and board cutting in between, but I also went for the second and third sets of Le Tumulte Noir playing at Huey's tonight. They're an incredibly talented across the board gypsy jazz group, and I even got a little surprise swing dancing when I happened to sit next to a few dancer friends. Such a perfect way to spend an early Sunday evening. They gu

The guys are really fun to sketch and very nice about my doing it.

The Memphis Urban Sketchers met in the Peabody Hotel on Saturday. I had the realization driving down that calendar time is coming rapidly for me, at least given my upcoming travels, and I don't have enough new Memphis pieces to really flesh out a new calendar. So I found a table and chair in the mezzanine, overlooking the main lobby, and did a bit more detailed and finished watercolor than I've been tending to do in my normal art journal lately. It was fun, but I bit off a good bit with this one. It's a kind of overwhelming place. But it's good to challenge myself sometimes.