After crazy cold weather and a sprained ankle it was really good to meet my friend Christina for lunch and sketching. We had a catch up and a burger and then moved out into the sunshine on the plaza outside Crosstown to draw. It was chilly and a bit windy, but the sun helped, and it felt good after being cooped up so long. I did the pretty complex top scene, sitting and chatting and going back in to fiddle a little more. It's in my favorite Diamine golden brown ink. I'm finally back in a sketchbook that takes my fountain pens again and really enjoying that. This one is water soluble, so you can see that it melted into the paint a bit. I put some of the lines back after painting, but I also like the looseness of that melt.

I also did this super not flattering sketch of Christina. I'm trying to get back into drawing people more again, especially since I'm really enjoying illustration these days. But I tried to catch her smiling and instead did something truly awful with her mouth. So I'm going to post a second older one with it, a fast line sketch, that I think does capture more of her beauty.

I went down to pick up Henry afterwards and was a little early, so I ran through a fun little grocery by the river and then just sat in my car and did this sketch of a couple of trees that caught my eye (of course). A really good sketching day.

Y'all, what a great week. Memphis Magazine published a truly glowing article about my book that meant so much. Jesse Davis saw what I was trying to do with my art and put it into words better than I ever could have. I'm so grateful. You can read it on their site here. My only regret is that I wasn't smart enough to think of the name Memphabetical for the book itself.

And I mean... "And what beautiful pages they are — Kelly’s paintbrush seems to capture Memphis on those rare and perfect spring days. The Southern sun shines off the glass storefront of A. Schwab on Beale Street and the stained-glass windows in the historic Clayborn Temple. Deep-green shadows pool beneath magnolias at Elmwood Cemetery, seeming to suggest quiet contemplation. Kelly’s artwork is dazzling, and she has trained her eye to look beyond the first thing she notices. In her hands, Memphis is seen lovingly and honestly."

Also this, so exactly what I hoped people to feel, but again, in better words: "The book does not set out to tell some imagined definitive “true story” of Memphis; rather it reads like a series of postcards sent to a close friend. It’s Kelly’s attempt to show the reader Memphis as she sees it, to show what she loves about this multifaceted city by the mighty Mississippi."

So many thanks to Willy Bearden for taking the photo at the top JUST before Memphis Magazine asked for one to use. I didn't have a current one I was happy with and was thrilled to get this one. It's from the Burke's Books signing party back in December. They even did the chalk board specially for me! Here are a couple of less high quality snaps, including one of me and my dad, but I'm in good memories mode this week with the article coming out.

Also this week Channel 5 news saw my book at Dabbles (shout out to Debbie for my best hair cuts, dog love, and her unstinting support of my work) and asked for a feature interview. I met Taylor Tucker at Crosstown and had a lovely chat, which she boiled down into this feature on last night's news:

I'm continuing to give myself a slower January after the show craziness of Winter Arts. I'm cleaning my house some to get it pleasant again and doing a bit of print shop reorganzation, but I'm also trying to keep my sketching game going. I did another cold weather sketch on my dog walk yesterday, again just using pencils and crayons without getting out all the paint things. I'm kind of hoping this cold weather training will get me used to being out so I can sketch in the snow tomorrow. I never really want snow -- I like to walk out in the world without worrying about slipping -- but it is quite lovely visually. We'll see if I have the intestinal fortitude to sketch outside tomorrow. Watch this space...

I delivered books to the Shelby Farms gift shop yesterday and took the opportunity to walk in a different park. There is a pair of small lakes I love from previous bike trips out there, so I headed that way. It was super cold but also a little sheltered back off the main area, and I took my sketching pack just in case. I'm trying to sketch more this month. I ended up doing two quick ones. I didn't take time to get paint out, just used the Inktense pencils with water brushed over the top (which is why that purple in the background is so vivid -- I would have mixed it down a bit in paint). But fun to try to catch the essence of a spare scene quickly. My second sketch was a tunnel of privet. I really love a tree tunnel, and though I generally dislike privet as an invader that causes a lot of trouble in natural places, I was charmed by the tunnel anyway. I remembered the crayons this time to get a little more blocky color in still without getting out paints.

Memphis Urban Sketchers met inside Crosstown today, a converted old Sears distribution tower that calls itself a "vertical village." It's a wonderful community space with lots of indoor vistas on a chilly January day. I had seen and loved the red tree in the Crosstown Arts area and was glad to see it still up -- I like it when people celebrate the whole season of Christmas and not just a single day. Henry and I settled there for a while to do a fairly intricate and layered space with the tree front and center. Afterwards we moved out to chat with friends, and the graphic orange restroom sign caught my eye, so I did it quickly before our meet up.

After more chatting and lunch with Christina, Henry and I walked towards home. It's going to get crazy cold, and I got warm walking, so I decided to keep going to the park and take advantage of the last chance to sketch outdoors for a while. I hadn't drawn "my" tree in a good while. She's decayed a lot but is still lovely, so I camped out on a picnic table and did one good sketch before heading home to warm up. First Saturdays are always one of my favorite days of the month. I love our great sketching crew, and it's a lovely excuse to get out and draw for the sheer pleasure of it.

I keep thinking about food trucks lately, ever since I sketched one in Little Rock on my way to my mini museum tour. They're colorful (often) and interesting visually and fun. I had done a couple for the M is for Memphis book too. I'm not sure where this is going, but I want to get out, sketch a few, and sample their wares in the new year. I had sketched Byway Coffee briefly in the Winter Arts parking lot early in December, then they they showed up again in Overton Park. I went back from my walk to get my full sketching kit and did a color version.

I've been having fun sketching Christmas this year. One scene I had spotted on the way to the farm and been dying to do is Bartlett Wines & Spirits, above, with Santa and his reindeer on the roof. I was hoping I hadn't missed it with my stomach bug, so I raced out on Boxing Day and sketched from my car (cold but partly sunny). I had a ball. It's mostly Inktense pencils with watercolor on top.

A couple of days later I met friends at Dixon to see the exhibitions and do a little sketching. More Inktense, which I'm kind of on a roll with, plus neocolor crayons since you can't use paint in the museum.

We moved into the cafe for a while, and I switched back to ink and paint. I love this Kaweko Paradise Blue I found this summer, but I was frustrated with the overall sketch. Overworking it wasn't going to help, though, so I switched to a few fast people studies. I had fun doing tiny family sketches for my dad's present, and I think I might like to do some more illustrated memoir projects this year, so practice live is always good.

It's been a weird Christmas around here, and I haven't sketched or posted as much as I had planned. Winter Arts took a good bit out of me since I was low ebb anyway, and then I got the stomach flu last week. But I recovered enough to enjoy a low key Christmas and do at least a little sketching. I did get a smallish tree up, a Charlie Brown sort of cedar from my family farm, and I've really enjoyed it. It's the kind of tree my family has always had, lucky that we still have a farm to cut one on. I did a sketch of it before the bug got me. And coming back out of it, I managed (at the very last minute) to do this map of the same family farm for my dad for Christmas, putting in all our nicknames for specific places and tucking in several of our dogs and my favorite trees. That felt so good to do, and it's made me think about doing a bit more family sketching as a sort of scrap book.

Then today, still tired from the bug but upright and back on solid foods, I decided a good low key activity would be a little car sketching. I had been eyeing the Bartlett Wine & Spirits with Santa on the rooftop and the canary yellow building as I've been driving to and from the farm this past month. I was afraid Santa would disappear any day, so I drove out and sketched from my car and bought a bottle of wine for the new year. A very satisfying outing. I'm ready to get back to more regular sketching.

Before the stomach bug took me out of action for a few days, I had a great Saturday. I went to the farmers market early and snagged a parking space with a great view of the Flipside Asia food truck, my favorite one in town. Their yellow curry is my favorite, and I buy several at a time for the freezer. I've been jonesing to sketch more food trucks, and theirs, with that gorgeous big green dot, is one I had definitely wanted to capture. Sadly I closed my book too soon on a cold morning, which retards the drying, and the side got a little muddy. I'll probably take another run at it sometime. Frustrating when I was so happy just as I finished it, but there you go. Art out in the world has a life of its own.

Then later that day I met my sketching buddy Christina at Crosstown. They hang lights in the main atrium at the holidays, and it is gorgeous. I'd been eyeing the disco ball and wanting to try my hand. We got lunch from Global Cafe and carried it up several levels to a quiet table where we could drink in some sunshine and have a good catch up. Such pleasure. I ended up doing two sketches of the lights from different vantage points. I managed to leave my taller book in the car so I contented myself with the more horizontal format. It's good to mix things up sometimes, and it especially worked on the bottom sketch.

I've been doing so much show stuff lately that it was lovely yesterday to take a whole day for sketching and friends and art. Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Dixon yesterday, one of my very favorite places. It's been crazy cold this past week, but it was warmer today and very sunny. I found if I sat in the sun, it felt great to sketch and drink in the outdoors a while. I did the top sketch, a little labored but fun, chatting with one friend. Then I went inside to warm up as the sun shifted and had a great conversation on illustration with another friend in the cafe. I drew two more friends, and the paradise blue ink ran unflatteringly into their faces (which I should have left white given the ink I was using), but I loved the half done bookshelves behind the scene.

I had about fifteen minutes left to draw in one of the galleries, so it's wonkier than I would like (and I can't get the lovely muted teal color in pencil), and I added the left bit outside after we were breaking up but still chatting.

After THAT a few of us went back to midtown and ate takeout Golden India outside on the patio in the sunshine (I'm still reveling in all that time outdoors after some indoor days), and finally I sketched Henry on his favorite chair just before bed. I was totally going yesterday, and it felt great to just flat out draw. None of them are fantastic, but it all felt so good just to do.