I'd been looking through the window at the neighborhood cheese shop as I walked past, wanting to draw it. The other day was cloudy, and it didn't need a lot of sunlight to sketch, so I stood outside on the sidewalk and drew standing up. I'm still learning how to do that efficiently and well, but a jacket pocket of just the markers I needed helped.

It's a busy scene, and I'm not sure it worked great, but I had to try.

Then I headed for one of the indoor covered Victoria passages, hoping it would be warmer than outside. It wasn't, but I still had fun sketching in there.

Then on the way home I ran into a group called Jingle Django, playing Django Reinhardt style jazz. They also danced around while they played, which made them tricky to sketch, but I had to try. I also got their cd. Really good music and a nice end to the day.

I got behind again posting photos because of the time change. I kept getting home after dark and not being able to take a decent snapshot of my sketches. I'm also looking forward to the scanner at home, but this is as good as it gets on the road, and it's fun to post while it's all fresh.

I had a great Saturday. Rene Miller played with Dede Macchabee at the Marche d'Aligre. It's a neat old street market. Half food and half brocante, or flea market. I scored a table just behind them at the cafe and painted while drinking mint tea, made with real mint. One of the lovely treats here in Paris.

My cousin Jonathon Gilmer, currently at university in London and over for the weekend, came to the market to join me and listen. Afterwards we walked through the center, had falafel at one of the walk up stands in the Marais, and ended with hot chocolate from Angelina's, one of my favorite treats here.

Sunday I went to St. Sulpice. It's the church where Faure and Widor both played and composed for the marvelous organ. They usually have a half hour organ concert open to all between masses, but there was an extra long service going that morning, so I had to content myself with sketching the lions in the fountain outside instead.

Here's how the page looks together. I kind of like the effect, even though they're facing different directions. It's been fun to play with the sketchbook and see what works and what doesn't.

I did a sketch walking home in my neighborhood. This is Stabilo pens with water wash, markers on top, and watercolor in the sky. Probably my most mixed media attempt. I'm going to have to try more of these.

Two things I love about Paris are the art and the sense of full life and carnival right out on the sidewalk. In America, I'm a lonely pedestrian when I walk. Most of us are invariably sealed individually in our separate cars. In Europe, everyone walks, and life happens out in the street. Just this weekend, I've walked through markets, street markets, an art fair, multiple musical concerts, and past one steam punk performance art tricycle with whirligigs and dragons.

There was also a circus tent set up in Abbesses for a puppet show. The ticket was crazy expensive, or I'd have seen the show too, out of curiosity from my teenage puppeteer past, but I settled for painting the tent as a perfect metaphor for the street fair carnival.

I walked on up and over the hill of Montmartre with Sacred Coeur, and back home for an eclair.

Art being the other thing I really love here (I also should add food as a third in that triumvirate, after that eclair sketch), I was delighted that the timing worked for me to be here in time for the Hokusai retrospective at the Grand Palais. Having hit Matisse just right in London over the summer, I'm feeling remarkably lucky lately.

I fell in love with an exhibition of Japanese mid 20th Century prints at the Art Institue a couple of years ago. These prints are called Shin Hanga, and they are still my favorites, though they are much less well known than the 18th Century floating world era of Hiroshige and Hokusai. But the Hokusai show was breath taking. Lots of it was pen and ink as well as his well known prints of Mount Fuji. I loved seeing his work in hand drawn books, since I'm having such fun with a sketchbook this trip. It was nice to see books as a major art category.

I sketched in line outside waiting to get in, and then I did small sketches and took notes in the exhibition itself. The rooms were quite dark, to protect the delicate works on paper, and there was a huge crowd, so it was challenging to work. The notes are less legible than would be ideal, but these pages give you an idea of what I typically do in museums. I can't reproduce paintings, but looking at something long enough to draw it helps me remember it better and also deconstruct the composition or other elements I'm drawn to. It's a great learning tool.

Sunday was a glorious day here. Between the weather and just having too much fun with my sketchbook, I've only done a handful of finished watercolors this trip. I decided to do one of the Louvre to start the morning off, before the plaza got too crazy.

In other news, I discovered that a bakery halfway along my walk downtown (an hour or a little more, depending on where I'm heading) had the brilliant idea of joining pain au chocolat with an almond croissant, so now I don't have to choose. I ate that with a little tea as I sat on the edge of a fountain and considered my composition options.

Then I walked across the Seine to the Luxembourg gardens. I had really enjoyed painting some of the statues here last year, and I decided to revisit some of them with my sketchbook in a different style.

It was packed on a Sunday afternoon, and once again I enjoyed seeing everyone out, gathered together, and enjoying life.

I did an overview of the scene just for fun.

I finished by painting Sainte Genevieve, the patron of Paris. There's a lovely set of statues of strong women in history, most of them from the first millennia AD. I may need to go sketch more of them.

But the sun was out, I was tired, and so I decided to be utterly Parisian and just soak it up through my shoulders (and three layers) a bit before walking home. I had a beautiful time just sitting there and letting myself be happy.

I walked some different places yesterday. Truthfully I was looking for the bakery where I found fig bread last time I was here, but I seem to have misplotted it on my map. I'll have to do a little more research.

But I saw some new sights, including the funky sculpture above and the equally funky bad relief of a naked woman on the side of an apartment building below.

I really liked the architecture of the building, and the sun came out after I'd done the black and white, so I decided to stay and do a quick second one in color.

Then, of course, it started pouring, and the day became less productive. I took shelter in the Galleries Lafayette department store and sketched from their cafe window out into the grey city. Got the Eiffel Tower a little wonky, though.

The weather was better walking home, so I stopped and sketched a fountain at the end of a cul de sac that I always admire. It feels like a welcoming place tucked away out of traffic.

I ended with a quick sketch of evening clouds from the window. It was a good day in spite of squalls, and I enjoyed seeing some new spots.

Opera Memphis continues to do opera outside the box under director Ned Canty. I think this is the third year they've done "30 Days of Opera,' popping up and doing free bits of opera at the dog park, along the parkway during rush hour, at an arts fair, really just about anywhere. Today they were out at WKNO, our local public radio station. They did an hour's worth of opera on the patio at lunch hour, broadcast on the radio, of course, and invited folks to show up with their lunches to listen. I love sketching at music events, and I've been working hard to put together my 2015 calendars and prep for fall shows, so I decided I was due just a fun sketching break and went out. Plus I love seeing all the 'KNO folks as well as Ned. I got a ton of hugs, did some fun  sketching, and enjoyed breaking away from my computer for a while. Thanks to both organizations for a neat event!

I've spent several days printing prints that were mostly finished and just needed tweaking as well as doing computer work. Both of these are necessary (the computer work is putting together two calendars for 2015 -- a Memphis one and an England one), but neither is particularly creative. So by 9:00 last night, I was ready to just be a little creative.

I sketched my favorite banjo and my banjo playing chair -- one of my happy places. And, of course, I sketched Mr. Darcy. Again. He's so handy, right on the sofa with me.

Tonight I'm knocking off, and it's only 8:30. Maybe I can manage a little more sketching....

I had such fun with the Stabilo felt tip pen sketches at First Congo on Sunday that I've been doing a few more. I sketched Mr. Darcy on the couch with me last night. He's an agreeable model, and I find him quite handsome as well....

I did another couple of sketches today as we were waiting for the vet for his annual check up.

None of these achieved the depth I really liked in the First Congo sketches, but they're also much closer up as well. There's just not as much depth in the subject.

I also revisited my favorite of the First Congo ones and added just a little bit more wash, going up higher on the page and distinguishing the banners from the space behind. On the left is the original version, and on the right is after I had tweaked it a bit. I want to get out and do some more cafe/landscape/bigger space sketches like this...

First Congregational, universally and affectionately called "First Congo," invited the Memphis Urban Sketchers to draw during their worship service this morning and show our sketches at the back of the sanctuary afterwards. They have a ministry position devoted to the arts, ably filled by Mary Button, and they change art installations regularly. We were invited to celebrate the beginning of a season where they focus on the creative spirit of God.

It was a neat invitation, and I enjoyed walking in and seeing so many friends and neighbors there. We sang a couple of neat hymns and had a lovely table service, and otherwise I concentrated on my drawings. I did one longer term watercolor and then did several quicker pen sketches.

I think I mentioned that I got some advice from Tom Pellett yesterday at our meeting, and I worked on implementing it today. I've been lukewarm about my marker sketches, even though I love his and like the idea of the quickness and ease (compared to setting up a full watercolor kit). Tom suggested I use the wash to pick out the lines around the edges of things -- not to fill in the entire drawing with tone. So I played with that in the sketches below and was excited about the results. I'll have to do some more people studies before I go cold again. He also makes me want to sketch in the Metro next time I'm in Paris. I may have to get up my nerve and try that.

I moved back more to watercolor the last few days. It was raining off and on Friday, but I manages to find a couple of protected enough places to paint. One was the Carnavalet museum garden, where I could be under a covered walkway with a great view of the mix of formal boxwood with kitchen garden plants --- tomatoes, beans, and cabbages. Utterly charming.

I also went back to paint the fountain at the Place des Voges after doing a couple of marker sketches there earlier. It was drizzling slightly, but the thick tree arbors there gave me plenty of protection for painting.

I included a halfway done picture of this one. It shows what has been so hard for me about watercolor. For years in pastels and even in oils, I could do the entire background in the dark colors and then just pull the white of the fountain on top.

With watercolor, I have to be very conscious right from the beginning about where the water is and leave it completely clean as I'm working. It takes a lot of concentration, and there's no real recovery from a mistake. But I'm having fun with the watercolors, and their compactness is just marvelous for traveling, so it's been worth learning the mental shift.

On Saturday I had the marvelous treat of hanging out with Rene Miller and Stephen Harrison as they played music all afternoon. They set up just beside a Left Bank cafe, and I scored the table right next to Stephen and his bass. So I had the comfort of a chair and table to work at while I listened to the guys play their excellent music. A perfect afternoon. I did one longish watercolors and a couple of quick sketches of the guys playing.