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I gave myself an art day out today after turning in the cover art for Memphis Magazine's February issue a couple of days ago. I know artists who are disciplined in their work hours and days, but I am not one of them. I work through a lot of weekend time but give myself days off while everyone else is at work (which is the nicest time to take them except for seeing friends who are off work on weekends). Also my time off is muddy anyway, as non artist friends have pointed out to me, since sketching is often part of a day out for me.
Elizabeth Alley was talking at Dixon on her art residency in the arctic circle, which was fascinating. I love the noon Wednesday lecture series because it gets it on my calendar to take a museum day. And I love vicarious travel and artists talking about their craft. A perfect excuse to get out. And it was great. I chose paradise blue ink to do some of the sketching in because it felt as appropriate for the chill of the subject matter as it does for the blue of the Caribbean. That was the one I spent the most time on, but then she got to her slide of a polar bear track, and I grabbed my tiny purse sketchbook to record that.
It's 70 degrees today and gorgeous, so after walking through the printmaking exhibit again I ordered a peach tea latte and a blueberry muffin to take out into the gardens. Day out indeed. The drink making is delicious but a little slow, so I sat down to wait and sketched the croissant in the case while I waited. That's my gamboge Windsor and Newton watercolor marker as color. I love their juicy, saturated markers.
Elizabeth Alley was talking at Dixon on her art residency in the arctic circle, which was fascinating. I love the noon Wednesday lecture series because it gets it on my calendar to take a museum day. And I love vicarious travel and artists talking about their craft. A perfect excuse to get out. And it was great. I chose paradise blue ink to do some of the sketching in because it felt as appropriate for the chill of the subject matter as it does for the blue of the Caribbean. That was the one I spent the most time on, but then she got to her slide of a polar bear track, and I grabbed my tiny purse sketchbook to record that.
It's 70 degrees today and gorgeous, so after walking through the printmaking exhibit again I ordered a peach tea latte and a blueberry muffin to take out into the gardens. Day out indeed. The drink making is delicious but a little slow, so I sat down to wait and sketched the croissant in the case while I waited. That's my gamboge Windsor and Newton watercolor marker as color. I love their juicy, saturated markers.
Sitting outside at Dixon feels a tiny bit like Paris. There are tables behind rows of pruned trees and boxwood hedges with a view through to a Rodin statue. It always makes me think of the sculpture garden at the Rodin museum just a little, and it's a happy place for me. Sometime I'll sketch that view, but Elizabeth's talk about drawing patterns on her trip stuck with me, and when I looked down at the table base, I drew that instead. I did a whole series of sketches of my black boots when I was traveling in Paris, so again it felt like a small flashback to good times. It was a truly excellent day out.
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After writing my last post with the yellow roses sketch, I realized I had never posted this one of peonies. I tend to treat myself occasionally when I see flowers on sale, and I'm a total sucker for peonies. I sketched them while watching tv last night. I did the line work in Inktense pencils and put watercolor on top. It's one of my favorite recent sketches.
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I had an energy crash at the end of the week, but fortunately I found roses on sale a few days ago at Fresh Market, so I have them to brighten my sofa retreat. Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence always gave his young fiancee May lilies of the valley, but he sent "glowing yellow roses" to the intelligent, divorced, bohemian Ellen Olenska. Ellen showed me an alternate path to the stifling social milieu of high school, and I periodically buy myself yellow roses to celebrate my life choices. I got a one month pass on HBO Max to watch the Gilded Age, which I've been wanting to see, so they feel doubly appropriate.
I made it to church for the first time in a while last week. Advent is my very favorite liturgical season, even though my church seems to have largely abandoned the plainsong Advent carols I love best. It was good to be back, and I sketched the church with its wreaths. (Presbyterians are a little unreliable on the liturgical seasons, and we've always decked the church the weekend after Thanksgiving even though it's weeks early. It does still look nice though.)
I made it to church for the first time in a while last week. Advent is my very favorite liturgical season, even though my church seems to have largely abandoned the plainsong Advent carols I love best. It was good to be back, and I sketched the church with its wreaths. (Presbyterians are a little unreliable on the liturgical seasons, and we've always decked the church the weekend after Thanksgiving even though it's weeks early. It does still look nice though.)
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I've slowed down on both sketching and posting this last month. I've been working on some print things and spending some family time, but here's a pair of at home sketches.
I continued my water soluble graphite streak with this one of Henry and my favorite lamp, plus some watercolor. I need to get back to this little series. I was having fun.
And this week my dear friend Jill came to tea and brought me late flowers from her own garden. I put them in a Japanese vase of my mom's and sketched them one evening with a British mystery for company. They're currently sitting on my coffee table making me happy. I love sketching flowers friends bring my because then I get that joy again later when I open an old sketchbook and remember that kindness so vividly.
And this week my dear friend Jill came to tea and brought me late flowers from her own garden. I put them in a Japanese vase of my mom's and sketched them one evening with a British mystery for company. They're currently sitting on my coffee table making me happy. I love sketching flowers friends bring my because then I get that joy again later when I open an old sketchbook and remember that kindness so vividly.
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I had a lovely sunshine-y brunch with two good friends plus Henry on Sunday, and afterward we came back to my place for them to help me eat chocolate cake and for sketching. I've been working to get my house better lately, and it felt great to have friends in enjoying it with me and making art together. I have grocery store tulips on my coffee table at the moment, and I love their ongoing shape changes. We all sketched the tulips, and Christina and I both sketched Elizabeth as well. Such a perfect afternoon.
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I was having a run around day a couple of weeks ago, and it was sunny and halfway warm for the end of January. I felt like stopping at my favorite deck and having a chai. I had just started a new sketchbook, back to my old favorite Handbook after trying something less satisfying, and I also had a new yellow watercolor marker. I did the sketch above with the watercolor and then did a second one of umbrellas and the sycamore across the street that I love. My fountain pens hadn't really worked on the paper in the previous book, so I'm enjoying getting back to them. And sketching a treat slows me down to both appreciate and remember it.
A couple of days ago I got my favorite Lucy J's bakery croissant at the farmers market and came home for second tea. I hadn't been sketching in a few days, so it was nice to take a slow Saturday morning and enjoy both the sketching and the croissant.
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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...
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I'm taking a second quick trip before the holiday sales start in earnest. Washington state is a little drizzly some days, but yesterday I caught a lovely sky walking across the boardwalk into Anacortes. It ended up being a perfect four mile walk that ended at Pelican Bay bookstore. I hit the Watermark bookstore too, for a New York Times, which I have to drive an hour for up here, so it was a pleasure to get the Sunday one for several days' worth of reading. I also hit an antique store on the way home and found a really beautiful set of bird china, cup and saucer, cream pitcher, and a sugar bowl with no lid, but it's perfect for setting the tea bags in after pulling them out of the pot, and I hated to strand it by itself. I've never seen china like this before, and it was just too lovely to leave. I did a celebratory sketch last night that got a little muddy (it's been good to get back to sketching after several turnaround days at home with lots of business to take care of), mostly because I chose a very bleed-y blue ink to start with, but it was still fun.
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It has been, as you may have gathered from previous posts, a scattered summer. The throughlines for me are always tea and sketching. There has been a lot of tea and not as much sketching as I would like, but here are a couple of recent-ish ones. The first is my travel teapot (unbreakable mid-century that I found at the late, lamented Cleveland Street Flea Market) along with two very recent finds from the Junior League thrift store. I had sealed up all my kitchen cabinets for the first flea treatment, not realizing how long the craziness would last. I treated myself to these two cups and saucers to make me feel more settled in out of the house and waiting for sanity to reassert itself at home.
The second sketch was the brief break I got to celebrate after uploading my first proofs of M is for Memphis. Henry and I went to Cafe Eclectic on a perfect day to have lunch on the patio and relax. Sadly this morning I'm struggling to upload the edited set of proofs. It worked great the first time and is hanging up today. The non art parts of my job are always the hardest, but worth it to do what I love. Maybe I'll earn another celebratory tea soon.
The second sketch was the brief break I got to celebrate after uploading my first proofs of M is for Memphis. Henry and I went to Cafe Eclectic on a perfect day to have lunch on the patio and relax. Sadly this morning I'm struggling to upload the edited set of proofs. It worked great the first time and is hanging up today. The non art parts of my job are always the hardest, but worth it to do what I love. Maybe I'll earn another celebratory tea soon.
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I've been a lot at home lately working slowly on the last couple of Rowan Oak prints and fighting a bit more long Covid fatigue. But this week I got out a couple of lovely times and hopefully am on the upswing again. Sunday Christina and I went sketching in the neighborhood, an old Masonic temple building that now houses a restaurant. The weather has been perfect, so that night I took myself out for a patio dinner of fish tacos and sweet potato fries with Henry and my book and sketchbook. My friend Chrissie says to always get the pink drink -- just have a celebration. So I did.
Then today after doing some errands with my Dad I still had energy to go see the new shows at Dixon. They're great. As I was heading to leave it started raining, and then it just poured. It was gorgeous, and there was a handy bench on the covered porch, so I settled in to draw and wait it out. I'm grateful to my friend Elizabeth, who started the Memphis Urban Sketchers, for training me to carry a sketchbook. I sometimes get caught without one, but I'm almost always glad when I have it along.
