I'm in Concrete, WA, again painting and working on some illustrations as well as having a little much needed vacation time. I started the trip off well with lots of tea. Since I left 73 degree weather for 37 degree weather, it seemed called for.

5b's bakery here is delightful and does a pot of tea just right, which is rare. They also have a quite lovely cinnamon roll, and it's a beautiful place to sit.

It's been rainy, but I got some landscape sketches in today as research for the book illustrations I'm working on. I'll post them when I get them scanned in. In the meantime, I also visited Sauk Pottery, a local potter who uses enormous wood fired kilns that hold 300 pieces each. Just amazing. Not surprisingly to anyone who knows me, I also bought a tea cup.

My last day was more of an urban day than a park day. A bit of Christmas and bookstore shopping in Fairhaven and Bellingham, plus lunch in a tea shop. My tiered "afternoon tea" lunch, with finger sandwitches, fruit, and creme caramel, made me slightly ridiculously happy. The peach apricot tea was delightful as well.

There was a stunning sky color on the way in, and I had done one very quick sketch from the passenger seat of the car as we sped along. A good memory exercise. And a looseness one. I also sketched the tea cups before lunch arrived.

We came home by way of the coast road and stopped for me to sketch. I could definitely spend more time drawing this coast line. The simple shapes remind me a bit of the Mississippi river series of paintings I did some years ago. This trip made me want to paint water again, and I was glad for the practice doing that in watercolors. That's been hard for me.

Oddly, when I sat down to sketch my teacup this morning (below), I had completely forgotten the sketch I did yesterday at Cafe Eclectic. I took Mr. Darcy over for a spontaneous brunch, and we scored an outdoor table even on a Sunday morning. I was flipping back through my sketchbook with a flock of little girls on Saturday as I sketched at a fundraiser and realized that it's been going a while (six weeks in Paris slowed down the progression, since I always use a dedicated one for trips), and there are some cumulatively hard places in this one. There has been a lot of good art and friend time since I got home from Paris but also some tough places, and I'm quite glad for the chance to turn a fresh page and start a new book. It's nice that art offers me this opportunity, and the timing of end this book is helpful.

So this morning I did a new sketch in a new book of the teacup I got at the street flea market down south in Paris. I'd been meaning to sketch it and hadn't yet. I also got the spoon, which says "Amsterdam" at the Marche d'Aligre, my favorite brocante. And the cup perfectly fits a saucer I had made by my friend Melissa, so I feel surrounded by good memories as I drink my tea. Now I'm off to the forest with my new sketchbook.

I wrote about stars being the theme of the trip the other day. I've followed that up with a celebratory self portrait of myself in this space with the view of the sky I've so been enjoying. It's a little bit of magical thinking, since I can't actually see this many stars with the light pollution in Paris (and I think I could stand to thin a few out artistically anyway), but the Persieds are happening right now, and I do feel surrounded by stars this trip.

I'm actually doing a series of self portraits this trip. I do them in occasional spurts, not as a steady part of my work. They usually pop up when I'm feeling especially self reflective. I set a goal for myself to think some things through this trip, and I'm not actually getting very far with that (too much painting and socializing both), but perhaps there is some self examination going on at a deeper level since the self portraits keep popping out, although many of them are in teapots.

First here is the original star self portrait, done a little bit after Vincent and the portrait he did with stars in the background. This one made me want to do the more full view one tonight.

Now the teapots.

Above is this year's teapot self portrait at the cafe at Marche Aligre. Last year's was less fully formed, but still visible with me in a red halter top. It's one of my favorite sketches from last year because of the happy memories woven in.

I'm not sure the teapot ones really count as that self reflective, since I also adore painting tea things, but the volume is a little telling. We'll see. Sometimes I also use them to mark a really good day or place, as I did with last year's. I may just be on a spurt right now. But sometimes my art brain is picking up on things faster than my conscious one does, as happened with that dancing series I did last year. Art is always hardwired into the deepest parts of who I am.

Aside from the enormous window, my favorite thing about the new place this summer is its proximity to Luxembourg Gardens. It is such a luxury to wander over, paint a while, and then wander home for tea and lunch afterwards. I'm also enjoying walking home through them and stopping to savor the evening sunshine.

I love how Paris, and so many places in Europe, invite people out to be in community. Americans tend to stay sealed up in their homes with their air conditioning and televisions. Paris goes out to play. I pass people in the parks playing ping pong and bocce ball (or whatever the French equivalent is), having picnics, renting remote controlled sailboats in the big fountains, reading, chatting, eating ice cream. It's lovely. Everyone comes out to rub shoulders.

You don't too often talk to strangers, but I had a lovely happening the other day. It was a little chilly, and I was huddled up painting. An older man came over to look at my painting and chat for a minute, and he ended up asking if he could bring me a tea or coffee. It was so unexpectedly kind. He was there just reading his paper but was excited about my art. I accepted and then did him a quick sketch as a thank you. We were both pleased and touched. I also appreciated the chance to talk about parks as well and practice my French a bit. He was very patient with me and only had to translate a couple of things I didn't understand. That was lovely.

Below is the journal sketch that led to the painting above. I moved around a bit in the final painting to get a more dynamic composition.

I'm doing a mix of watercolors for my fall show and journal sketches. In love having a journal of the trip, so it's worth the time that way. I've also found myself making prints from images I wouldn't have thought of for finished art because I have a sketch I like in my journal that keeps calling to me.

I've been sharing the more finished work here lately, so here are a bunch of journal sketches from the last few days.

After a full Monday off, I dived in on Tueaday and did two exhibition watercolors (as opposed to journal sketches). The first was a funky cafe in the neighborhood that caught my eye on my first trip here. It was a fairly complex scene and took a while, so I was happy I'd found a cafe table in the shade across the street to paint at. When I was finished I did a quick journal sketch of my tea things. They had a delightfully deco set.

I walked on to Luxembourg gardens and had lunch there while sketching the next scene. The clouds moved into a nice formation, so I set aside lunch temporarily to catch them before they moved.

With two paintings done, I treated myself to a nap before going to see my friends play music. I sketched there too, of course.

I didn't really do them justice this time. Here's what they really looked like. I can try again next Tuesday.

After a few lovely painting days it was back to clouds and rain. And cold. So I've been a wimp and have been doing some sketching around home.

I hadn't sketched my teapot this trip, and it's always fun to do. I also had a request to sketch the fondant I love, and who am I to disappoint, especially when the request involves acquiring baked goods?

I did one of my home away from home, including my wooly slippers that I have been wearing almost nonstop this trip.

And finally I painted Square Leon-Serpollet, the lovely local park that is currently ablaze in tulips.