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 also did a quick sketch at Sunday lunch. It's very, very rapid, but I wanted to mark the occasion and remember the good company. Just a fast sketch in my art journal will bring back good memories later on.

At the top is my batch of color proofs from today. I always hang them up on the door of my print shop to stare at and get some distance from. The middle photo is the first proof I pulled yesterday, and at bottom you can  see the bottom layer plus the second block and the journal sketch I was working from.

I tend to say hello to places by sketching them. This is the door where Vincent van Gogh lived with his brother Theo near my "regular" neighborhood in Montmartre. I buy my meusli across the street and always say hello. I went by while I was up in the area and felt the need to sketch it again. This time a sweet older man came out of the door just as I was finishing up. There are always tour groups stopping outside, and the residents must be unbelievably sick of it, but he came to see my sketch and asked if he could take a photo. Then he asked if I'd ever been inside and if I would want to. He so kindly backtracked, opened that magic blue door, and ushered me into the courtyard beyond. It leads to a small alley between two walled gardens, and there are several more buildings that back up together in there. It's this lovely, quiet, secret spot.

We turned around to see the back of the house, and he pointed out Vincent's third floor window with the closed shutters. I wanted to sketch in there too but didn't feel I could ask. It was so kind of him to offer this to one more tourist camped outside his door. I was really touched.

I've been continuing the self portraits here, in a range of ways. Above are my feet as I sit and play banjo, feet propped on the balcony and watching the world below.

That one made me want to paint my banjo spot too, just for happiness.

Hands down the best quote of the trip has been the startled guy at the bus stop after I materialized next to him in my completely silent boots. He blurted out, "You could be BATMAN!" I had to do a sketch to commemorate that moment. Who doesn't want to be batman?

I am still chasing stars this trip, and I happened to be walking past St. Chappelle when it was five minutes from opening and the line was quite manageable, so I went in on impulse. I had seen it three years ago when it was still being restored, so one whole side was blocked off. It was gorgeous to see the full array of windows open to the light. They even had chairs, so I could sit and paint comfortably. A luxury.

I love the floor tiles as much as the windows, and in one magic moment magic moment, I looked down at one floor tile and saw my beloved first dog Dougal. He was the most utterly joyful dog I have ever known, and if I was down, I would take him to the park and watch him frolic with butterflies. He was a long, lean, red Doberman shelter guy, completely unscarred by his precious life. I always called him my angel because he taught me to notice and appreciate the everyday delight. I absolutely love that there was a Dougal in Medieval times as well. Maybe he really was an angel.

I was a little drawn out by then, but I also loved the whimsical carved animals on the west door portals. What a stunning place in so many beautiful details. (Not to mention a stunning rose window based on Revelation, which always sparks my artistic imagination.)

The skies have been amazing here. Both the real ones and the painted ones in the Orsay. I wrote earlier about the Redon portraits with fantastical clouds as backgrounds, and the magical realism is still speaking to me. I've always loved Redon, but that's never been my style. I decided I just had to try my own cloud portrait, though, having already done a starry background one after the Van Gogh portrait I love in the Orsay.

I'm not sure where, if anywhere, I'll go with this series, but it feels really good to get outside of my regular work and have the time and creative space to try something new. It's a huge gift to get away from the business side of things (packaging, framing, shows, deadlines) and have time to purely create art and listen to the voices inside. I'm so grateful for this chunk of creative time in Paris. And having the Orsay as a neighbor has deeply enriched the experience.

I might be almost done, but no promises. I really have enjoyed this simple shape rising above the city and against the sky. I'm also enjoying the challenge of finding visually new ways to portray it.

Here it is with my regular Saturday market.

I went out sketching with Paris based Urban Sketcher Yves Damin today. I love that this group brings people together. Yves wrote it up so nicely for the facebook Urban Sketchers group that I'm just going to quote him here.

"Dear fellow sketchers, here is the kind of a fantastic meeting between sketchers : last week as I was rollerskating through Paris (my favourite way to travel though the city ;-), I spotted a young lady sketching on the pavement around Montparnasse. I asked her if she was a urban sketcher and she replied "yes" enthusiatly. Her name is Martha Kelly and she is coming from Memphis, Tennessy. So I contacted her a bit later and organized with her a morning a sketching session, just her and me around St-Germain-des-Prés. We showed each other sketchbooks around a cup of coffee (strong black tea for Martha to be precise ;-) . Then we decided that it was enough chatting, and time to work ! So we came on the Pont des Arts which give an amazing view above the river Seine. Believe me or not, I had forgotten my watercolor set ! Never mind, Martha kindly shared her painting, so we sketched together, chatting nicely about how it is to sketch in the USA or in France, about our lives, our techniques, and so on. It was a very nice morning, emulating. That's what is really cool about Urban Sketchers, isn't it ? And, would you guess what I did after this sketching session ? 30 km of intense rollerskating through Paris ;-) lol !"

Here is Yves's sketch from the morning. You can see more of his lovely work at www.lexposition.fr

We started a second sketch together, but the rain caught up with us. I finished it later in the afternoon after I spent the rainy period in the Musee d'Orsay.

I've spent a couple of really lovely cloudy afternoons in the Musee d'Orsay lately. I absolutely love doing small sketchbook studies from paintings that move me. I use my tiny mint tin watercolor kit and a water brush to keep from having an open cup of water in a musuem. It's let me really paint from the art, and I'm so grateful.

Above is Whistler's portrait of his mother. I'd seen reproductions and spoofs of this piece for years without really paying attention to it. Then I came around the corner, and it absolutely gobsmacked me. So powerful in person.

Below is a quite large Maurice Denis. I love the composition and how the ground spreads out toward the viewer, giving you a birds eye view and inviting you in.

This is one in the surrealist section, where I spent most of my time the other day. I had to go back and paint it today. It's by Alexander Harrison, born in Philadelphia and died in Paris. This one really struck me for its quietude.

Here are a couple of others I did earlier that didn't fit with my cloud or nocturn posts that I put a couple of studies in. The first is the third Odilon Redon study I did. I love his ethereal, otherworldly pieces. Similar to Chagall, but much more lovely to my eye. This one of Caliban seemed whimsical and appealed to my Shakespearean upbringing.

Finally here is a Vuillard. I've really fallen in love with him during my time at the Orsay. This is a quite large tempera painting that was done as a decorative panel for a tea room. I love the sketchy indistinctness of it, as well as the glowing sense of light in the original that I didn't manage to capture here.