I was having such a lovely and non stop social life that I forgot to post sketches from Saturday morning. My visiting friends came with me to hear Rene and Stephen play outside a cafe at the Marche d'Aligre. It's my favorite market in Paris, and I love getting to hear the guys play there. I can sit and have tea and listen and sketch. It's perfect.

Of course, I only get the back view of the guys, but I still love it.

Last year I did a self portrait in the shiny teapot. Here is this year's version.

Later that day I did one quick sketch at dinner with Chrissie and Ella. We had a beautiful celebratory dinner, fancier than I ever do on my own, and I so enjoyed the sense of occasion with them. Sharing this time in Paris. Just marvelous to have them here to experience it with me. Ella's trip at 16 is reminding me so much of the trip I had at 17 with my grandmother. It's a beautiful way to teach young people to step out into the world and fully live, and I was so delighted to be able to see it from the other side, especially with such exceptional company.

It was a cloudy day yesterday, so I decided to do an indoor painting I'd had in my mind. I did a couple of journal sketches of Les Nymphees last time I came to Paris and decided I'd like to do one for the fall show as well. It's a stunning place to sit and paint for a while.

I moved to the other side of the room to do a quick journal sketch afterwards, and I met some lovely people in the process. An elementary school teacher with a small flock of students asked if she could show them my work, so she talked a bit, and I got to practice my French with the kids.

As that was happening, a budding young artist from Wisconsin was looking on and very interested, so I offered him my sketch journal (carnet de voyage in French, as the teacher was saying) to look through. He sat for ages, asked me questions about various ones, talked about the museums he'd seen here (he's just spent a year in Spain with his family), and promised to send me a drawing or two of his own. That meant a lot. I love seeing young people excited about art, and his dad was really supportive. I was lucky that way too.

I took a late afternoon/early evening walk after the museum, which felt great. First I stopped and sketched from my favorite bridge over the Seine (pedestrian with benches, so nicely quiet except the guy hawking the padlocks that sadly damage the bridge as they're left by tourists) and then sketched a couple of statues on the way home. One in a gallery window and one in Luxembourg gardens. I keep sketching this one. I find that one of the ways I say hello to "old friends" is to sketch them again as I return.

I had such a lovely day yesterday! I went to the Bastille market with my visiting for the weekend friends Chrissie and Ella, who have been having a marvelous mother/daughter adventure. I was so honored to get to be a part of a small piece of it. They are fabulous company. We wandered and shopped and took in the scene and met new people. A new sketcher friend may join me this Tuesday at La Liberte to hear Rene Miller play. She was sketching the guys (also Stephen Harrison on bass) as I was. A nice mother daughter duo from the states that Chrissie and Ella started talking to may come as well.

We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe after the market. And then later I was lucky enough to be invited to Camille's home to jam and have home cooked galettes (savory crepes). Camille is the excellent banjo player from the Cuckoo Sisters who made me so welcome last weekend. An American banjo player also came as well as a couple of the other band members (a couple are out traveling on holiday now). It was such fun to get to play tunes, and Camille had a bass for me to play as well as my banjo, which was great fun.

I was honored to be included and am delighted to be getting to know more of the rich music community here in Paris. Once again I was too busy playing
music to sketch during tunes, but I did sketch Camille's gorgeous cat, even though I didn't do her justice.

I'm having a slow day today to recover from the nonstop socializing, but it was an utterly delightful weekend.

I'm staying in this glorious double story loft first built to house artists, and the sky views are amazing. I'd already been working on cloud studies for a couple of months, and this is the perfect place to do more. I keep stopping my meals to grab my paints and try to capture a fleeting sky.

Here's what the front window looks like. I got so lucky staying here just as I'm thinking about skies.

I also did a quick one in Luxembourg gardens on the way home last night.

Just across the street from me is Montparnasse cemetery. It doesn't have the overpass that so delights me in the Montmartre one, but it's a lovely place. This angel at the center of it caught my eye immediately.

On my way there, the scene below caught my eye as well. I had a happy morning painting there with lunch and tea quite close by when I was done. Perfect.

Dede Macchabée is one of the musicians I've gotten to know here, but she is also a painter. She so kindly invited me to come to her home and studio and shared her work with me. It was like stepping into a magical world. The first thing I saw was a blue tree trunk reaching to the ceiling and a swirl of stars overhead. It made me think of Walter Anderson's secret room he created with paint as his own retreat. My own home tends to suffer as I put time instead into my work, but Dede's is stunning. She makes me want to create an artistic space to live in.

She kindly let me take photos and also do a quick sketch, that doesn't begin to do it justice but will help me remember. I could paint a week in there.

We spent easily two and a half hours talking about art, travel sketching, music, and our creative habits as well as the business of being an artist. I completely lost track of time and feel like I have another new sister.

You can see more of Dede's paintings of the world she has created on her website at www.dedemacchabee.com

I was also lucky enough to get to sit in with Dede's old time band over the weekend. Unlike Memphis, apparently people pack a bar standing room only and whoop and holler for old ttime music. Amazing. I had a total blast and was delighted they asked me to join them. They even got me to sing Little Maggie as part of the set, and Dede's boyfriend Vincent was kind enough to film my Paris debut. It was a rush to get to play with such good musicians. You can see it at https://www.facebook.com/vincent.mandeville.1/posts/1213140115404171 if you're curious about this side of my life.

Here's an overall shot of the evening with the crowd reflected in the mirror. I look a little fierce singing about bluegrass's orginal badass wild banjo woman, but I like the photo overall.

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.

I've been in and out of this museum a bunch since I bought an annual pass. I'm greatly enjoying getting my money's worth out of it. I tend to pop in for one section or another, do a sketch or two, cruise by a favorite painting or two, and go do something else before wearing down. Today I did a sketch of the actual building (above). Here are some of the recent painting studies.

I adore how many paintings there are of women with their dogs. One reason I love this place, I'm sure. There's one room that has three by Vuillard alone. Many are small dogs, but I totally fell for this lovely large one.

Here's a delightful, loose Cezanne with a man and a dog. (I promise im not choosing these paintings purely because of the dogs.)

One of my favorite spots is the art nouveau section tucked away in the back corner. I've really fallen for Vuillard here, and there are lovely Rodins, a stunning Klimt, a Munch, and some beautiful Scandinavian art. As well as some stunning furniture, including this chair with bunny arms. I so want it!

The place I'm staying this summer is quite close to Luxembourg gardens, which is one of my favorite spots in Paris. My sister who used to live here talked highly of it before I came, and it is more peaceful and with many more books to retreat into that the very public Tuileries. It's also more visually diverse, so I'm enjoying spending more time there.

Technically speaking, the fountain above isn't part of Luxembourg, but it's on a spit of park that extends directly south. If parks and roads didn't change names every block, it would be part of the park.

Today I also did a couple of quicker, smaller sketches to try out some new ink. I found a lovely 19C art supply store near the gardens and finally bought a bottle of brown ink for my fountain pen. I've been wanting to try it a while, and with all the ochres and browns in Paris, this seemed like the moment.

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.