Martha Kelly Art blog - MARTHA KELLY ART

Published on: July 2, 2016

More Painting

I've been painting again today. I'm still feeling rusty in oils. I had such fun doing this Parisian sky, but I'm not sure about the rest of it. I've brought it downstairs to stare at tonight and see if I can make up my mind about whether to do more and what else this one might need.

I feel better about the canvas below. I just finished it, well overdue to go to its forever home.

Published on: June 29, 2016

Oils

I've been diving back into oils this week. I have one painting that has languished on my easel for far too long. I was working on it when Dixon hit last year, and by the time that was all over, plus Christmas shows, I had just lost steam and momentum on painting. Prints continue to call my name, but lately I've been looking at skies, and I can't do them as well as I'd like in watercolor. I decided it would be fun to try some in oils, and it would give me something different for my fall show, since my last Paris show three years ago was all watercolors and prints. This one will be heavy on done-on-site watercolors as well, but I'd like a variety of work to go with them.

Plus, my early watercolors didn't have enough depth to paint from. These later ones have more shadow and layering and give me enough information to try a little painting. So I'm branching out again and trying to keep the brain fizz that comes from doing new things humming along.

Published on: June 22, 2016

Yorktown and Williamsburg

I had a historical kind of day on Saturday. I walked through both Yorktown and Williamsburg. It was fun to see the old houses and history, but once again, I notice that what I actually sketched are the trees. I have realized recently that one reason I like old places is that they also tend to preserve their old trees. I sketched the tree above on the fringe of the Yorktown battlefield.

Just for variety, I tried the bridge nearby as well, next the farmers market they have. I've been trying to work more in markers again, but this one wasn't particularly successful.

I also sketched quickly in the Yorktown graveyard. I'm a sucker for old cemeteries, and the side of this raised grave was both beguiling in design and covered with colored lichen.

We moved on to Williamsburg after that, and I enjoyed walking through the village. I was especially drawn to the gardens there. This tree branch echoed the curve of the gateway into the churchyard and completely beguiled me.

I finished with one more garden, somewhat hidden away, with a gorgeouly gnarled tree at its center. It was a lovely shady place to sit, and I couldn't resist sketching as well. Many thanks to my patient tour guide who hung out while I did all this. I was just on a panel at Crosstown Arts about art and travel, and one of my fellow artists said one key piece was to pick patient traveling companions and also make sketching just the thing that you do, so they know it's a part of who you are. Good advice all around. I tend to travel solo usually but am grateful to my periodic traveling companions who do end up being kind and patient while I sketch a bit.

Published on: June 21, 2016

Tidal Creeks

I am a total sucker for sawgrass. I got to hike in two Virginia parks over the weekend that featured water snaking through sawgrass, ospreys, herons, eagles, crabs, dragonflies, and sunshine. Both parks also had gorgeous forests, but since I get to do forest sketching at home, I focused on the more exotic (to me) scenes.

Published on: June 8, 2016

Printmaking week

I finished the three day process to a second proof of the phlox forest today, and I'm largely pleased. There's a little glare on the photo. The black will be black in person. And I have to clean up color in the path a little, but it's about ready to pull some final prints.

I'm also sketching out a new small travel print of the Rodin Museum from my sketchbook work I did while I was there. I'm having fun doing the travel prints with the deco lettering again.

And I also had a lovely discovery this week. I tested the first of these small prints on my big Chandler and Price press. When I first got it, I couldn't get art prints right, just note cards, and I just gave up and moved on. It would be lovely to have the quickness of printing of the production press for these smaller and simpler ones, though, and with my increased familiarity by now, I got it to work on my proof. I'm excited about the possibilities and will have to get some paper cut and just go for it soon.

Published on: June 7, 2016

Second Proof

I pulled a second proof of the Sacre Coeur print today after refining a good bit. I need to do a bit more work on the stairways, and I don't think the small trees alongside them are working visually, so I may just simplify and take them out all together. It's getting close to what I had hoped, though.

I'm also working on a second proof of the phlox block, but since that's three colors and three layers, it's taking three days. Tomorrow I can put the third and final layer on and see how everything is lining up for that one. I'm about ready to start on a new trip print while I'm fiddling with the last stages of these two.

Published on: June 4, 2016

New Prints

I'm finally getting this phlox print to the full proofing stage. I started it before my trip to Paris, and it's taking a while to get it together, especially since I came home with other prints in my brain. Above is the first full, three layer proof. I missed some tree trunks in the green block that I need to carve out for the brown paper to show through. It also falls off a bit over on the left side, but it's moving close to being finished. This is my favorite spot in the forest in springtime, just magical, and I had to try a print of it.

Here's what the two under layers look like. I tried some different colored papers just to see, but I had planned it for brown, and I definitely like the brown best.

Also the first proof of a block based on a sketch book sketch of Sacre Coeur. I'm still refining this one as well. It's fun to have prints going again. I love the sketching, but this is way fun too.

Published on: May 24, 2016

Memphis Hebrew Academy

I got to visit an art class this week at Memphis Hebrew Academy. It was delightful to watch the girls' enthusiasm as they leafed through my art journals. I took a bunch of my journals and travel sketchbooks and talked about what keeping these books means for my work and also my happiness. More and more I feel that my job is to spread the good news of keeping a sketch book and show the ease of using a brush pen in daily life. It's a rewarding thing to watch people think, "hey! I can do this!" That also happened recently at a women's retreat. Giving people the tools to express themselves and watching them play is a beautiful compliment to the time I spend at home alone making my own art.

The MHA art teacher Chany Fleischhacker wrote a blog post with more of her lovely photos at http://artbeatofmha.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-visit-from-martha-kelly.html?m=1

I so appreciated the joy in these images.

Published on: May 12, 2016

Eating and Sleeping in Amsterdam

I made it to Amsterdam last week and was able to enjoy again the places I fell in love with last year. At the top of that list (except for the Rijksmuseum, which is a spiritual home for me) is Zuivre Koffie. This beautiful cafe is filled with friendly people, one friendly cat, fresh flowers, great food, and hot chocolate. I had breakfast or lunch there each day.

My other favorite place, found largely because it is a block away from Zuivre and I wanted to be close, is the Seven Bridges Hotel. The gentlemen who run it were incredibly kind to me last year when I was there by myself, and it was lovely to be able to take my parents there too. It's a quiet, small, beautiful building with lovely rooms and views and all kinds of comforts provided. They have given me an electric tea kettle for my room when I have asked and a mini fridge without my even asking. That is a lovely touch when I travel alone, because I don't tend to eat many meals out by myself. It's easier and more comfortable to just go home to my book and some lovely wine and cheese.

I did the self portrait because it was good to be back in that space again and also because I was still testing out my new watercolor graphite. Below are a couple of more I did at Zuivre on lunch breaks from more serious painting or museum going.

Since I had been drawing the eclairs and fondant in Paris, I figured I should pay tribute to a lovely dense Dutch cake as well.

Published on: May 9, 2016

Rene and Dede

I'm back home finally and beginning to scan in sketches from the later part of the trip that I haven't yet posted here. I met my parents in Amsterdam, so I had less solo time for keeping up the blog the last few days of the trip.

I got to hear Rene Miller and Dede Macchabee (I have no idea how to do accent marks on my American keyboard - sorry, y'all) several times while I was in Paris. They sound great together, with Rene's marvelous blues picking and Dede's 1930's kind of sound. They also look great and are fun to sketch, so I did them several times. Above is my favorite one, in a new watercolor graphite I found in my "local" art supply store that I walk past daily in Paris. I had a great time playing with it. I saw it several days earlier, but the Dutch landscape drawing exhibition (previous blog entry) decided me on going back to try it. Their subtle graphite and wash work was completely alluring.

It's a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like is that, since it's graphite, it will press down and rub against the opposite page once you flip over and are drawing on the back of a graphite page. In spite of that, it's quite lovely.

As a minor sidetrack to the blog, here's the sketchbook page where I tested it out the first time. I was quite pleased with the cat sketch on the left.