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I got to walk through a pine woods to visit Walden today. I had read a good but of the book on the plane on the way up here to prepare, and it was lovelier than I expected. Much, much bigger. Down south we would call it a decent sized lake instead of a pond. And it has a full beach ringing it. I was delighted to get to walk and watch clear water and pick up a few stones for friends from the water's edge. In Memphis, our water is the Big Muddy. A clear beach was an unexpected treat.
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I'm in Lincoln and Concord today, and the history is breathtaking. Everything is so much older than down south. The trees are equally stunning. There's a proliferation of beeches here, and I'm a total sucker for them. And then there's this gorgeous one outside the Lincoln library, which is in itself gorgeous.
The cemeteries look different too. Our ones are replete with Victorian monuments. Here they are lovely-shaped slate headstones with interesting and different relief carvings. I did this one as the front piece for my travel sketchbook.
Here's one of the beeches on the walk back
Also drove into Concord and saw Louisa May Alcott's home.
And a place where both Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived and wrote
Did one more very quick sketch of an inn where George Washington slept. Sadly they no longer have banjo music on Wednesday nights.
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It was the Cabin Fever dance weekend in Maryville, TN, this past weekend, and I drove east early to visit one of my favorite towns. It had been a crazy enough week that I had been having dinner in my car between meetings, so the evening I arrived I went to my favorite tapas place for a lovely salad, a couple of small pork rolls, and a flan. I had thought I was too tired to sketch, but the flan was so pretty I couldn't resist.
I enjoyed walking around town and hitting the book stores and my favorite brocante, the Downtown Market. It's an indoor flea/antique market with several lovely clothing vendors. I found two cashmere sweaters, real silk pajama pants, and red velvet coat that makes me feel like a movie star. I also sketched my favorite trees there while I was wandering around.
I enjoyed walking around town and hitting the book stores and my favorite brocante, the Downtown Market. It's an indoor flea/antique market with several lovely clothing vendors. I found two cashmere sweaters, real silk pajama pants, and red velvet coat that makes me feel like a movie star. I also sketched my favorite trees there while I was wandering around.
Dinner on Thursday was at a newish place with the alluring name Nightbell. A sweet little upstairs place with small plates and cosy corner sofas. The duck confit on a waffle was just lovely, as was the baked Alaska, my first time to ever try it. I did this sketch largely in the dark. Very dim lighting, but I was charmed by the brocade sofa next to me and had to try.
I spent the rest of the weekend at a house party at my sisters. Nine of us total in the house, and I was way too busy dancing and playing a few tunes to sketch.
For purely self indulgent reasons, I'm going to include this photo from the weekend, taken by Lanny Huddleston. This is my favorite way to find joy when I'm not making art, and Charlie Zisette, with his marvelous dips, made me feel just lovely this weekend. Sometimes it's good for me to move away from the micro movements of carving prints and move my whole body instead. This is the very best way I know how to do that.
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I've been watching my fellow sketchers post end of the year recaps of their sketch books, and I decided that would be fun for me as well. I'm still new to keeping more intensive and regular sketch journals. I only started seriously in the fall of 2013, and I find that it has immensely enriched the entire spectrum of my work. I'm making prints and paintings from scenes I never would have expected to make more serious art from, but once I had a sketch I liked, the image nagged at me and demanded further attention.
I also love both the casual and narrative aspects of keeping a sketch journal. It's fun to tell more of a story than is possible in a free standing painting or print.
At right is my sketch of the sketchbooks I used in 2015. Three of them are partial, and five (the small ones) exclusively from 2015.
Here are the highlights from each of my sketchbooks for the year.
My earliest is the last Stillman and Birns that I used. I like their paper a lot, but the 6x8 size is only in spiral bound, and scanning in sketches across that gap is challenging. Their bound sketchbooks open up to a pretty square format, and I really prefer a rectangle to work in. So this was my last hurrah for their books. The first half is the second half of my 2014 Paris trip, but I kept working in it on my return, and a good third of it was 2015. A couple of my favorites were a marker sketch of Mud Island and sketches of Mr. Darcy.
My first handbook journal, January to April, hooked me on their books. They're a great size to fit in my purse, take water media nicely, and even have a small pocket in the back for museum tickets and other momentoes. This was my hands down favorite page from that one.
My April to June sketchbook saw the NYC trip with my sister in April. It was very much a theater trip for her birthday celebration.
I also got back to Shakertown in Kentucky, one of my favorite places to sketch.
My June to October sketchbook has my favorite cat in the world on my knee and one of my more successful marker sketches.
During that period I also went to Amsterdam and spent a week sketching both the city and inside the museums.
And then on to Paris for one utterly beautiful week.
My larger handbook watercolor journal is mostly trees. It has some pages from 2014, some from 2015, and I'm using it much more slowly since I don't have it in my purse all the time. Here's the page that was open in my Dixon exhibition. I did a print from this for the show.
I ended up doing a number of prints from the sketches in these books and may well do more. It's good to have the raw material.
Finally, I'm two thirds of the way through the small handbook I started in October. Sketching ground mostly to a halt during my really busy pre-Christmas season, but I got over the Dixon at the end of the holiday to sketch my show, which was the single biggest moment of my career.
I also (always) continue to sketch my beloved Mr. Darcy.
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First off, let me announce that the opening for my Dixon show is Thursday, November 19, 6-8pm. (Tomorrow!) The museum is completely free that night, so come out and see me but also see the truly lovely landscape exhibits in the other galleries. And the Tom Lonardo Trio will be playing music that night. Two of them were "boyfriends" in Di Anne Price and her Boyfriends, my favorite all time band. It's lovely to have the guys playing for my special night.
Here is the finished version of my Busker print. I followed this guy, walking slowly, down a street in Amsterdam as I sketched him this past summer. I'm having fun doing a few more figures in print lately.
He's on 9.5x12" paper, and $60 in my online store https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art
Here's the original sketch:
Here is the finished version of my Busker print. I followed this guy, walking slowly, down a street in Amsterdam as I sketched him this past summer. I'm having fun doing a few more figures in print lately.
He's on 9.5x12" paper, and $60 in my online store https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art
Here's the original sketch:
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Ironically I spent most of last week thinking about Paris, being really happy, and singing along to my René Miller's albums I bought from him there. I love stretching trips out by making art from them. It feels like I'm still living in that world when I'm inhabiting it and making art from it. I even found myself dancing through the woods on my walk singing René's songs.
Then Friday happened. And I'm just heartbroken for the city and very grateful my friends are all safe.
I'm going to keep working on this print of René and Dédé singing at the Marche d'Aligre. I did a sketch of them on site, sitting at one of the cafe tables, and then I came around the front and took the photo below. This sketch is from last year, but I'm working on a series of musicians, and I think I'll try one from this summer as well, René playing with Stephen Harrison.
Then Friday happened. And I'm just heartbroken for the city and very grateful my friends are all safe.
I'm going to keep working on this print of René and Dédé singing at the Marche d'Aligre. I did a sketch of them on site, sitting at one of the cafe tables, and then I came around the front and took the photo below. This sketch is from last year, but I'm working on a series of musicians, and I think I'll try one from this summer as well, René playing with Stephen Harrison.
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There was a noticeable trend last year in my art fb circles of people doing ink drawings for "Inktober." This year I was given a lovely new/old fountain pen just at the end of September. I've been using more pencil than pen with my watercolors recently, except for my quick sketches from Paris this past summer, so I'm enjoying playing around with the pen and waterproof ink as a new-again thing for me.
Here are a bunch of sketches from my recent time at Country Workshops, a woodworking school on a beautiful farm in North Carolina. It's one of my favorite places to paint. Above is Big Boy in my lap, one of my very favorite cats.
Below are the cows I kept drawing. Both those scenes are looking out the window from the work table I use when I'm there.
Here are a bunch of sketches from my recent time at Country Workshops, a woodworking school on a beautiful farm in North Carolina. It's one of my favorite places to paint. Above is Big Boy in my lap, one of my very favorite cats.
Below are the cows I kept drawing. Both those scenes are looking out the window from the work table I use when I'm there.
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I took it easier in Paris this year. I didn't try to bring home 50 watercolors to mount a show. I hung out with friends, listened to music, did a little shopping, and sat in cafes. I did fast sketches this year -- wanting to have a journal of special times but not spend my whole trip with my nose buried in my sketching supplies. So here is a series of cafe drawings I did across several different neighborhoods. The first is Hotel du Nord, along the canal. A real old-time cafe my hosts took me to my first year here.
Next is a sketch from the cafe right at Marche d'Aligre where my friend Rene Miller often plays on a Saturday morning when the market and brocante are in full swing.
Next is a sketch from the cafe right at Marche d'Aligre where my friend Rene Miller often plays on a Saturday morning when the market and brocante are in full swing.
Next is a cafe right next to the Montmartre cemetery. Stopped in there on a cold drizzly day for a hot tea after exploring a bit of the cemetery. It was charming, with lovely woodwork and a tiny spiral staircase up to the W.C. I pass it regularly on my walk home but had never stopped before.
The last is Le Nazir in Abbesses, one of my favorite neighborhoods. Again, Graham and Anais had taken me here for my very first meal in Paris a couple of years ago, and I was happy to revisit it.
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It took several days to get my internet going at home, and the seminary semester started, so I'm working with students and faculty there too, but I finally have some of the trip stuff scanned in.
I spent much of my last day in Paris in the Musee d'Orsay, since I'd had so much fun sketching in the Rijksmuseum. I got there early and had some pretty quiet time with the Van Goghs early before too many people arrived.
I spent much of my last day in Paris in the Musee d'Orsay, since I'd had so much fun sketching in the Rijksmuseum. I got there early and had some pretty quiet time with the Van Goghs early before too many people arrived.
This next one is my favorite I did. I'm iffy on people, but it turned out well, and the painting itself was so graphic in nature that it lent itself nicely to copying. With the Van Goghs, I know I won't be able to capture the richness, but looking at a painting long enough and closely enough to copy it helps me learn from it, even if the sketch itself isn't a fair reflection of the original. And sometimes I just love a painting enough to want to spend that time with it, even though I know I can't do it justice.
I took a break from copying on the top floor and did a quick sketch of the view instead. I wish they let you out on the balcony.
I've fallen all over again for Odilon Redon. Dixon had an exhibition of his that I loved many years ago, but I hadn't thought about him too much before doing those copies in Amsterdam. Then at the Orsay they had these enormous panels that just gobsmacked me. The light was dim, so my copy is too vividly yellow, but I had fun doing it. I really love his mystical approach to his subjects. It suits my thinking just now, as I start doing more Biblical art for my year at the seminary. I'd like to bring this creativity and loose beauty to a text people are familiar with and see if I can make them think about it in a new way. I'm a very literal painter (I usually paint quite closely what I see in front of me), so the idea of this freedom is both challenging and beguiling.
I finished by sketching an early Monet that I had drawn just in pencil two years ago. The sycamores always grab me, and there's something about this that I just love. It was fun to try it in color. And revisit a painting that had struck me last time too.
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I think this is my favorite sketch I did in the Musee d'Orsay my last day in Paris. My phone died halfway through the trip, and I came home to no Internet, so I can't scan and post sketches yet. I'll get more loaded here as soon as my technical difficulties allow. Since I'm home, a scan would be much nicer than just a cell phone shot. I'm in the cable store now hoping for the best, but that's why I've been quiet lately...