I'm putting together my 2014 calendar this week. I spent so much more time painting in Paris this year than I did in Memphis that I decided to focus on Paris this year. It's the work I'm most proud lately.

Because it's not Memphis, it won't be sold in as many locations this year, so put your order in with me now if you'd like one! You can email martha1kelly@aol.com if you'd like to be included in my order to the printer.

Here are the images for the calendar:

I was working on a print today from Ile de la Cite (my third Paris print for the December show at Memphis Botanic Gardens), when I noticed on Facebook that Rene Miller is in Atlanta right now. Rene is one of the two musicians who befriended me in Paris, and they played on Ile de la Cite most Saturdays. I spent a number of very happy weekend hours sitting on various sidewalks and listening to him play the blues, accompanied by the excellent Stephen Harrison on bass.

Rene is in Atlanta for three weeks visiting his family, and happily I'm already heading down there during that time for a dance weekend. If I go a day early, I can catch him playing in a blues club down there. We talked on the phone today, and it was great to get a visit. I'm excited just to see him and catch up. I've missed both the guys, and I've been listening to Rene's cd in my truck for the last month, singing along and remembering Paris.

Here's a street video of Rene and Stephen doing my very favorite song of theirs -- an old time jazz tune called "Arkansas." They were kind enough to play it for me each week.

In other news today, it's the two month anniversary of Mr. Darcy coming into my life. That's my housemate Neil in the background. I'm really lucky to have them both around.

I've been out of town. Again. I'm finally home to really settle in and finish several prints in progress.

I spent a lot of the afternoon carving the one above, my second Paris print, so I could go ahead and proof it. It's hard to really tell what it looks like until I ink it, but once I ink it, I lose all my drawing lines. Printmaking is an exercise in patience.

I'm largely pleased (despite the extra fuzzy newsprint proof). I'll fix a few things and get a better look soon.

I also did a little more carving and another proof on my Notre Dame print. It's just about ready to print for real.

And I proofed the second Elmwood print, which I had gotten to the refining stage ages ago before all my travels. It will be good to have it fully finished.

I met Robert and Marie-Claude Diebolt one day while I was out sketching the Musee D'Orsay. They stopped to see my painting, and it turns out that Robert is an artist as well. It was lovely to have a talk about art and media and urban sketching, and Robert took a couple of photos of me working that seem very much to embody urban sketching. It's fun to get to see myself working through other people's eyes occasionally. And Marie-Claude and Robert made me feel very welcome there in France. It was a lovely interlude in my trip, and I appreciate Robert following up and sending me these photos.

I came home from Paris with a lot of detailed watercolors, and I'd like to do something a little looser, more saturated, and bigger with some of them. I saw an exhibition this week of oil monotypes, and it made me want to do monotypes again. I seem to do them in spurts every few years or so.

Monotypes are prints that don't have a carved plate, so you only get one (hence the "mono"). Many people work directly on plexiglass and then run that through the press, wipe it clean, and do another one. I've done ones where I roll out ink and then draw into and wipe away highlights from that solid dark. For this series, though, I'd like to do some where I paint (additive instead of subtractive, in the official lingo). That seems to require a different sort of ink, however. I did a few tests with my Daniel Smith water soluble relief ink, which I use for block prints.

It wasn't really transferring well, though. It was both too stiff to paint with, and it dried too quickly. I tried just a couple, but only half the image came through. I did have fun painting on top of what I got with more of the ink.

Today I did some research in both old class notes and (most helpfully) Julia Ayres book Monotype. It's a comprehensive and step by step book that I've used over the years.

I decided to try acrylic paint, since I could get it locally right now while I'm thinking about the project. My first attempt was too watery -- I don't think I blotted the paper sufficiently. I kind of like some of the effect, though, and I may play with painting on top of this one.

The second one came out better, though still pretty ambiguous in the figure. This is from a sketch of Rodin's Eve. Again I'm thinking it would be nice to do a little more definition on top of the monotype. Maybe pencil or charcoal. I'm going to have to do some more experiments.

My last one came out best. I'd still love a little more definition, but I really like the spontaneity and the color saturation. I'm going to get a couple of bigger sheets of plexiglass so I can have a real contrast between the size of the watercolors and the size of the prints for my December show.

I keep information on each print (paper size, edition number, etc.), but I don't often write up a report on a day's work. Today, however, I wanted to remember what I'd tried and what had worked, so I wrote out a page in my printmaking notebook to remind me. I'm really enjoying the brain fizz of trying something new. It's a great feeling.

The gardens along the side and back of Notre Dame are one of my favorite places in Paris. I decided to paint there, since so far I'd only been hanging out, eating lunch, and enjoying the wifi.

I love the flying buttresses.

I also painted the statue at the center of the garden.

And walking home I stopped to paint this funky building with lots of statues that remind me of the knights in Alice in Wonderland.

I'm not sure what the building is, but not seems to have perpetual concerts and events in the plaza in front of it. This summer it's beach volleyball.

Speaking of special summer events, I also took the time to ride the Ferris wheel I keep painting. It's got stunning views of Paris.

Here's the view from my bench where I'm taking a lunch break. I love this small park down the side of and behind Notre Dame. It even has free wifi, so I can do a little work on my break.

Here's the side garden. Cherry trees were blooming in April when I was here, and it is just as beautiful now.

In other news, here are the paintings I did yesterday. It was a productive day downtown. I finished four watercolors and then had a lovely walk home.

The Louvre again. I can't stop painting it. Above is the view from my lunch break on the Tuileries. Below is the Ferris wheel again. I love the frisson of old world and new world.

I regretted not painting the Musee d'Orsay last time. I love it's huge clocks. So I did two along the Seine yesterday. Cloud cover gave me sporadic sun protection as I sat out on bridges in the middle of the river, and a bagpiper provided entertainment for the ascond drawing.

Between the market in the morning and a vet appointment in the afternoon for the cat I'm sitting, I stayed close to home yesterday. I also had a little lingering jet lag, so I gave myself permission to have a slower day.

The one watercolor I did was intricate and time consuming, though. Lots of small detail, so the drawing phase took much longer than usual. This is one of my three regular metro stations. I walk to different ones depending on which direction I want to go. The lines all have different areas they cut across. I like this station because all the best food stores are on the way home.

I was groggy my first day getting here and only took two walks around the neighborhood, getting reacquainted, instead of painting. I'm making up for that now. I did six watercolors yesterday.

I took the "wrong" turn out of the metro before getting oriented, and I ended up at the Rodin Museum. A right turn, as it turned out. It's one of my very favorite places here, and it was a good place to get my feet back under me artistically. You can but just a garden ticket for only one euro. Perfect for artists.

Then I walked to San Sulpice. I'd done a very quick sketch of the lion fountain last time and wanted to spend a little more time with it. I did two there.

I was totally heading home afterwards, but I'd missed my chance last trip to paint an accordion player, which was a special request from a friend of mine. When I saw this playersying on one of the bridges over the Seine, I knew I needed to stop and paint. He left me to watch his gear while he ran for a beer and cigarette. Necessary for the musical process, apparently. And he played me a medley of American songs as a thank you, ending with "Hello, Dolly".