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Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the new/old Sears Crosstown building this morning. An amazing array of agencies came together to renovate this long vacant building into a vertical village. I can walk there from my house, and it is stunning. A ton of restaurants, a YMCA, the Church Health Center (a big deal here in Memphis), a high school to come, various businesses and non profits, all sharing one vast roof in a building with enormous windows. I've got a few friends now living in the apartments and had been before, but it was fun to meet the crew and hang out in the atrium and sketch.
I did a couple of sketches with fair concentration, and then as the meeting time was approaching, I did a couple of quick ones just to fill the time. In honor of "Inktober," I had bought a Pigma graphic 1 pen to try (see the top two sketches) which our founder Elizabeth Alley always calls her #fatpen. I think I mostly like my fountain pens better, but it's nice to have a fatter pen that doesn't melt with watercolor for times when I'd like that. It definitely has a more graphic feeling than using my usual water soluble ink. It's fun to try new things.
I did a couple of sketches with fair concentration, and then as the meeting time was approaching, I did a couple of quick ones just to fill the time. In honor of "Inktober," I had bought a Pigma graphic 1 pen to try (see the top two sketches) which our founder Elizabeth Alley always calls her #fatpen. I think I mostly like my fountain pens better, but it's nice to have a fatter pen that doesn't melt with watercolor for times when I'd like that. It definitely has a more graphic feeling than using my usual water soluble ink. It's fun to try new things.
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I've been doing a bit of sketching while also pulling prints for the fall show season and continuing to work on oils on paper for November. It's "Inktober," which a lot of artists I know really post for online, and I'm always a little spotty since this is always deep into show prep for me. But I want to do it as much as I can. So I've started off the month with a bunch of ink gestures.
Being an artist means I don't go out to a lot of fancy evenings, but I decided to actually buy concert tickets to Rhiannon Giddens last Friday. My sister really likes her, and I had loved the snippets I'd heard on npr. She absolutely knocked it out of the park. It was one of the best and most powerful concerts I've ever seen. She did a wide range of songs, nailed every single one of them, told gripping stories, and also told hard truths in a way that brought a room together instead of dividing it. What a gift in this (or any) age. Go see her if you get a chance. I did just a couple of quick sketches (on the left just below) in near darkness because I wanted to have this moment in my art journal to remember.
The next night I ended up at the symphony (which was good, but which didn't rock my world the way Rhiannon had). Fortunately after the break (which is always the place I lose most of my ability to really concentrate on something both purely auditory and non-verbal), they had a piece about Ellis Island which wove in spoken accounts of various immigrants who had gone through there. It was powerful, and I also enjoyed sketching the actors. And the hats.
Being an artist means I don't go out to a lot of fancy evenings, but I decided to actually buy concert tickets to Rhiannon Giddens last Friday. My sister really likes her, and I had loved the snippets I'd heard on npr. She absolutely knocked it out of the park. It was one of the best and most powerful concerts I've ever seen. She did a wide range of songs, nailed every single one of them, told gripping stories, and also told hard truths in a way that brought a room together instead of dividing it. What a gift in this (or any) age. Go see her if you get a chance. I did just a couple of quick sketches (on the left just below) in near darkness because I wanted to have this moment in my art journal to remember.
The next night I ended up at the symphony (which was good, but which didn't rock my world the way Rhiannon had). Fortunately after the break (which is always the place I lose most of my ability to really concentrate on something both purely auditory and non-verbal), they had a piece about Ellis Island which wove in spoken accounts of various immigrants who had gone through there. It was powerful, and I also enjoyed sketching the actors. And the hats.
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It's that time again! Calendars are going to the printer this week. I'll have them in time for the Pink Palace Crafts Fair, as well as all my fall shows. They'll be at Burke's Books, of course, and likely other places through the fall. I'll keep you posted here.
The easiest way to get one, of course, is to order it off my website and have it come right to your mailbox. You can order one right now for $18 in my online store (operated by Square) at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art/
If you're in Memphis and can pick one up at one of my fall shows (Pink Palace, my Friday, November 3rd opening at Eclectic Eye, or my holiday open house Dec. 15-16th) or from me sometime in midtown, choose the pick up option to avoid shipping. Otherwise, I'll be so happy to send it right to you.
The easiest way to get one, of course, is to order it off my website and have it come right to your mailbox. You can order one right now for $18 in my online store (operated by Square) at https://squareup.com/market/martha-kelly-art/
If you're in Memphis and can pick one up at one of my fall shows (Pink Palace, my Friday, November 3rd opening at Eclectic Eye, or my holiday open house Dec. 15-16th) or from me sometime in midtown, choose the pick up option to avoid shipping. Otherwise, I'll be so happy to send it right to you.
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I had a couple of quiet days on my own at the end of my Paris trip. Some of that, of course, was packing madly, because I acquired too many art books plus a framed print plus a little bit of breakable tea crockery, so it was more challenging than usual.
I knew I would be coming home to working hard on my fall shows, so I gave myself permission to really have a little bit of vacation --- sleeping in and lingering over tea in the beautiful apartment I stay in and going to the Musee d'Orsay to sit with my favorite pieces. I also had tea a couple of afternoons in Le Lithographe, the cafe just across from my building there. I'd been wanting to paint inside (usually I would sit out on the sidewalk to watch Paris go by) where there was a lovely tiled Art Deco piece next to the bar. I painted it small the first day, and since I'm thinking about Art Deco ornamentation a good bit at the moment (thanks to one of the art books I bought), I went back and painted a second time with more detail.
I knew I would be coming home to working hard on my fall shows, so I gave myself permission to really have a little bit of vacation --- sleeping in and lingering over tea in the beautiful apartment I stay in and going to the Musee d'Orsay to sit with my favorite pieces. I also had tea a couple of afternoons in Le Lithographe, the cafe just across from my building there. I'd been wanting to paint inside (usually I would sit out on the sidewalk to watch Paris go by) where there was a lovely tiled Art Deco piece next to the bar. I painted it small the first day, and since I'm thinking about Art Deco ornamentation a good bit at the moment (thanks to one of the art books I bought), I went back and painted a second time with more detail.
I also did a couple of more sketches in the Orsay. They move their paintings around a lot and swap things out. One of my favorite Odilon Redon pieces was gone (one of my favorite pieces period there), but this double panel was new to me this year, so I sketched it. As was the Vuillard, who painted a woman sketching with that hallmark "sketch face," as a friend of mine calls it.
One other thing I did was got myself one last cup of Angelina's hot chocolate and carried it into the Tuileries to sit and drink and (apparently) sketch. It was a lovely send off from a city I love and hope to return to next year.
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I've been taking some day trips out of Paris lately and went back to Chartres, where I hadn't been in five years, since my first time in France. It was good to be there again and to think of the changes in my life since I first had my feet on the labyrinth. It's also a lovely town, and I got a pot of tea and sketched the two very different towers after coming out of the church. I didn't paint any of the gorgeous Medieval glass, but it is an amazing part of the visit.
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My friend Jill and I went to Giverny her last day here. I hadn't been before, and it was stunning. My dad has been telling me I needed to get there, and I'm glad I did. It's always powerful to stand in the spaces artists you admire have painted in, and seeing Monet's home so beautifully intact gave me a further feeling for the man. One tremendous surprise was his collection of Japanese prints hung all over the house. The Impressionists were the first group of painters who had access to the exquisite woodblock prints of Hiroshige and his contemporaries, and it made a huge impact on their art. Getting to see the specific prints Monet lived with and was inspired by was enormous for me.
We didn't have a huge amount of time, and it got flooded with people as the morning went on, but I did have to do just one sketch of the beautiful colors he used in his home. I now want a yellow kitchen. I'm adding in some of my photos too, just to show the beauty of the place.
We didn't have a huge amount of time, and it got flooded with people as the morning went on, but I did have to do just one sketch of the beautiful colors he used in his home. I now want a yellow kitchen. I'm adding in some of my photos too, just to show the beauty of the place.
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I spent a week up north in the first apartment I ever came to here with my usual cat sitting gig. It was great to be back in that neighborhood again, and I did a bit of painting to celebrate that time. A couple of more self portraits (including a slightly meta sketch at right of the one above plus my Paris teapot and a second hand rose my friend Rene gave me that had been left in his tip box while he busked. Amazingly it perked up when I got it home and in water. I also painted the view out the window and Dusty, the resident cat.
Dusty is a pretty active cat, so I could only manage a brief kind of gesture sketch. She's got many more lovely stripes than I managed to capture, but I'm also trying not to overwork pieces here. I get too caught up in details sometimes, and drawings lose their energy. I'm trying to use my Paris sketches as a time of correction back in the other direction, even if some of them end up very impressionistic indeed.
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One of my favorite things to do in Paris is hang out with my friends Rene Miller and Stephen Harrison while they play. Rene is from Louisiana and plays masterful slide blues on an old metal resonator guitar, but he mixes in all kinds of other songs as well and always makes them his own. I so admire that about his performances. He's also been playing on the street here for 25 years or so and is an unflappable master of accepting all kinds of odd happenings and weaving them into the show. Stephen is a fabulous bass player (touring with various folks as well as playing with the orchestra here), and he joins Rene when he's in town. They're magic together.
This past weekend they were set up on the bridge by Hotel de Ville, and I spent chunks of both days sitting out on a park bench and listening and chatting with them and watching the people watch them. And sketching. Of course.
This past weekend they were set up on the bridge by Hotel de Ville, and I spent chunks of both days sitting out on a park bench and listening and chatting with them and watching the people watch them. And sketching. Of course.
I was using a Pentel dark, smallish brush pen. I've been wanting to work on my people, since I'm enjoying the idea of more illustration, so I did a ton of gestures sitting out there through the Sunday midday.
I was also kind of fascinated by their shadows extending towards me and did a couple of quick watercolor sketches, one with the bridge railing in it and one without.
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I got used to showing Mr. Darcy's trip this spring by drawing him doing different things. I'm not being as organized about it, but I'm also enjoying drawing myself in bits of my own trip this time. I've been looking at all kinds of paintings of women "a la toilette" in the Orsay -- by Morisot, Degas, Cassat, and many more. It was a popular theme, and I absolutely love the tiles in the bathroom here, so this morning I decided to have a go at doing my own version. I'm also still working on getting better at people, and I'm a willing, free, and available model for myself.
This evening at dinner I also wanted to remember a sweet moment from my long walk home. I stopped in a bakery I like but don't go to often enough for them to know me, and I asked for the smaller version of the pain au chocolat. The baker, bless him, seemed to think that I needed fattening up and added a mini croissant, "un petit cadeau," to my bag. That kindness made me smile for blocks, so I did a sketch when I got home.
This evening at dinner I also wanted to remember a sweet moment from my long walk home. I stopped in a bakery I like but don't go to often enough for them to know me, and I asked for the smaller version of the pain au chocolat. The baker, bless him, seemed to think that I needed fattening up and added a mini croissant, "un petit cadeau," to my bag. That kindness made me smile for blocks, so I did a sketch when I got home.
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Here are morning and evening sketches done a couple of days ago. I'm looking at more art and making less this trip, at least so far, but it's nice to have something in my journal each day. I'm also still working on desk work -- self portraits here in the apartment and a bit of Mr. Darcy. It's nice to be able to play here and not feel like I need to create a whole show to bring home with me. I like having free time in an inspiring place to simply do whatever wants to come out at the moment.
