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.

I had been hearing about Noodler's ink for years on sketching forums. It's a non-water soluble ink, so it won't run when you watercolor with it. A lovely friend just gave me an old fountain pen and a partial bottle of Noodler's to try. I'm having a fun time this week. I shifted from pen to pencil with my watercolor several years ago, but I had fun revisiting fountain pen and watercolor sketches in Paris. That was with ink that would run, and I kind of liked the looseness, but this has a neat, spontaneous, kind of graphic feel to it. I'm going to enjoy playing around with the ink as well as using the lovely pen. 

The Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the Memphis Farmers Market yesterday. I am having a crazy busy week, but I decided to take time to go see some of my people, and I was very glad I did. It was fun to catch up with everyone after my trip, and I always enjoy drawing down there.

I did a good bit of printing, calendar work, and board cutting in between, but I also went for the second and third sets of Le Tumulte Noir playing at Huey's tonight. They're an incredibly talented across the board gypsy jazz group, and I even got a little surprise swing dancing when I happened to sit next to a few dancer friends. Such a perfect way to spend an early Sunday evening. They gu

The guys are really fun to sketch and very nice about my doing it.

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 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.

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.

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.

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...

I had the Rodin Museum garden all to myself for a bit one rainy morning. It suited the garden. The sculptures look just right in the rain. And I found a couple of sheltered places to sketch, though you can see a little bit of rain droppage on the pages.

I also got a cup of tea to warm up at the garden cafe and did one sketch snugly indoors.

I enjoyed my fast train sketching on the way over here, and I'm going to try to stay in that mode for a bit and not get too labored.

So here are some early sketches from

Abbesses, the cool area just up the hill from me.

I met my friends Audra and Pascal for a sidewalk bakery visit. They're musicians who came to stay with me last year as they toured though the States. Audra even wrote a song that has Sun Studio and Mr. Darcy in it. I can't wait for the cd to come out, because it's lovely.

I sketched Pascal looking incredibly French, leaning against the bar with a coffee at his elbow. They both draw too, so they're nice enough to get it.

It's really lovely to get into town and have such a warm welcome waiting. I'm looking forward to hanging out with everyone and hearing them play. All my friends here seem to be musicians, which is marvelous.

So I came really planning to sketch outside and paint lots of bridges. And I've done a good bit of that. But what I am enjoying more than anything is doing tiny museum copies in my sketchbook. So I may just do that for my last couple of days. It is vacation, after all...

I've got my tiny watercolor tin and the waterbrush that works like a pen, so I can work standing up in front of a painting of there's not a handy bench. Above is a Dutch follower of the Barbizon school in France. Below is a Daubigby. I like him more with each painting I see. Both of these are from Saturday afternoon in the Rijksmusuem.

I did two more Daubigny studies in the Van Gogh museum this morning. I discovered that if you get there 15 minutes early, the line isn't bad, and most people stop to get in line for audio guides and start obediently at the bottom floor. I went straight to the top (having done it chronologically in April) and had a peaceful, blissful 45 minutes or so before the crowds got up there to see my favorites.

I'll post the other couple of sketches in a separate blog post. I can't minimize the files on my phone, and it gets to where there are too many pictures in a post for it to load well. To be continued....

I have been out painting canals, because, well, I'm in Amsterdam. That is, in large part, what you paint when you're here. All those little rounded bridges are just so enticing.

After these couple of very detailed, maybe too tight, full watercolors yesterday, I did this one from the park bench across from my hotel where I carried my dinner out to enjoy the evening.

Today I tried to be a little looser with the full watercolor.

While I was painting that last one, the older man who lives in the house just opposite my spot took a photo of me working from his upper story and was kind enough to print it and bring it out to give me. Very, very kind. And kind of fun to see the birds eye view of myself working.