I've been dreaming about sketching here ever since my last trip, and I've got a pass to get in and out at will, which is lovely. That way I can go in, do a few rooms, and then do something else. I really have a great time sketching in museums too. My water brush and tiny watercolor kit are perfect for it. Very contained and easy to stand up with.

On the way home I halfway stalked a busker. He was walking slowly and looked so cool that I wandered behind him and sketched him for a block or so.

My final sketch of the day is a nifty old building (I love the "Comestibles") that is now an antique store.

liturgical work has been in black and white to honor the budget constraints of the churches I work with. When I began, pen and ink was more comfortable for me anyway, but I've really been enjoying watercolor the last couple of years, so I'm excited to get to branch out a bit for MTS. Here is my Genesis painting for the first week of chapel. I'm looking forward to doing a series.

The Memphis Urban Sketchers met in the Peabody Hotel on Saturday. I had the realization driving down that calendar time is coming rapidly for me, at least given my upcoming travels, and I don't have enough new Memphis pieces to really flesh out a new calendar. So I found a table and chair in the mezzanine, overlooking the main lobby, and did a bit more detailed and finished watercolor than I've been tending to do in my normal art journal lately. It was fun, but I bit off a good bit with this one. It's a kind of overwhelming place. But it's good to challenge myself sometimes.

My lovely friends at the woodworking school Country Workshops invited me to come and stay with them for a few days. I'm in a busy patch of life, but they are dear people, and it was lovely to get away for a little bit and see my sister on the way as well as my friends who live there and around there.

I also ran into Asheville for a little recreational bookstore time.

I was in St. Louis early in July on my annual sister baseball trip (see the last blog post), but of course I found a little time to paint in my favorite park as well. I did all of these with my tiny watercolor kit and water brush pen. It's handy to not have to set out multiple cups of water to just do some quick sketches. I didn't have a lot of time that trip, but I always try to paint at least a little bit in Tower Grove.

I usually go with my sister to St. Louis once a summer to take in some Cardinals baseball. It's a fun time, and I look forward to being in Busch stadium, since mostly I just listen at home on the radio. This year I was pleased to be asked because her wedding anniversary fell on the weekend where the Cards played the Padres, which is her husband's rooting team. They made an anniversary trip of it and took in four games, but they very kindly and warmly bought extra tickets to the second two games and asked me to come join them partway through. I was delighted, and it was a lovely weekend with the two of them.

I mostly watched the games, but I did one sketch at the beginning of the game each day. The second day I restricted myself to a Stabilo fine liner and one grey Faber Castell marker, which was the sketching equipment I was handing out to teenagers on a retreat later that week where I would be teaching sketching. (I'll write about that soon. I am SO behind on this blog right now.) I wanted to do a couple of demo sketches and also just think about the best ways to use those materials. Mostly, though, I just had fun and enjoyed two Cardinal wins and hung out with the siblings.

This craze is sweeping the Urban Sketchers online, and I have completely fallen for it. I made my first tiny watercolor tin in a mini-sized Altoids tin, and I have used it incessantly ever since. When I was in Amsterdam this spring, I was delighted to find that one of the huge items for the Dutch tourism industry is tiny mint tins. I bought several at different museums. At 1.75 x 2.25" they are slightly larger than the Altoid tin, but about a quarter of an inch. Six empty half pans (which I ordered in bulk from Cheap Joe's) fit inside, as oppsoed to five in the Altoid tin, but I have the same number of colors. I just put the ultramarine blue in the bottom right directly into the corner of a tin instead of in its own half pan.

I can get almost my full regular palette into the tin, missing only yellow ochre and viridian green. I don't have as much mixing space as my full one, which I still get out to do finished, stand alone watercolors, but this is delightfully easy to use with a water brush (a pen-like contraption with water in the barrel that you squeeze gently as you use the brush) for quick sketches. It's perfect also when you're standing up or working in your lap at the theater and don't have space to set out cups of water for dipping.

Here are the colors I squeeze into my tiny kit. The first one I made didn't have the lemon yellow, and I missed it, so I've got three colors in that section. Everywhere else only has two. The purple fits along the side in the Altoid tin and at the bottom in these new ones. I usually use Windsor and Newton professional grade watercolors.

I had a way fun week last week. A longtime friend and favorite swing partner came to town, and several of us friends went out three nights in a row to hear live music and do a little dancing. Not my normal life, but it was fun to take advantage of the opportunity.

We started Wednesday night with hearing the Side Street Steppers on the deck at Central BBQ.

Thursday night, without a favorite band playing anywhere, we played tourist and went to Beale Street, where there's always live music of some sort. It was fun to go down and walk the few blocks and check out the offerings. We found a fun rockabilly show at Jerry Lee Lewis's place. The Jason James band put on a polished and accomplished show of songs that came from Memphis's Sun Records heritage (Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johny Cash). We did a little dancing and sketching and enjoyed the lead singer's rapport with the audience.

Then we moved on down the street to a smaller blues club that was playing some authentic Memphis blues and did some more dancing. It was lovely. Then we found a patio with something more in the soul range. We hit the trifecta of Memphis music that night.

I had a sketching dinner with Elizabeth Alley last night. Every once in a while we go out to sketch together, talk about our travels, talk about materials, techniques, teaching, and whatever else. I usually sketch solo at places, so it's fun to have a meal with someone else who's doing the same thing.

I'm continuing to do website work and add sketches to my site, since they are so much a part of what I do these days.

I drove up to Kentucky on Thursday and spent that night and most of Friday at Shakertown with my sketchbook (and banjo) for company on my way to meet friends and sisters at a dance weekend. Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (to give it its full name, though the locals and highway signs all say Shakertown) is one of my favorite places in the world. The buildings are mostly early 1800's, and they have been beautifully restored. It sits on a ridge with a view out over the blue Kentucky hills, and it's one of those places where nature and craft have combined in complete and beautiful harmony.

I'm posting the rest of these on my sketching page, where you can also read more about the place and my time there.