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I spent a quite intense few years as president. The city was trying to dig up our one big open picnic field for a storm water retention basin. I went to public meetings, engineering meetings, storm water meetings, and city council meetings, and thankfully, another solution was found that left our park intact. I felt so lucky to be able to have the flexibility in my work to take that time for something really important and join with other citizens to find a different path. I've been glad not to be president after all that, but I am so grateful for what our group does for the park I love. So I've put together a calendar to benefit Park Friends. 55% of the proceeds will go to that organization.
You can order one here for $16.
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The best way to be sure to get a calendar if you want one is to PRE-ORDER, so I put your name in the original order I send the printer. Click either image at the top of this blog to do this through Square and my online store there. It will go ahead and charge your account, and I'll mail them out in October when I get them. The Overton Park calendars are pre-order only. I will not have any extras.
Calendars are $16 again this year. Square will charge you $4 shipping and handling if you want it mailed to you, but there's a pick up option too if you know me and you'd rather come get it from me in Midtown.
Here are the images for the My Memphis calendar:
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I sketched my favorite banjo and my banjo playing chair -- one of my happy places. And, of course, I sketched Mr. Darcy. Again. He's so handy, right on the sofa with me.
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I did another couple of sketches today as we were waiting for the vet for his annual check up.
I also revisited my favorite of the First Congo ones and added just a little bit more wash, going up higher on the page and distinguishing the banners from the space behind. On the left is the original version, and on the right is after I had tweaked it a bit. I want to get out and do some more cafe/landscape/bigger space sketches like this...
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It was a neat invitation, and I enjoyed walking in and seeing so many friends and neighbors there. We sang a couple of neat hymns and had a lovely table service, and otherwise I concentrated on my drawings. I did one longer term watercolor and then did several quicker pen sketches.
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Here's another bonus below, a third farmers market sketch I did a while ago but forgot (I think) to post. Whitton Farms (also featured in the flower sketch above) has the coolest farm vehicle ever. They're also great people, and Keith kept my purse for me a few weeks ago when and friend and favorite swing dance partner was through town, and I wanted to dance a little to the band without worrying about my wallet. Thanks, Jill and Keith, for all the goodness you bring to Memphis!
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I spent one afternoon painting down by Notre Dame. It had been my favorite subject last year, but I hadn't painted it this year at all. I wanted to see how it would look with my thicker, more layered approach to watercolors that really took hold during my England trip earlier this summer.
I wasn't able to paint much in the mornings that last week. Mornings seemed to be socked in, but the sun would break through (still with rainy periods) in the afternoon. So I'd linger with my tea, book, and banjo in the mornings and paint in the afternoons.
The second watercolor is the bridge from Ile St. Louis (just behind Notre Dame) looking back to the Right Bank.
It was latish, and I was going to head home after two, but I walked past Notre Dame again and couldn't resist the blue skies. Nice to be able to linger and paint at will. That's the fun of traveling by myself. (There are other lovely compensations for having company.)
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I moved back more to watercolor the last few days. It was raining off and on Friday, but I manages to find a couple of protected enough places to paint. One was the Carnavalet museum garden, where I could be under a covered walkway with a great view of the mix of formal boxwood with kitchen garden plants --- tomatoes, beans, and cabbages. Utterly charming.
I also went back to paint the fountain at the Place des Voges after doing a couple of marker sketches there earlier. It was drizzling slightly, but the thick tree arbors there gave me plenty of protection for painting.
I included a halfway done picture of this one. It shows what has been so hard for me about watercolor. For years in pastels and even in oils, I could do the entire background in the dark colors and then just pull the white of the fountain on top.
With watercolor, I have to be very conscious right from the beginning about where the water is and leave it completely clean as I'm working. It takes a lot of concentration, and there's no real recovery from a mistake. But I'm having fun with the watercolors, and their compactness is just marvelous for traveling, so it's been worth learning the mental shift.
On Saturday I had the marvelous treat of hanging out with Rene Miller and Stephen Harrison as they played music all afternoon. They set up just beside a Left Bank cafe, and I scored the table right next to Stephen and his bass. So I had the comfort of a chair and table to work at while I listened to the guys play their excellent music. A perfect afternoon. I did one longish watercolors and a couple of quick sketches of the guys playing.
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This is one of my favorite places in Paris. It was Rodin's home, and he left it to the state for a museum of his work. There's something extra special being in the space where an artist actually did his work.
Plus there's a lovely garden, dotted with his sculptures, where I love to draw when the weather's nice. This was definitely an inside kind of day, but I still had a great time.
These are all Stabilo pen sketches. I'm trying the pens without using any water for wash.
Then I switched over to my Lamy fountain pen plus the Pentel brush pen that has a lighter, warmer black (really a grey) ink.
I love the flourishes in the house itself and how the sculptures look in that setting. This sketch has a little more of the house.
I also took a selfie there, along with the Prodigal Son sculpture I'd sketched earlier.
Here's the main hall. I'm totally tempted to do a block print of it. I love the black and white tiles.
And an Edvard Munch painting of Rodin's work, in the garden of a mutual patron. Two artists I love in one painting. Perfect.
Ok, I'll stop now. But it's my favorite museum in Paris. Please go if you have the chance.
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There are a series of covered passages with shops and restaurants and tea rooms in Paris. They were built in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and they remain private roads with private owners but are mostly open to pedestrians. This one, Vivienne Gallery, was built in 1826. I love the vaulted window roof, the mosaic floors, the architectural curlicues.
It's also a great place to head on a rainy day, which is what happened with me yesterday. I had a slow start, but when the rain slowed to drizzle, I took a long walk and ended up here to paint.
