Memphis Urban Sketchers met at Memphis Botanic Gardens yesterday. Because of a rain out last month, Trollfest coincided with our morning there, and it ended up being fantastic. The garden is big enough for folks to spread out, so it wasn't too crowded. I headed straight for the iconic red bridge in the Japanese garden that generations of kids have had their photos made on (including my sister and me). I just filled my new Art Toolkit palette and put in a record number of greens: Sap green from both Sennelier (cooler and more opaque) and Windsor and Newton (warm and translucent), my favorite W&N green gold, a bright, cool Sennelier Pthalo light green, and a darker, less saturated granulating green from Daniel Smith called Green apatite. I'm always drawn to the trees, so I decided to lean into greens in the new palette more than any other color, and I had fun mixing them together and with ultramarine or burnt umber to get even more shades.

The festival brought food trucks, and I had a messy but delicious duck confit sandwich with mango chutney, and afterwards my friend Libby suggested a walk around the gardens. We did a wide loop, ending up back near the lake, when I spotted the Mississippi Wildlife Rehab set up, also there for the festival, with people holding hawks, snakes, and OWLS. It was utter magic to get to stand next to first an Eastern screech owl (so tiny!) and then a full grown barred owl. Both had lost sight in one eye and were unable to hunt and therefore not able to be released back into the wild. Their handlers spend time with them at the center and occasionally bring them out for educational events. I stood just watching for a while and eventually got out my sketchbook. I was standing up so kept it simple with just pen and ink, but what an immense treat to get to sketch them both close up. Owls are my favorite wildlife.

Libby had gone back to the lake to finish her sketch from earlier, and I rejoined her and did a watercolor of the second scene that had caught my eye that day. I loved the scraggly trees towering over the pavilion, looking the other way in the Japanese garden. I need to get back over here and draw more often. What a truly fantastic day.

I had a crazy week last week, and it was good to get a day where I could carve in the morning, take a nap, and head to the forest for a late afternoon ramble and sketching trip. The wildflowers are almost gone, but there are still lovely ones popping up. I'm also thinking my way through a new tree series (starting with the snow tree print I just finished), and it's been fun to walk and look at trees and ponder new ideas. Henry is always up for a walk and a poke around the forest, so we both had a great time.

It felt really good to be back at church this week. I haven't gone nearly as much since the pandemic for a variety of reasons, but I had been missing it and made it an energy priority this week. (That's one of the big reasons right there, just having the energy to do all the things I'd like to.) I got there early both on Friday night and Easter morning, so I could sketch from my back of the balcony perch before things got going. I experience and process things through art, so it felt right to celebrate through sketching. I wanted to catch the difference in tone from Good Friday to the light and color of Easter. Both were laid out pretty quickly, especially the Easter one, so the tricky architecture is a little iffy, but I was aiming to capture mood more than detail. It was a satisfying back to back pair of studies and attend an affecting pair of services as well.

I had a fairly crazy week last week with a Saturday show and family in town, but I managed to sneak a few sketching opportunities in along the way. First was Thursday night dinner (steak special!) at Ecco with my fellow sketcher Christina. We both had fun drawing from the patio in the midst of the 1920's neighborhood. Predictably she focused on a building, and I focused on a tree, but we both had a ball.

Friday the weather remained perfect, so Henry and I walked to the pharmacy, and the clouds behind Crosstown were perfect as I rounded the corner. One thing about lingering fatigue is that walks are easier with breaks, which is a perfect opportunity for sketching. We sat for a while, picked up necessities, and headed back home.

Finally I sketched the interior at Muddy's Bake Shop while I was their featured artist at a Saturday pop up. I love the space (any place is happier with a disco ball!) and also the whole crew of kind people working there. Another fellow sketcher Jan came and hung out for a while to talk palettes and travel and other fun things. Unfortunately I had refilled my paints and forgot to tuck them back in, so I worked instead with fountain pen and three watercolor markers (gamboge, cobalt blue, and paynes grey). I tend to go all paint everywhere as my default setting, so it was a good exercise in restraint for me.

Memphis is leaning into monsoon season this year, with a generous side of tornadic activity. We're supposed to be getting about 12" of rain over four days this week, but after Wednesday's tornadoes and Thursdays downpours, Friday dawned sunny. I took the opportunity for a day out and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I went to Crosstown first to run through the drug store and also get a chocolate croissant from my favorite bakery, and then I headed to Dixon.

After sitting the garden for a while enjoying the tulips I headed inside to the Floyd Newsum exhibition. It's so much fun to sketch these huge blocks of color with patterns woven in. They feel architectural and show up well across the room. I had done one sketch early in the show and have been wanting to get back, but the fatigue has been real this last month. I was glad to feel good today and get the chance to sketch in the show again. I used Neocolor watercolor crayons and Derwent Inktense pencils since watercolors are forbidden in the gallery. My bench was also in a deep shadow, so the green got a little more intense than I meant it to (when I'm mixing paint I tend to take the edge off with some blending, but with preset colors you get what you get). Overall though I'm happy with the sketch and had so much fun doing it. Aside from the colors, I love Newsum's use of his own personal vocabulary of motifs. Ladders, spoons, chickens, dogs, and, beautifully, his grandmother, recur often. The show makes me want to think more clearly about the symbols that are personal to me.

I worked through my normal lunch time, and I wanted to check the new books at Novel, so I treated myself to crab cakes on the patio of their bistro. It was hopping indoors, but I had the patio to myself on a chancy weather day. I hadn't eaten there in ages and enjoyed the crab cakes, and I also had fun sketching out across the parking lot to the crepe myrtle trees. It started sprinkling and then raining with a little more intent as I was getting close to finished (you can see splatter marks in the blue ink) so I called it finished and packed up quickly.

I finished the day by printing the first batch of my snow tree print while listening to a day baseball game, and I played my banjo and caught up my journal in the evening. An exceptionally good day.

Dixon plants thousands of tulip bulbs each year, and they are all bursting forth right now. A huge section of Memphis turns out to take family photos and roam around. It's kind of a fun show, especially on a Saturday, if you're interested in people more than in unobstructed views of the flowers. I settled on a bench and watched the flow of people and sketched the ones who stayed still long enough. I wasn't particularly happy with the way I did the blossoms, but I felt like this captured the bustle and color of the overall scene.

I'm trying to figure out how to help my dad with taxes for the first time ever, and it's a LOT. So I'm also trying to sketch a little along the way for happiness. I did this one the other night, and it's my favorite sketch lately. I really piled on some layers to get the watercolor that dark, though I also used a black brush pen on Henry's darker parts. He's a good model and even better companion, and I'm grateful.

I've been trying to remember to stash my sketching bag in easy reach of the couch. Henry is expressive in sleep and fun to draw. I had a low energy day yesterday, but I've been missing drawing, so I did a quick one of Henry on the sofa with his paw across my leg. I had planned to try to get my favorite lamp in too, but I sketched Henry big and only managed the base of it. The top sketch is from a couple of weeks ago. His ears make me happy.

I've been really busy with family business lately and not getting much art time, but I am taking breaks to get out in the sunshine and enjoy spring. It refills the cup. Henry and I took a lovely afternoon hiding deep in the old forest so I could sketch and enjoy the wildflowers, and I decided to put him in the foreground of this first one. I did a number of sketches of Mr. Darcy leaning against my knees or sleeping on my feet, and the intimacy of those sketches makes me happy. Here I had looped Henry's leash over my boot while I made a mess of sketching some trillium. I did this second sketch after, which I was really pleased with. It much better captured the full joy of that afternoon.

The next day my sister Erin suggested an impromptu visit to the family farm to pick the daffodils that have naturalized over the 19th century home site out there (the house was gone before I was born). She and her boys met me out there. They all moved crazy fast, and I got Wesley (the smaller one bending over) too big, but it was fun to catch that moment on the fly. I stayed after and finished the background. Always draw the bits that are going to wander off first.

Yesterday I went back to the park after spending most of my day doing business-y things instead of making art. It felt lovely to walk and sketch. This tree has been calling my name for several weeks now, and I enjoyed settling in to sketch it.

The weather has been utterly gorgeous this week, and I'm trying to get out and take advantage of it with sketching walks and patio meals. I'm low energy this week, but wandering around the park with a sketchbook is just right, and Henry and I have been over several different days. Such pleasure.