I got jumped by a bunch of family business on my return from New York and spent a week or so not sketching. I have managed to jump back in over the last week, starting with a farm sketch out at the family farm, followed by a pastel de nata at a new chain bakery in Memphis. I have loved these in Paris and been unable to get them in Memphis, so I had high hopes. It was ok but not great sadly. Phyllo instead of pie crust. Not satisfying enough to be worth the splurge but fun to sketch in my small sketchbook.

Then Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the main library yesterday. It's a bit of an overwhelming building to take on perspective-wise, but I love the colors and light. It was fun, even if I flunked corners of the architecture.

I did a super quick sketch in my small sketchbook at the end. I love the trees in there but didn't have time to do much I was proud of, but it still felt fun to try.

Memphis Magazine let me illustrate their back page feature "The Last Stand" last month. I loved having an open ended invitation to tell a story. It was a quickish turnaround, and I didn't manage a full narration, but I went to two farmers markets after getting the assignment and had fun conversations as well as seeing the rich visual bounty of such places. I ended up doing a graphic feature called "Farmers Market chit-chat." I keep saying I'd like to do more visual storytelling, and it was lovely to get the invitation. See the whole spread here.

And of course Henry made an appearance.

I walked through the entrance hall and stepped out into the first cloister and fell immediately in love. I had only spent a handful of days in New York and had never before had the time to take the longer ride up to the north end of Manhatten. The Cloisters is a bit remote, which I am sure protects it from the worst of the crowds, but it is so worth the journey.

In my more restricted last few years I have been missing Europe badly. I love traveling places where the history is old. I love being surrounded by Medieval buildings and carvings. The Cloisters was such a balm for me. It's a crazy mish-mash, but it is so beautifully done that it utterly works. Barnard, a sculptor, lived and worked on the continent in the early 20th C and became a compulsive collector of Medieval carved stone. He bought a whole chapter house in France that had been reduced to usage as a barn. He bought three cloisters, none of them complete but with enough original pieces to put together evocative and beautiful spaces. Every door and doorway in the place is historical and different, but the stone structure that houses all of these disparate pieces is so simple and sensitive that it all feels almost inevitable. Rockefeller saw Barnard's collection and donated this museum that brought all those pieces into one living building. I miss the time when billionaires built museums and schools and libraries, but we continue to be richer as a society because of the ones who did.

Another thing that feels European is the way the indoor and outdoor spaces flow together. I am still masking in public, and it was such joy to have so much of the museum open air. There are some lovely galleries too, plus one stunning Robert Campin altarpiece that I had studied in college and was surprised to meet face to face. The windows, like the doorways, set panels of Medieval glass into simple, diamond shaped glass panes with glimpses of the Hudson through the gaps. The stained glass is alive and vital in a way that it never is that funeral home way of artificial lighting from behind. It doesn't all match, but it harmonizes. I truly fell in love with the whole place. My dad had been telling me for years that I needed to go, but I was never in the city for more than a day or two. I'm so glad I made it, and I will definitely be back.

The collection of artwork is gorgeous too. I fell in love with this small English saint and sketched him in my smaller purse sketchbook. I also had a lovely long conversation with a summer intern at the Met (what a dream job!) in the unicorn tapestries room. She's an artist as well, and it was so fun to hear about her big adventure of a summer and share our work a bit. I love traveling solo because it leaves space for me to meet and spend time with people instead of being more walled in a bubble of companions.

The first sketch was the cloister with the cafe. I loved being able to get a nice salad and real tea and sit at a table and draw the beautiful garden in the center. After lunch I came back up and drew the biggest cloister that was the first thing I saw. I love the twisted trees in this one. It's only a third the size of its original, but they made it the size that matched the capitals they had, and they filled in some of the columns and surrounding walls with stone from the same quarry. I was on a bench back underneath the overhang, and the colors got a little bright on me. I also think I was just so uplifted that I leaned into the pinks and purples. I toned it down a bit later in better light, but it's still a slightly over the top emotional response to the beauty of the place, and that's ok.

I spent all day there and just missed the bus as I walked out. There was a lot of traffic, so a group of us waited a bit for the next one, and I did a much quicker sketch of the outside, using ink and a red watercolor marker since I was fully outside the museum. To end the day I pulled out my smaller sketchbook again and sketched a couple of the fellow would-be passengers. It was a congenial group and a marvelous day.

My second full day in New York I headed for the Frick. Reading about their small Vermeer show had been the tipping point for buying my ticket and taking the plunge. Plus I've been reading all fall about their newly opened second story -- galleries in the family rooms that were offices, closed to the public, for decades. They've done a gorgeous job. I would love for them to have more benches, but otherwise it was wonderful. I did find a great bench at the top of the grand stairway where I could look down to the main hall and the organ and grandfather clock. I had so much fun drawing the birds eye view of the museum, using my Inktense pencils again. They are more candy colored than my normal palette, so I put a few grey washes down later to try to keep it from being quite so bright, but overall I was delighted with how it came out.

The three Vermeers gathered for the show all centered around letters. There was the Frick's own epistolary piece, one from the Rijksmuseum, and one I had never seen in person from Dublin. It was funny. There was a line down the block and sometimes around the corner to get in, but once you were inside the museum you could flow into the Vermeer room at will. It would sometimes get a little crowded, but most people looked at each piece about a minute and cleared out, and there were plenty of quiet times in between. I got to stand with each piece as long as I wanted to. Vermeers are a rare treat and worth savoring. Oddly the other two Vermeers were almost ignored in the main museum. And when I got back to the Met, they had five in a room that was also mostly empty. People are funny. But I'm glad I went to see the ones that live further away. It was such a good day, made better by a lovely chat with a bookmaker who now lives in Colorado. I had my lunch outside and was working on my sketch a little in the better light. I love that art is so often an introduction to people when I'm traveling alone. (Hi, Rosemary!)

Here's the sketch I did waiting for the museum to open that morning. The Met had opened at 10, so I had (foolishly) assumed the Frick was on the same schedule. Turns out it was 10:30, but I had a sketchbook to entertain me.

Walking back up to the bus at the end of the day I spotted this bright pink food truck and had to sketch it. I am so visually drawn to the fever dream colors and fun shapes of food trucks. Sometime I'll end up with a whole series of them I'm sure.

Two weeks in a row I've managed to make it to the midweek lecture at Dixon. This week it was their membership person Dorothy Svgdik talking about why she loves museum. So fun, and I did three quickish sketches while I was listening. I'm still really enjoying having the small sketchbook in my purse with a handful of pens for easy access. I'm so much more likely to sketch instead of looking at my phone if I make it super easy and accessible for myself. And I'm invariably happier afterwards if I do make that choice.

Afterwards I took a walk with friends around the garden and then went back inside to sketch in the gallery. I love the spaces in museums and have been seeing a lot of online sketches lately inside museums. Not exclusively copies of the art, but drawings of the space. I would love to do more of those myself, though I so miss being able to sketch in pen and watercolor. American museums tend to be really restrictive about materials in a way most European museums aren't. So it didn't come out as hoped, but here was my bigger sketchbook gallery landscape in pencil and watercolor crayon. I had fun sitting and looking at the space and light even if it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. Honestly no sketch ever matches the vision in my brain that I have when I start, but some get closer than others. This one wasn't close, but that's how it goes. On the other hand, I was really happy with my sketch of pewter and people above, a couple of audience members off to my left.

Friday night, at the beginning of the heat, Christina and I headed to Memphis Pizza Cafe, which has a shady back deck with trees and ceiling fans. It was really perfect. We've met there a couple of times, and it's great for Henry accompanying us. I also like that I can get a fresh crunchy salad and one good sized slice of pizza without ordering a whole pie. And they have meatball pizza. We had a good visit and a nice sketching session.

As a bonus, here's my sketch from last time we went, sitting a little closer to the tree and seeing the whole arch.

I'm still playing with the limited group of Inktense pencils in my dedicated forest sketching kit. This sketch was started with a middle green pencil (which you can see in the date), a light sepia one (mostly in the path) and a "bark" one, the tree trunks, that is vividly warm with water added on top, almost a reddish purple, but which feels more natural than a solid black. I think I'd like to add one dark blue green pencil for forest depth quickly (which I did with paint here), but it's fun to have to make choices with a limited palette.

Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the downtown welcome center on Saturday, and the heavens opened in the half hour before we met. Eight hardy souls sloshed their way downtown. The worst of the cloudburst was over  by the time I got there, and there are covered outdoor tables and super overactive indoor air conditioning, so I chose the dampish outdoors. My inflatable, waterproof butt cushion came in super handy. I perched on a table outside and sketched the first two pieces, including the rain coming down. I usually scan sketches for my website, but that light blue-grey sky just doesn't show up on the scanner, so here's the photo I took on site.

It finally started blowing more, so I moved inside and joined a group around the Elvis statue. All three of these were started in Inktense water soluble pencils and then watercolor on top. I've been doing quick forest sketches with those pencils lately and enjoying the texture and immediacy.

Just for fun I took a little video of sketching in the rain.

I am really struggling with fatigue this spring. I've had long covid for two and a half years, but it's especially bad just now. I miss traveling and seeing friends, but I've decided that if I can't go far, I can at least go deep. I've made myself a special Old Forest backpack to keep the car and always have (since I'm driving to the forest instead of walking there just now). It's got a smaller sketchbook, a more limited set of sketching equipment, a waterproof inflatable cushion to sit on (key with the wet week we're having), and a set of binoculars a friend gave me a few years ago. The top sketch is actually my full sized sketchbook (5.5x8"). I had my full kit so the Lamy pen had Diamine Earl Grey ink in it. It's not waterproof, and I like how that gentler color melts into the paint. Black ink would just make a puddle, but I like to draw with grey, brown, or green that will play with the paint.

Below are two from my new kit. It's a sketchbook I had started but but not gotten very far in. It's a 5.5" square that opens out to a more full landscape format. This was my go-to size for years, but I've gone a little bigger recently. It's fun to mix up shapes though. My friend Elizabeth knows I like Inktense water soluble pencils and gave me a bundle she was no longer using. I put several basic colors in this new sketch kit and then used a bit of watercolor on top.

This morning Henry and I were in the forest when a fellow walker called me off a few paces onto a side trail. He'd spotted a barred owl. I saw one last week before I had my sketching kit, so I was delighted to get a second chance at sketching one. She sat and watched us for ages, not too far off the ground. I used the black and the bark Intense pencils with just a little water on top to activate them, no extra paint. She finally took off, but I got to really study her with binoculars and pencil both. Owls have a prehistoric and a magical feeling, like you've stepped slightly into a different world. I'm grateful every time I get to see one.

Christina and I went to Tonica for a second time. It's a tapas place right in the neighborhood with a small back patio that feels like a cafe alleyway from Europe and that also is dog friendly. I appreciate the places where I can walk Henry, get a lovely meal, and walk home again. I also appreciate the slightly fancy places that still welcome dogs, since Henry completely panics if he's left at home alone.

I was right at the end of a sketchbook, and I did the last two pages. I wasn't super inspired about anything except my truly lovely sangria. Always sketch the pink drink, to misquote another friend. I seem to get the base of every wine glass I draw way too big and only realize it after the fact, but I had a good time anyway. Christina was facing the other way, back towards a tiny, lush patio of the business next door, and she was still working after dinner. I decided to do an even faster one just for fun. Neither is really great, but I'm always happier when I sketch, and it's always good practice.