We also ran into my photographer friend Peter Ceren. He uses a nifty, not-much-focused lens to take stunning photos of our forest. He took a picture of Mr. Darcy and me as we approached. I like the feel of it (and a sharper lens would have caught all the bulges in my pocket with leash and sketching stuff). I will hasten to add that I'm carrying a camp seat for sitting on the ground and not a truly ugly purse. I'm always accessory challenged when I'm out with art gear.

My earliest is the last Stillman and Birns that I used. I like their paper a lot, but the 6x8 size is only in spiral bound, and scanning in sketches across that gap is challenging. Their bound sketchbooks open up to a pretty square format, and I really prefer a rectangle to work in. So this was my last hurrah for their books. The first half is the second half of my 2014 Paris trip, but I kept working in it on my return, and a good third of it was 2015. A couple of my favorites were a marker sketch of Mud Island and sketches of Mr. Darcy.

My first handbook journal, January to April, hooked me on their books. They're a great size to fit in my purse, take water media nicely, and even have a small pocket in the back for museum tickets and other momentoes. This was my hands down favorite page from that one.

I also got back to Shakertown in Kentucky, one of my favorite places to sketch.

During that period I also went to Amsterdam and spent a week sketching both the city and inside the museums.

And then on to Paris for one utterly beautiful week. 

Finally, I'm two thirds of the way through the small handbook I started in October. Sketching ground mostly to a halt during my really busy pre-Christmas season, but I got over the Dixon at the end of the holiday to sketch my show, which was the single biggest moment of my career.

I also (always) continue to sketch my beloved Mr. Darcy.

I've been enjoying sketching my tea lately. I've been doing it sporadically for a good while, but recently I saw Liz Steele's blog about all of her teacup sketches, and it reminded me how much I enjoy doing this too. It's a nice break in the day.

Here's one from Boxing Day. I have several that I haven't posted yet, so here they are together.

And one from even earlier.

I plan to do more of these in the new year, now that my work schedule is finally slowing down a bit.

I sketched a wedding last night. I've done maybe four of these ever, but it always touches me to be a small part of such a special occasion. I do all of these live and on site, which takes a lot of concentration. There are no do-overs, and I always end up with some that weren't what I had hoped, but for this wedding, I'm pleased with 12 of 15, and that's not a bad ratio at all for an event where the principals are all in almost constant motion.

When I do this, I show up early. I love sketching the bride and her mother or sisters or friends interacting during the fastening of the dress. Here's it's the mother (in purple) doing up the back and the sister fastening her pearls.

A couple of other early sketches were the bride in her kimono as everyone gathered to dress and the dress itself hanging on the shaker rack.

I carried four watercolor pads, two 7x10 and two 6x8, so I could grab the next while the sketch I just finished was still drying. I used my water brush while we were all moving around before the service, but for the more finished pieces during the wedding (well, ones with backgrounds, anyway), I set myself up in a just-behind-the-family pew and poured out a few palette cups of water next to me and got my bigger paint set out. (It's still a modest-sized travel one.)

People hold slightly more still during the photo sessions, and that extra time gives me longer with the principals in front of me, so I sketch during the photo taking when I'm sketching a wedding. That also lets me warm up and get a sense of the people in my brush before the do-or-die service time.

The bride had told me that the most important thing to her for me to capture (aside from the obvious scenes) was a sketch of her parents walking her down the aisle together. That moved very quickly, but the photographer was not allowed in the sanctuary during the worship service, so I wanted to try. I warmed up on a flower girl and then did the family.

That's the full set of 15 sketches in about 3 1/2 hours. I did a tiny bit of touch up on 4 or 5 of them when I got home and looked at them in better light, but mostly these were done live and on site. I don't work well from photos, and I prefer drawing what's in front of me to staring at a screen at my work table. I was overall pleased with how these came out, which is really all I can ask for, given that people are not my primary focus in my work.

2015 was the banner year of my art career, with my Dixon show and my residency and Memphis Theological. Personally it was incredibly painful for a good long time, with one small, last kick in the pants on the way out. There were also periods of exquisite beauty and over the top happiness. Such is life, I suppose, and I'm deeply grateful to have the art to carry me through the harder places. Art is healing and escape and meaning for me, and I'm so lucky to have such an absorbing focus for my life.

I started the new year with a dear friend in the house and a first sketch of Mr. Darcy. Begin as you mean to continue. I'll take it. And now I'm off for the annual new year's jam to play my bass and banjo.

I did my last gallery tour at Dixon today, and a number of friends showed up for it. As well as some people I didn't know at all but who wanted to hear about my work. Both were lovely.

I got there early to film a snippit for their YouTube channel (which I am waiting nervously to see how awful it might look), and I spent the time in between sketching the gallery with my show in it. This has been a pivotal moment in my career and my most exciting show, and I wanted to memorialize it in my sketch journal. And really just drink in and celebrate the moment. I feel so lucky to have had this chance to show with such a wonderful museum that influenced my development as an artist.

I have likely said this before, but it's the glass cases with my sketchbooks inside that really get me about this show. So very museum-y. Gives me goosebumps.

I'm going to be sad to see it come down. It's been a thrilling ride this fall. But I am also looking forward to the quiet long blocks of time in January to get back to fully making art again after all the show and holiday busyness dies down. I've got a new print underway that I'll post here soon. It feels good.

After my Thanksgiving post, I went back to the forest to paint for the afternoon. It was an utterly gorgeous day, so I took my sit-on-the-ground camp chair and my journal as well as a couple of sketchbooks and spent the whole afternoon in the forest. It's been raining ever since, so I've been doing the non-photogenic indoor work of pulling prints and cleaning the house for my Open Studio Sale (Dec. 12-13, 12-5 both days).

It was largely a lovely afternoon, but there were a few bad minutes in the middle of it. I have known for years that going out into the world and settling on the ground with your things spread around you opens you up to whatever the universe chooses to send you that day. 99% of the time, it's wonderful. I've been brought cushions, invited in for tea, given a lap-full of tangerines, given art made my other people who loved to see what I was doing too, and I've met marvelous people on three continents. Occasionally it's a little dicey. You can't just walk away quickly from someone who's harassing a woman alone, as happens occasionally, when you've got your easel set up.

On Thanksgiving it was a dog issue. Mr. Darcy and I were well off the pedestrian road through the forest, painting out of the way, and he was settled at my side. A woman walking three large dogs drifted too close to us. Mr. D is more protective when I'm sitting and was growling, but I had him sitting right beside me. Then the three dogs swarmed him, towing their owner along with them, and I basically had a dog fight going on in my lap. I couldn't get Mr. D away because I was pinned on the ground (if I'd been up and walking it would have been ok), and it took the woman at least five tries to pull them off of us. Mr. D got a number of scratches, none bad, and I have a huge bruise turning purple on my shin, but we were very lucky. It could have been much uglier.

It was definitely a day I was grateful for the mentally balancing act of sketching. I had a half finished sketch (on now-bent paper, but still) to finish, and I'd gotten myself back to a better place by the time I was done. I stayed out, went deeper into the woods to get away from the holiday/Saturday dog owners who tend to be more incompetent handling their dogs than the daily park users, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. But it was one of those occasional reminders that making art can be a dicey enterprise.

I wasn't particularly thinking this way at the time, but yesterday's late afternoon sketch is perfect for Thanksgiving. Not just because of the colors and the light and the gratitude for the beauty that I felt while doing it, but also because of this place. One thing that I am continually grateful for as an artist is the deep sense of place that spending a lifetime drinking in landscapes gives me. This place, this forest, makes me happy every day. I am unbelievably lucky to live four blocks from a forest, right in the heart of Memphis. It is an endless font of beauty, a refuge, a place to savor each day. A landscape painter could not ask for more.

I don't want to add to the glorification of busyness because I am a moderation kind of girl, and I do build in good life breaks like sister lunches, girlfriend teas, and daily long forest walks with Mr. Darcy. But I had not taken a whole Day Off since the first weekend of October (which  in itself was nice enough to carry me through the month by itself), and I did greatly enjoy myself yesterday. Truly, I'm not great at taking a whole day off unless I'm off dancing somewhere. I tend to draw a lot even on vacation, but that's the fun part of being an artist. I've been doing a lot more of the nuts and bolts work lately, though, and a day off sounded good.

So yesterday I treated myself to a massage to celebrate the end of the show. I got myself a Muddy's cupcake for lunch to celebrate National Chocolate Day. I took a long walk and a snuggly nap with Mr. Darcy.

And then I had a two hour design committee meeting for Overton Park. Sigh. So I sketched. Because what else are you going to do in a two hour design committee meeting? (Even though it was good, and I was glad to be there to have some input.)