I made it back to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, last week for the first time in a couple of years. It's a smaller town right next to Biloxi with a stunning art museum where I was lucky enough to have a show a few years ago. The Walter Anderson Museum of Art has been keeping my prints and books in their museum shop ever since, so it was halfway a work trip to take more stuff down and renew ties and halfway just a get-out-of-town-and-exhale trip. And a get-out-of-my-own-four-walls trip too. I hadn't driven that far in a couple of years, and I was happy to find I had enough energy to get it done. I left super early and got in close to lunch time both ways, which worked great. I've always been a morning person.

There weren't any pressing places I just had to sketch in my head, but I did start thinking about the gorgeous cemetery with live oaks and bayou views on the way down, so that's where I headed my first full day. It was Sunday, so I had a lazy, delicious brunch (see the tiny teapot sketch), and then I had the entire graveyard to myself. So peaceful. I got out my biggest sketchbook and a dip pen and just dove in happily. It also felt right to be painting graveyards the week leading into Halloween.

I was staying just down the block from a smaller graveyard too, a little more informal and full of funky tributes and small statues. It also has a gorgeous live oak. My second day I sketched there after a call in on Maison de Lu for my favorite ever crabcakes. I did the big one of the tree and then a tiny one with the statue of Mary. I've been doing only line drawings in that small purse sketchbook, so I thought I'd do a little color while I had the paint out, but it felt anemic next to my big one with the richer ink and better paper. Also the mosquitoes were coming out, so I might have rushed it a bit. It was fun to do, though, which is most of what counts. And I was happy with my big one.