Memphis got insanely lucky this weekend, missing a dire ice storm by a matter of miles. We're still pretty sleeted and iced in at home, but the city kept power, and I am grateful. I took advantage of a quiet morning to print this new cat block that I carved a little while ago. I'm very dog focused, and Henry is my main muse, but I decided it was time to reach out to the cat folks a little. This is Gracie, my partner's cat, from a photo he sent me that felt utterly charming. Once these are dry I'll sign them and maybe add my small red chop with my carved initials, but I'll play with it on newsprint and make sure I like the placement before making a final decision.

In dog news, Henry and I clumped across the road to an open lot/informal neighborhood park and let him run around a little.

I had a conversation this week with a new artist friend about how sketching always makes me happier than looking mindlessly at my phone, and it renewed my focus on pulling out the tiny purse sketchbook I (almost) always have with me in those small spaces during the day. I did the top sketch during a stop by the Metal Museum to see their new show and pick up enamel tiles from a workshop I did last year. I love the old bridge that we're slated to lose at some point to something more modern, so I took a minute to sketch it with a simple fountain pen. I treated myself to a new not-too-fancy-but-fancier-than-my-Lamy Pelikan late last year, and I'm really enjoying using it. I grabbed it again waiting in line at Target the other day and added a little red Windsor & Newton watercolor marker (I love their juicy colors). Clearly I closed it a little fast as I got to the front of the line, but it was fun to do in that couple of minutes of waiting instead of reaching for my phone. Here's hoping I can keep going on this streak.

Shapeshifter Art School opens this week offering continuing education art classes to Memphis, filling a void that badly needed some help. I'm so excited about the quality of the teachers, the interesting range of classes, and the gorgeous building it's all housed in. Elizabeth Alley, who founded our Memphis Urban Sketchers chapter, is one of the five artists who also founded the art school. She got the urban sketchers in early to have our monthly meeting and sketch the school. I was completely bewitched by this funhouse mirror door frame. the reflections and light were fascinating, even if the sketch got busy trying to capture all that. And I always enjoy a chance to sneak in a self portrait, this time in brand new thrift store jeans with a great bootleg flare.

I was finished ahead of time, so as well as chatting with friends I pulled out my small purse sketchbook and did one tiny corner with a Nicole Ritchie sculpture by a window.

Afterwards Christina and I caught up over Farmburger at Crosstown. Their holiday lights are still up through the dark part of the winter, and I did a super fast sketch with my gamboge W&N watercolor marker (one of my favorite tools) and a little bit of fountain pen after. It was a great day out, and I've been enjoying being out of the house more this week. It's nice to mark the good days in my sketchbook to remember later.

I gave myself an art day out today after turning in the cover art for Memphis Magazine's February issue a couple of days ago. I know artists who are disciplined in their work hours and days, but I am not one of them. I work through a lot of weekend time but give myself days off while everyone else is at work (which is the nicest time to take them except for seeing friends who are off work on weekends). Also my time off is muddy anyway, as non artist friends have pointed out to me, since sketching is often part of a day out for me.

Elizabeth Alley was talking at Dixon on her art residency in the arctic circle, which was fascinating. I love the noon Wednesday lecture series because it gets it on my calendar to take a museum day. And I love vicarious travel and artists talking about their craft. A perfect excuse to get out. And it was great. I chose paradise blue ink to do some of the sketching in because it felt as appropriate for the chill of the subject matter as it does for the blue of the Caribbean. That was the one I spent the most time on, but then she got to her slide of a polar bear track, and I grabbed my tiny purse sketchbook to record that.

It's 70 degrees today and gorgeous, so after walking through the printmaking exhibit again I ordered a peach tea latte and a blueberry muffin to take out into the gardens. Day out indeed. The drink making is delicious but a little slow, so I sat down to wait and sketched the croissant in the case while I waited. That's my gamboge Windsor and Newton watercolor marker as color. I love their juicy, saturated markers.

Sitting outside at Dixon feels a tiny bit like Paris. There are tables behind rows of  pruned trees and boxwood hedges with a view through to a Rodin statue. It always makes me think of the sculpture garden at the Rodin museum just a little, and it's a happy place for me. Sometime I'll sketch that view, but Elizabeth's talk about drawing patterns on her trip stuck with me, and when I looked down at the table base, I drew that instead. I did a whole series of sketches of my black boots when I was traveling in Paris, so again it felt like a small flashback to good times. It was a truly excellent day out.

I often try to do a very quick sketch on happy occasions just to have something to flip over later in my sketchbook/journal/carnet de voyage (travel book in French, but that phrase has the tang of adventure that I love). I fall back into that day and place when I come across such a sketch. So I did a super fast little pen/wash/marker sketch in the small sketchbook I keep in my purse while I was sitting in the sunshine sharing pastries from Lucy J's bakery with my dad. A good day.

It's been a sunny and unusually warm start to the year, and I'm taking advantage with some sketching walks in the old forest. It feels good to get out, let Henry explore a bit, and enjoy a place I love so much. This first is Diamine Golden Brown ink with watercolor. I've done a couple of different graphic essays with those materials, but I recently refilled a pen that had dried up, and I'm planning to use it more. The ink is dark enough to show a line but light enough to meld with the paint without making a muddy mess. Really perfect.

I did a super quick one New Year's Eve. It was late in the afternoon, and I mostly just painted the sunshine itself. The sun and owls and a feel good day for me felt like a good omen for the coming year. One of those moments I wanted to memorialize for later in my sketchbook.

Here are a couple of older ones, one complete with a few raindrops as I was finishing. That's the Diamine Ancient Copper ink again, and the last one is Inktense pencils with watercolor on top.

2025 was a super hard year for me personally as well as for a lot of folks in the broader world sense. Six is my favorite number, and I'm more than usually happy to turn the page. I felt good this week and did a little stand up printshop work for the first time in a while and just made myself a small marker for the new year. It's so fun to have wood type to play with when I get an idea. I'm glad I downsized my print shop this past year, but I'm equally grateful for all the beautiful type that has come my way over the years, especially from my mentor Cheryl, who gave me both of these fonts. I've got another small letterpress project lined up for when I feel good standing again, and I'm looking forward to it. In the meantime, I'm taking sketching walks in the forest and working on a new commission for Memphis Magazine, which thrills me.

I'm on a new PT program and trying not to undercut it by doing too much while I'm building slowly there, but I miss the forest. My PT folks said to go slowly and sit down at intervals and rest, so hey! Sketching! I did two yesterday. The crazy Ancient Copper Diamine ink at the top. It always scans even a little hotter than it is in person. I never find quite the right thing to do with it, but I love it anyway. I put some pencils behind it out on the trail, but when I got it home it didn't feel right, so I added watercolor washes in the background, leaving a bright contrast with the central focus of the trees.

Then it was so sunny and warm that Henry and I headed out to the Greensward to sit on a picnic table and enjoy the day. I ended up doing a second sketch in Inktense pencils with watercolor on top. It's always the trees for me.

After writing my last post with the yellow roses sketch, I realized I had never posted this one of peonies. I tend to treat myself occasionally when I see flowers on sale, and I'm a total sucker for peonies. I sketched them while watching tv last night. I did the line work in Inktense pencils and put watercolor on top. It's one of my favorite recent sketches.

I had an energy crash at the end of the week, but fortunately I found roses on sale a few days ago at Fresh Market, so I have them to brighten my sofa retreat. Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence always gave his young fiancee May lilies of the valley, but he sent "glowing yellow roses" to the intelligent, divorced, bohemian Ellen Olenska. Ellen showed me an alternate path to the stifling social milieu of high school, and I periodically buy myself yellow roses to celebrate my life choices. I got a one month pass on HBO Max to watch the Gilded Age, which I've been wanting to see, so they feel doubly appropriate.

I made it to church for the first time in a while last week. Advent is my very favorite liturgical season, even though my church seems to have largely abandoned the plainsong Advent carols I love best. It was good to be back, and I sketched the church with its wreaths. (Presbyterians are a little unreliable on the liturgical seasons, and we've always decked the church the weekend after Thanksgiving even though it's weeks early. It does still look nice though.)