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.)

I did this sketch back in January and have been wanting to make a print of it, so this is my current project. It's the grave of Rev. Washington just north of Earle, Arkansas, which is Carroll Cloar country for those of you who like Southern art. Rev. Washington was one of the first Black landowners who owned extensive cotton fields in that part of the world. His church is just up the road with its own lovely cemetery, but he constructed his own funeral mound out in the middle of one of his cotton fields, and the sight has stayed with me in my mind.

It's nice to have an intricate block to dive into -- once it's drawn to size and transferred to the block with carbon paper I can just dip in and out of it as time and energy serve. It's been a crazy year on a number of fronts, so time and energy are both in short supply just now, but I love having a project I can pick up and put down as needed. And something meaningful that I look forward to doing.

Here's the first proof, just in black to see how the carving is going.

After a bit more work I did the first color proof. I'm rolling several colors onto the block at once and blending with the rollers. This technique cuts down the number of blocks and number of printings that each finished piece requires. It works well if the colors are harmonious when blended instead of fighting with each other. I'll do some more combinations and gradations and see what I like best for the finished print, though each one will be a little different from the last due to the inexact nature of rolling multiple colors at once. I can generally keep them in the same ballpark though.

I finally finished the second snow tree from my January photos. They're crazy slow to carve, and I took a long break, but it felt good to get back to it in time for the holiday markets. This one is a companion piece for the first one I carved, both of them on 14x11" paper. Modest sized but intricate. (I would still be carving an 18x24" block this time next year if I'd tried something this detailed.) It was nice to pull back to a basic black and white design instead of trying to line up multiple blocks. I'm thinking about some more trees to keep them company, but in the meantime, I'm working on my delta angel, which is a bit bigger but less complex.

Here's the first of the snow trees.

Gill Books in Ireland found me and wanted to use one of my prints on a book cover, which is delightful. I love how they've laid it out from front to back, and I love Ireland, and I love that my art is on bookshelves over there right now. What a lovely lift for my art year.

Here is the original print (one block with four colors hand mixed with rollers in one go) and the original watercolor I did sitting out on Levisham moor in Yorkshire.

I've been in a walking in the afternoon rhythm lately, and then this week the sunset jumped backwards so it turns out that golden hour is now about 3:40pm. I am at least getting some good slanted light sketches. I've been mixing up materials, with a dip pen and watercolor, Inktense pencils and watercolor, my new Lamy fountain pen with brown ink, water soluble graphite (which I paint on with a brush from a tin), and back to the dip pen with that lovely warm Diamine golden brown ink that kind of melts into the paint. That last one is from earlier, but I inadvertantly saved it in the wrong folder, so it didn't make it onto the blog before now. I'm not sure if all the materials are keeping me loose or keeping me from developing a groove, but I'm having fun, so here we are for now. I'm just reaching for whatever feels right for the scene.

It had been a kind of crazy week, so I was looking forward to seeing friends and hanging out with the Memphis Urban Sketchers. The day did not disappoint. We had a good crew there at Dixon (two visits in a week!) painting the gardens. It was chilly but with sunshine, and I've broken out my favorite tweed jacket and knitted hand warmers, just in time for November. I was drawn to these enormous leaves and the bright red chairs in front of them. I started with Diamine leaf green ink and a dip pen, moved to watercolor, used a little bit of red watercolor marker along with paint on the chairs (and regretted using that bold marker for my label and date, but there you go), and finished with a little Derwent inktense pencil on the bottom pavement. That whole section got a little muddy on me and I needed to lighten it up a little. Overall I was pleased, even if the bottom bothers me a little. I always seem to see the choices I regret when I look at a piece, but I like a lot of this one.

And then, once in a great while, I do something I'm really happy with. That night I sketched Henry on the "banjo chair" (that he, of course, thinks of as "Henry's chair" instead). I started with a simple line outline in inktense charcoal pencil and added water soluble graphite with a brush after. It's a little bit sparkly in person even. I've been greatly enjoying rediscovering that small tin for evening sketches. I had meant to add watercolor to the chair around him, but I managed a little uncharacteristic restraint when I got this far and stopped. I ended up really loving the composition. There was one line under the window and above his ear that got too dark with water on top. I was sorry I'd gone there, and also uncharacteristically, I got out the super fine sandpaper I use to take out margin ink spots on my prints and took it out again. I don't usually bother in my sketchbook, but I was so pleased with this overall that I wanted it to be really right. I tend to cover the full page, full on in paint, and when I can stop myself before that point, I often really like the results. Life goals...

I got excited and sent Memphis Magazine more work than they had room for in their illustrated feature on Burke's Books turning 150 this year. One was clearly a side quest on my part. I was both amazed and amused that the fancy Paris Opera is also 150 years old, and I love that building, so I did a painting of it too. I also sent them more dogs than they could use, since more dogs are always happy. They got Frankie with the heart-shaped nose on the website in their digital version but didn't have room in print. Maverick, with his owner's legs, made the magazine next to the editor's letter (a fellow dog lover) instead of with the feature itself, but that also made me happy.

This was such a joyful project to do that honestly I just didn't want it to end. It's been fun seeing it out and around town on new stands all month. I've had a slow year overall art-wise, so this has really been a thrill.