SKETCHES

Sketches

Memphis got its own chapter of the international group Urban Sketchers in 2010, and sketching has become a much more important part of my work. I used to do a sketch or two just to lay out a painting, but sketching wasn't something I did for its own sake very often, usually only on trips. The Memphis Urban Sketchers have inspired me to carry a sketchbook much more regularly and use sketching as a visual journal of my own life. In the process I have brought home images that I wasn't out looking for but that have become paintings or prints later on because they kept calling my name. I have also begun using watercolor, markers, and ink after watching the other artists in the group have fun with these media.

This is a small (even if it doesn't feel like it) selection of the sketches I do. Follow my blog to see almost all of them as I do them, or browse the archives for more.

Memphis

Memphis is my lifelong home and always my favorite subject. I love walking around my neighborhood and watching for new places to paint. All of these single sheet watercolors were done on site (the definition of urban sketching).

These days I do more of my sketching in sketchbooks than on blocks. Early on I did more loose leaf sketching so I could use it in shows, but I like the power of having art journals, where I can just fall into places and events years later as I open the pages, and a journal doesn't feel as tight. It's only for me, so I'm not trying to be perfect. When these images do keep calling me, I'll do paintings or prints from them, or sometimes these days make books.

Dogs

My dogs are my muses these days, beginning with Mr. Darcy and continuing with my current guy Henry, a black and white printmaker's dream. I even keep a specific sketchbook on the coffee table in easy reach for dog sketches, in case my regular one isn't beside me.

Home sketches

I also really enjoy sketching my domestic life, which means sketching a lot of teapots and cake and flowers. Things that make me happy.

Paris

These are a few of the watercolors from my 2016 trip to Paris that were included in my Celestial Paris exhibition. The show ran from October 28, 2016 to January 1, 2017 and included some oils and prints as well that were done from these sketches after I got home. All the watercolors were painted on site, sitting on the sidewalk, or a park bench if I got lucky. Sometimes even a cafe table. Sketching a place you enjoy being is a great way to lock it into your memory and savor it later, every time you open up your sketchbook.

I've been lucky to spend time in Paris on occasion, and I've written out some off the beaten track hints if anyone is going and would like some ideas of fun places.

After I did my big Paris show I spent more time in later years (I was lucky enough to have an annual cat sitting gig until it got interrupted by the pandemic) doing less formal things in a sketchbook.

England

We took a family vacation (Dad, step-mom, and one of the sisters) to England in the summer of 2014. I hadn't been back to England, one of my favorite places in the world, since I became a serious landscape painter, so I was delighted to have the chance to be there with my paints. These sketches are from Winchester, Wells, the Peak District, and the North York moors.

Greece and Turkey

The line between vacations and work trips is pretty blurry for the artists I know. My family took a two week vacation to Greece in June 2012, and I spent a lot of time hanging out with them but also a decent amount of time off painting by myself and meeting up with them for dinner. After they went home, I spent one more week on my own painting in Bergama, Turkey, where I had been with my pastels two years ago.