Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Here are some sketches from my niece's middle school holiday band concert. Just imagine all sorts of holiday songs being played as you look at these :)

Portrait Sketch Season

I did a couple of commissioned sketch portraits for Christmas recently, and it had been a while since I'd done any so I made my family and friends sit for me so I could practice. Luckily we had Ravioli Day, so I had plenty of subjects to choose from.

 Abe

 Calvin

 Chloe

 Genevieve

Joshua

 Kristy

 Somerset

Stacey

Memphis Monday: Utility Poles

Our utility poles aren't buried like they are in some places because we are on the river delta so there's not much under us. At least, that is my understanding - it could just be that it's cheaper?

I made this quick sketch while getting gas on a very cold morning. I like the activity of the birds.

Ravioli Day

Just a quick sketch of the table at the end of the Ravioli Day meal. We work up quite an appetite making 50 dozen ravioli!

Follow Friday: Pete Scully

Pete Scully is a sketcher who makes very intricate sketches of buildings and toys and mince pies. Take a look at his blog - his sketches speak for themselves!

Thanksgiving in Fort Lauderdale

We had a lovely time with my sister and her family at Thanksgiving! I haven't spent Thanksgiving in Florida in years and years. Everyone there kept complaining about the cold. It was cute.

Harper insisted that I sketch their living room - here it is!

We took the kids to the park to burn off some energy after Thanksgiving dinner. Don't they know that's when you nap?

Studio Night Last Night: Thinking About My Show

This exhibit is about travel - the paintings are of Spain and of London - but they are also about processing a trip after it is over. The trips I take live on in my head forever, plus I have records of them in the sketches that I make on location.

I started the Tiny London paintings soon after returning from London and they feel like how I would think about the trip so soon after it: little snippets of an image or memory, or of a feeling of walking down a particular street, would come back to me here and there.

After more time had passed and I had taken more trips, I started making some of those paintings bigger. By then the memories about and feelings of the trip began to shift; some were more vivid while some faded. In making the Small London paintings, I played with the colors and moved the forms around.

The paintings of Spain I call, "Learning to Say I Love You in Spanish." They are of a village called Robledillo de la Jara and the countryside around it, and of Madrid. My husband and I went there in 2010 with my uncle and aunt and several cousins to visit my aunt's mother; it was our first experience traveling with others. We fell in love with the place and made a friend for life. It was the kind of magical trip that is transformative, but transforms over time into a thousand different stories and feelings.

It took me over three years to process the trip enough to paint it. These paintings are meant to feel more like sketches in the way they were made, and to feel more like memories in the way they are loose, with oddly paired imagery that is slightly unreadable in places.

The exhibit, April in Paris and Lessons in Spanish, with Martha Kelly's watercolors and prints of Paris, is up until January 2nd at Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry Road, Memphis TN.

Tallahassee Tuesday

Here's another trip! I went to Tallahassee to celebrate my BFF Robin's 40th birthday. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Her house is wonderful and her kids are amazing and her parents and brother and husband are awesome and I got to meet all of her cool friends. It was a lovely lovely time.

Memphis Monday: Lisa's Lunchbox

Here's another sketch of Lisa's Lunchbox - it's a great place to go for lunch and to get a casserole to eat later.

Lisa's Lunchbox
5885 Ridgeway Center Parkway #101

Take the first left in the Ridgeway Loop, then turn left into the first parking lot. Go into the building on the right, and there it is!

Supply Sunday: Oil Paint

I love oil paint SO MUCH. I have thoroughly enjoyed them this year: teaching them, discovering new colors, and figuring out how to make paintings that look and feel more like sketches.

You can see what I've been working on at my show that opens on Tuesday.

Another Trip

Earlier this month a couple of my girlfriends and I went to Kentucky Lake, a couple hours north of here in the great state of Tennessee.

We mostly ate cheese dip and drank wine, but we also managed to go for a walk around the lake shore (after a nap, of course).

I sketched this from the deck of our cabin.

Here are Terron and Heather reading magazines while it's still light out, before we started a beautiful fire in that fire pit behind them. We roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, drank more wine, and then went inside to watch the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I'm happy to be celebrating it with family. I'm also happy to work at a place that hosts a Thanksgiving Potluck every year. After years and years of working with two or three other people, I still get a lot of joy from participating in giant potlucks!

Here's a sketch I did while doing dessert intake duty at this year's potluck. Look at all those desserts!

(click image for more detail)

Studio Night Last Night: Studio Sketches

These are from back when I had energy to sketch before and after Studio Night. Actually, they are all from October - that was a good month!

Click on the sketches to get more detail.

I'm Back from Several Trips

First, Austin. We went for a weekend to attend Cooper and Shannon's wedding. We drove halfway, to Texarkana, to break up the drive.

On the drive from Texarkana to Austin, LOOK AT WHAT WE FOUND! We sped off the interstate even though we weren't hungry yet and ate some glorious glorious In-N-Out burgers.

I enjoyed watching all the birds and the shadows on this church across the street from our hotel. I forgot to draw the birds because I had to draw this super fast as the shadows started to disappear. The sun was going down fast.

That night we went to a restaurant called Shady Grove with Toby's mom and brother, his two aunts and his two cousins. We had a great time just laughing and laughing.

On Friday we hung our in our hotel room a lot. It was really relaxing.

After lunch I wandered around and went to the capitol.

Saturday was the wedding. I got to sketch while we waited for the wedding to start, the whole time wishing I had more than just a pen with me.

The wedding and reception were lovely, and we're happy to have Shannon in the family!