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.