Sketching in New Orleans

Memphis is an easy drive to New Orleans, so in the last few years I’ve been there several times. This was my second trip during Mardi Gras, and I tell you what – that is the time and place for sketching! There is so much activity – marching bands, floats, crazy hats, people dressed up as dolls – all with a backdrop of historic architecture and coastal trees.

Here’s how I spent the weekend:

Eating with my friends. Seven of us caravanned down there, stopping to eat along the way.

Waiting for parades. This was the first parade on Friday night, at Lee Circle right in front of our hotel.

Watching parades. As the night went on, my sketches made less and less sense.

Getting refueled. We had a bit of a slow start Saturday morning, but some coffee and a mimosa fixed us all up.

Waiting for parades. I woke up enough to sketch this while waiting for the parades on Saturday.

Waiting for parades in a different neighborhood. This was the Marigny neighborhood, where we waited for the Chewbacchus parade. Lots of costumes in the crowd! I was dressed as “cold lady with a sketchbook.”

Sketching Chewbacchus! These next two pages were so. much. fun. to sketch.

Click on the images to make them a little bigger so you can see the captions.

Pink Chewbacca was the ultimate sketch find!

Drinking. What? I know, right. On Sunday we brunched, I walked around a lot and watched more parades, so I didn’t get any sketching in until we were at a tiki bar after a nice big dinner at Arnaud’s. These drinks were too pretty not to sketch!

And appropriately, the documentation of the weekend ends with these drinks.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Work Is Your New Favorite

Today I worked on all four of my jobs. I worked at my job job, worked on Urban Sketchers stuff, worked on my workshop coming up at Flicker Street Studio, and made sketches for an upcoming commission! In honor of all that work work work work, here are some sketches of desks and stuff on my desks.

Explore Oil Painting Materials Workshop at Flicker Street Studio in February

The Exploring Materials & Methods of Oil Painting class is now the new and improved Exploring Oil Painting Materials WORKSHOP! We realized it's hard to devote three nights to classes when you won't really be making art (but *preparing* to make it), so we condensed the information into a workshop! The new date and time is Saturday, February 20, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Click here to sign up.

I hope you can join us!

Working Sunday

This sketch from October illustrates my day pretty well. I've been working on Urban Sketchers work for most of the day, so this has been my view.

Event Sketching

It'll take me a while to catch up with all the leftover sketches from 2015 that I haven't posted yet.

This are from two events in September. The first was a Ballet Memphis Spark talk about women in the arts. It was interesting, but I found it irritating when some of the panelist said things like, "I never really thought about being a woman in relation to my art." I guess because being a woman is a lot of what my art is about (see This Art Has Cooties). I know we don't all have to think alike, but I thought that some of them would have more insight about what it's like to be a woman in the arts. Still, good for sketching, and lots of great quotes from Dorothy Pugh, who is a real force and had great things to say.

Also in September I gave a Pecha Kucha talk at Amurica. It was so much fun!

Then on October 1st I started Inktober with a super quick desk sketch.

A New Year of Sketching

I was going to start this recap of last year with “2015 was a big year for sketching,” but then I looked back at this blog and saw that I posted the least number of posts in 2015 that I have since 2006, the year I started this blog, which was only four months of posting. But it’s fine. I did a lot! I didn’t even start posting in 2015 until February, so at least I’m a month ahead of 2015 Elizabeth. Also, last year's first post started with me complaining about how I had not updated my blog in forever, so this is an annual event!

So here’s my story. 2015 was brutal! With travel problems, a new roof, the unexpected deaths of loved ones, my several jobs, travel, travel, travel, and a painting slump, I was wiped out by the beginning of September. And then we bought a house! So even though at the beginning of the year I had no inclination of moving, I spent a third of the year doing nothing but looking, buying, selling, cleaning, organizing, fixing, packing, moving, and settling. Also, my normally controllable obsessiveness got the better of me with this huge project, so for most of the last four months and all of the last two months, I have paid very little attention to very little else, because I was incapable of doing so.

And now it’s January! And we’re getting settled, and I’m happy for a new year. Here are a few sketches I’ve made in the new house.

Then den. Aaaahhh.

Crepe myrtles in the backyard.

Doodle, drinks and books. Doodled while watching a great movie: People Places Things.

(click images for more detail)

Tuesday Night Oil Painting Class

I’m teaching a class called Exploring Materials & Methods of Oil Painting, at Flicker Street Studio starting next week. There is still time to sign up if you are interested – the deadline is January 7.

The class came about after teaching several oil painting classes, in which I set up a “studio” (all the stuff they needed for painting) for each student, or just gave them a basic overview of what they needed.

In this class we will go more in depth into what you need to get started painting with oils in your own space. We’ll take a look at brushes, mediums, solvents, paint, gesso, painting surfaces, setting up, cleaning up, and color mixing.

This is all very practical information, but once you get this part down, you’ll have the freedom to make the work you want to make.

Details:

• Class: Exploring Materials & Methods of Oil Painting
• Tuesday evenings
• Flicker Street Studio, 74 Flicker Street 
• 6:00 to 9:00 PM
• January 12, January 19, January 26 (3 sessions)
• $125 plus $40 materials fee
• Beginner and up
• Click here to sign up!