It seems hard to believe at the moment, but someday we will be able to travel again, and Paris will still be there waiting for us. Paris is as locked down as the rest of the world right now, with very strict restrictions on movement and travel. In January this year I stood high on a windy  Montmartre hill, trying to catch the sense of space and distance as the city gives way to the hills beyond. As I stood there I watched a couple of residents enter the beautiful building at top left with its leafy mantle - if you have to stay put, I imagine that is a very nice confinement.  

My scene, as always, starts with the original black and white drawing. My first steps with the digital color process I use is to set basic blocks of foundation color, not so different from conventional media. One of the meditative 'tasks' of this way of working is when I begin to cut and shape those basic blocks to define shapes into specific architectural features and styles. In this case, I wanted to coax out the 'Paris-ness' of the neighborhood - the details of the roofs, the chimneys, the iconic window railings - while also accentuating the precipitous fall of the Montmartre landscape.

Part of the pleasure of Paris, no matter the 'quartier' or neighborhood, is the sense of unified, often Haussmann-derived, elegance, peppered with quirky minutiae that make each building its own source of aesthetic joy. Building materials vary - limestone, brick, stucco - to give a play of color and texture to any random scene. Montmartre was once, not so long ago, a village outside Paris proper - there are still glimpses in the simpler houses, like the white one on the left side beyond the bigger brick house.
I'll have this scene in my International Series soon, and hope to have it as part of my Paris collection of prints at the Slow Galerie in Paris as soon as the world opens up again.
Please leave a comment - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The last time I posted on this blog I was thinking of Italy's plight, but now we're all in this together. I hope you are all well, that you're staying home and staying safe, taking care of yourselves, and being mindful of the welfare of others at this strange time. I want to share the daily routine I began a few weeks ago, 'StayHome-Sketch-a-Day, where every morning I post a fresh drawing on Instagram and Facebook. 

Here's the first one, prompted by a Sunday morning and the thought that now we would have to learn from our cats, Toby and Rembrandt, to be good indoor creatures. We would get more sleep, eat regular meals, take breaks when needed, and be content to sit quietly and let the world go by outside the door.

As time has gone by, I've tried to focus on the blessings of this confinement, because I certainly have a great many - a place to work at home (though I miss my studio and the people at the BOK building) and a pocket city garden with sunshine and fresh air. Enforced leisure and daily drawing has given me space and reason to zero in on the details, the things that truly 'spark joy' in my life.

We're lucky too, to live in a city and a neighborhood with lots of good food and creative ways to stock the cupboard while also supporting restaurants and small businesses that need to keep going. We miss being there in person, but this won't last forever, and in the meantime we're eating a lot of good bread (especially) and are doing some unusually ambitious cooking of our own.

It's only been a month, but we had one life-changing experience when our sweet, charming cat Toby, took a sudden turn for the worse and we had to let him go. He was 17 years old but always had the heart of a kitten. Rembrandt (at right), also 17, shy and insecure, is still, to date, going strong - he's sticking close to me these days. In the background of his picture you can see some of my Philadelphia scenes on the wall. 

If you're already following, thanks for the nice comments and for your support. My daily sketches are posted at @macgregorartdesigns on Instagram and on Facebook at MacGregorArt.

Let me know your thoughts!