I’m in love….
with Croatia!
From the moment I touched down in Dubrovnik I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the country…
the colorful tile roofs,
the harbors,
the villages with their narrow streets filled with flowers,
the stone buildings,
the people,
the food and wine,
the mountains,
the gorgeous views,
and the pretty little details everywhere I looked.
I loved it all!
I felt changed by my time in Croatia. Long, slow days of painting by the sea gave me a sense of peace that I haven’t felt in a long time, and I fell totally in love with plein air painting.
I had a wonderful group of students, and they produced some truly creative sketches during our time together. We inspired each other every day.
And when we weren’t sketching, we had fun just hanging out together…
We laughed…
made new friends…
sat by the water…
went for a swim…
and some of us even managed to squeeze in a nap.
(One of the participants wore a Fitbit during the tour and was surprised to see that her resting heart rate dropped every day that she was in Croatia. I guess an art tour is good for your health!)
But the sketching was the best part for me. Every place we visited was unique. We sketched seaside vistas…
historic towns and architecture…
and secluded harbors.
In groups…
or alone…
we each drew and painted what spoke to our hearts.
As special as this trip was, it was made even better by having my mother, Saundra, along. She always managed to find a shady corner to read during our long hours of painting and kept us all entertained with her wit and wisdom during dinners. She never seems to tire of listening to my ramblings, and all the ladies love her like she was their own mom.
She’s my favorite traveling companion!
To make this remarkable tour even more AWESOME, we got to enjoy a full moon while we were on the island of Korcula. It popped up over over the horizon during dinner, and we all stumbled over ourselves, running to the balcony railing to get a shot of it.
