It’s always good to mix things up and try something new, so, in the middle of finishing up the travel journal from my recent trip to France, I decided to take a detour and play around with a concertina sketchbook I’ve had in my stash for awhile. While working on the travel journal, I’d been […]
Category: Art Supplies
Sketching in Giverny – The Old Mill at Vernon
During my workshop in Giverny, France, a few months ago, we visited Monet’s garden one morning, and then, after lunch, took a side trip to the nearby village of Vernon, famous for a beautiful old mill that sits on the River Seine. (I shared the journaling from that day in an earlier post.) The Old […]
Sketching in Giverny – Monet’s Famous Lily Pond
Years ago, long before I dared to dream of the life I’m now living, I looked at pictures of Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny with a sense of wonder and admiration. The iconic view of the lily pond with its arched Japanese bridge was so perfect it almost seemed unreal. But one day last September, […]
Stitch a Slip-on Cover for Your Sketchbook
I always agonize over which sketchbook to take when I go on an important trip, don’t you? For my recent trip to France, I went through my stash of blank sketchbooks, waffling between this one and that, and ultimately decided to use a beautiful hardcover journal that I made several years ago. It’s been “resting” […]
Sketchbook Play with Stencils – Creating a Complementary Page
I posted a sketch from my Provence travel journal a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share with you what I’ve added to the page since then. Here’s the original sketch – you can read all about it here. 8″ x 8″, ink & watercolor in a HandBook Travelogue Watercolor Journal – by Leslie […]
A Cute Maine Cottage Sketch
The day after Thanksgiving 2023, my mother and I took off for Florida, leaving Fred with all the leftovers from a huge turkey dinner I had cooked the day before. The two of us were tagging along on a Disney trip that my daughter had been planning for the past year. So, while the grandkids […]
Heart Therapy and Art Therapy – Part 1
I’ve been writing this blog since 2010, and throughout that time, I’ve always tried to walk the fine line between sharing my life and protecting the privacy of my family. Over the next few days, though, I’m going to share a very personal story with you in the hopes that it might help someone else […]
Bonus Travel Palette How-To
All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…. to Italy…tomorrow! But I wanted to take a few minutes to catch up before I head off on another adventure. As I was packing my art supplies, I came across this empty metal palette (below) that I bought a few years ago, thinking I would fill […]
Biding Their Time…
Do you remember the beautiful gardens I had at Summerhill? I do. I’m reminded of them every day when I look out the windows of our new house and see nothing but a sea of mud in every direction. The contrast to the views I had last spring is hard to ignore. I remember the […]
Sketches from Montreal and Quebec City
My husband Fred and I were in Canada last week for a real honest-to-goodness vacation. No teaching for me or work for him, just a chance to relax and enjoy some time together in a place that neither of us had visited before. I debated about taking a sketch kit along. I’m feeling burdened lately […]
