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: painting
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, […]
Main Street, Camden, Panoramic Sketch
During a family vacation in Maine earlier this summer, I escaped for a few hours to nearby Camden, Maine, to do a little sketching. Camden is a beautiful little town in the midcoast region, a vibrant community with a bustling Main Street lined with historic brick buildings and a picture-perfect harbor. It was a hot […]
How to Add Title Lettering to a Curved Banner
I happened to come across this sketch the other day and saw that it was finished except for the title lettering. I had drawn and painted the two-page spread on location at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens last winter during my annual teaching trip to Florida but never got around to adding the title. I’ve since […]
A Whirlwind Spring!
Oh, my gosh, it’s been such a wild and crazy ride these past few months! I haven’t had a chance to write in ages, so I thought I’d do one big post to show you what I’ve been up to. I want to catch up on things before I head off on another trip…tomorrow! After […]
A Story of Two Sketches
When I teach in Provence, one of our group excursions takes us to the beautiful town of L’Isle sur la Sorgue where we set up to sketch across the river from one of the main streets in the historic area. Here’s the view…. The sketch I did in 2017 was a very literal rendering of […]
England Sketchbook: The Great Scone Debate
After spending most of our first day in Bourton-on-the-Water outside in the wind and cold, it was a relief to retreat to a cozy tea room in the late afternoon and settle in for tea and scones. Judy, Wendy, and I at A’Moore Tea House in Bourton-on-the-Water, UK Our friendly waitress chatted with us about […]
England Sketchbook: Cotswold Lavender Farm
The fields at Cotswold Lavender were just beginning to bloom the day we visited in late June. It was a breezy day, with big puffy clouds scudding across the sky, giving us alternating periods of sunshine and shadow. After moseying around awhile, we each found our favorite view, pulled out our sketchbooks, and got to […]
England Sketchbook: Bourton Model Village
The Bourton-on-the-Water Model Village was a fun addition to our first day in the Cotswolds. We all met there in the early afternoon and spent a little time walking around and marveling at the work that went into building this scale replica of the town. (Read about it here.) The model village was constructed between […]
