I felt a teeny bit guilty leaving home when winter storm Jonas was on its way, but I had to go. After all, I was teaching in Florida! 4″ x 6″, ink & watercolor in a hardbound Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketchbook I had an early flight out of Pittsburgh, and since I had […]
Category: Sketches
Christmas Memories
Our daughter and her children came to help us decorate the Christmas tree a few weeks ago and, as we hung each ornament on the tree, we found ourselves telling Nicholas, 4, and and Callista, 3, the stories behind many of the ornaments. There’s the 50-year old silver glass ball with “Leslie” written on it […]
Thumbnail Sketches – All Dressed Up!
One of the lessons I taught my students while in Tuscany was about using thumbnail sketches to zero in on a scene and test out various compositional options. I suggested using a separate sketchbook page for the thumbnails and later turning that page, with its accumulation of tiny scenes, into a dynamic page in its […]
Step-by-Step Watercolor: Fattoria Bacio
In one of my recent posts, I promised I would show you the step-by-step process I used to paint a sketch of Fattoria Bacio, our workshop location in Tuscany. The villa is perched on top of a hill, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. One pretty fall morning, I walked out along the ridge, about […]
Day Trip to San Gimignano and Saying Goodbye to Tuscany
It had been a fantastic week at Fattoria Bacio and our final days gave us more of the same. The sunrise Thursday morning was spectacular… and the skies cleared by breakfast time, forecasting a perfect day for our trip to San Gimignano. But as we ate our breakfast, a stealthy fog began to fill the […]
Hanging Around the Villa
After a full day in the bustling city of Siena, it was nice to have some time to relax at the villa on Wednesday. Wednesday morning, and every morning, when I woke up and looked out my window, I just had to smile…I was in Italy! One of my sketches of the view from the […]
Sketching in Siena
We took the train into Siena on Tuesday and spent the day walking around the city. Siena is famous for the Palio de Siena, a horse race that is run twice a year around the Piazza del Campo, the large sloping square in the center of town. There were no horses to be seen on […]
Beach Flip
It’s been a busy summer, hasn’t it? I’m really not ready to say goodbye to warm days, big blue hyrdangea blossoms, and fresh veggies from the garden, but there’s definitely a hint of autumn in the air and I have to say I love having four seasons to experience every year. There’s something wonderful to […]
Last Sketch from Maine: The Sisterhood
When you spend a week with someone, you really get to know them. Luckily, all the women I went to Maine with were absolutely WONDERFUL! Each one of them added something special to the group, and it was really hard to say goodbye to all of them at the end of the week. Our time […]
Sketches from Maine: A Sailboat, Lighthouses, and More Rocky Coast
The end of our vacation week was fast approaching, and there were still so many things we wanted to do. A few of us decided we’d like to try a little sailing, so we booked our places on the schooner Olad out of Camden. It was a windy day with lots of sunshine, just perfect […]
