Fred and I celebrated forty happy years of marriage this past winter, and we decided it would be fun to take a little trip down memory lane and go back to where we met, married, and lived as newlyweds. Our celebratory getaway was delayed a few weeks due to our schedules, but the stars finally […]
Category: Watercolor
Step-by-Step Watercolor: The Modern Illuminated Manuscript
I made a decision several months ago to give up the commission side of my art business. As my calendar had filled with teaching engagements and trips to far-flung places, it became more and more difficult to find time to squeeze in the labor-intensive custom artwork. But when my friend Mary approached me a few […]
Painting Lavender at Summerhill
It was a cold, dreary day with occasional rain showers and blustery wind here in western Pennsylvania on Thursday, but that didn’t stop my Summerhill Sketchers from gathering for a class on painting lavender fields. I’ve been working on the lessons for my workshop in Provence in June, and I thought I’d try this one […]
Casa Romantica Step-by-Step
One of the assignments I gave the students during my “Sketching on Location” workshop in San Clemente last month was to look for a view that was framed by something, like an arch, columns, or trees. Dutiful teacher that I am, I decided to set an example by sketching the view through the arches on […]
Sketching on Location at Casa Romantica
The second day of my “Sketching on Location” workshop took us to Casa Romantica in San Clemente. This beautiful place was built in 1927 as the home of the founder of San Clemente, Ole Hanson. It’s now a public garden and cultural center, and we were lucky enough to spend the day there painting together. […]
Sketching on Location at the Casino – Part II
As promised, here’s the last sketch I did during our day of sketching on location at Casino San Clemente… Ink & watercolor, 10×7 Handbook Field Watercolor Journal I used a composite page layout. This is a great way to squeeze in a lot of information about a place on one page, so it’s perfect for […]
Sketching on Location at the Casino – Part 1
After I finished up my “Sketch It Now” workshop in San Clemente, I launched right into “Sketching on Location” the next day. I started out the first morning with a little pep talk in the classroom. Or maybe I should call it a “prep talk” since the idea was to give everyone some practical ways […]
A Cacophony of Color!
When I was in Florida a few weeks ago, my friend Judy and I spent a few hours at the Village of the Arts in Bradenton. We had a great lunch and strolled through the neighborhood filled with brightly colored historic cottages. Many of them house galleries, art studios, restaurants, and specialty shops. The little […]
Scenes from Certaldo Alto
I’ve been working hard to finish up some of the unpainted sketches I brought home from my Italy trip last fall. Here’s a composite page I did the day we visited the medieval hilltop village of Certaldo alto… Since I taught two week-long workshops at Fattoria Bacio this past year, I had two visits to […]
Fun in the Mountains – Our Winter Painting Retreat in WV
Our winter painting getaway at Stonewall Resort in West Virginia was a huge success! Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our time together… Stonewall Resort, Roanoke, WV Eighteen of us gathered to paint and relax for three days with nothing more to worry about than what to order for lunch. We had a cozy meeting room […]
