Noticing
Sometimes, painting is about the obvious things: the beauty that’s right in front of you, bold colors, compelling light, big picture views. But more often for me, it’s about the things you might pass by: the subtle, the small, the imperfect. Learning to notice is more important than pencil, paper, or paint. I had ample opportunities to sketch both bigger views and subtleties when in Maine recently. Which is more compelling to you?
Of Maps and Meaning
Maps convey both a sense of place and the experience and agenda of their maker. This map commemorates my trip to Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine this summer for the Arts and Birding workshop. It’s one thing to have your daily schedule or itinerary on a piece of paper; quite another to illustrate it and imbue it with additional meaning and memory: puffins flying overhead, the sound of the sea gently lapping on shore, moss carpeted forests of spruce and fir, winter wrens trilling their song in the silence. I hope… Read More
Bits and Pieces
I traveled to Maine last week to direct and teach the Arts & Birding workshop at the Audubon Camp at Hog Island. The workshop is an intensive five-day program that includes bird walks at dawn, a variety of art lessons, hikes, evening programs, and a day-long boat trip to see Atlantic puffins and other seabirds. We welcomed a wonderful group of artists this year who sketched, learned, shared, and produced beautiful artwork. Because my job includes teaching and ensuring that everything is running smoothly, my painting time is limited. Still, I managed… Read More
Travels in Italy- Part 2
While you may have heard of or traveled to Italy’s famed Cinque Terre— five colorful villages built into the steep hillsides on the Ligurian coast— you may have missed the lesser known sixth village of Porto Venere. Less crowded than the other villages, Porto Venere is charming and beautiful, with brightly painted villas, narrow streets, and steep stone staircases leading to sweeping views of churches, Roman walls, a castle, and the sea. I logged 13 miles climbing up and down over my two-day stay and bought a lemon to ward off a… Read More
Travels in Italy—Part 1
Buon Giorno…It’s been a while. I didn’t mean to be away so long. But sometimes travel leads to the unexpected. After a lovely week of teaching in Umbria and several days hiking up and down the steep hillsides overlooking the sea in Porto Venere, my trip to Italy took a wrong turn when I tested positive for Covid in Florence and couldn’t come home. You may be thinking that spending an unexpected week in Florence is a dream…but not so much when you have to find a place to stay during the… Read More
Just the Essentials
So many lists. Still a lot to do. My trip to Italy is a week away and I am nearly ready…but not quite. There’s still paring down and packing and final workshop preparations, but what else can I manage to cram in? A bit of gardening? A few Italian language lessons? House cleaning? Another pre-trip journal page? Alas, this will be my last blog post for a few weeks as I like to unplug and immerse myself fully in a place while traveling and teaching. I’ll share my journey upon my return…. Read More
Walking Among Cherry Blossoms
We couldn’t have picked a better weekend to visit Washington D.C. I didn’t realize when we chose the date that it would coincide with the blooming of the city’s cherry trees. After two years of social isolation, families, friends, and lovers strolled among the trees around the Tidal Basin, drinking in the beauty of pink and white blossoms in the sun. In a world with so much division and strife, what a gift to find the promise of hope and renewal still within our reach. The planting of cherry trees in Washington… Read More
Time for Spring
March is such a tease. One day it’s 50-F degrees and you’re outside with jacket unbuttoned. The next, there is seven inches of snow on the ground and you’re scraping ice off the windshield…again. Daylight lengthens, blackbirds reappear, but that’s pretty much it for evidence of a changing season. What really shifts in March is the anticipation. You’re closer to spring now. You know that soon salamanders will be moving to breeding ponds, that the woodcock will wing its way to the neighbor’s field, that you’ll find skunk cabbage opening along the… Read More
Revisiting the Southwest
Can a painting evoke a place, a memory, a moment in time? On a cold winter’s day, this piece certainly gave me a chance to revisit a trip to the Southwest that my family took a few years ago. During a long day hike at Arches National Park, we were surrounded by towering sandstone walls and incredible rock formations. After the first two miles, the crowds thinned and the trail became primitive, with steep climbs and descents. At times, we were alone in that wild expanse of sandstone and sky. A rare… Read More
Portraits from Umbria
A bold red hat. A most unusual nose. A commanding man. A ghostly woman. In perfect profile, Federico Montefeltro and Battista Sforza stare at one another, held together forever in a framed diptych painted in 1473 by Piero della Francesca. Federico was born in the castle where we will be staying during my travel art workshop in Italy next May, so I decided to copy the portraits as a starting point for learning more about our destination. The longer I looked at these faces, the more I wondered about Federico and Battista…. Read More
Drawn In 