Warmup sketch showing trees from above

Red-roofed buildings and golden fields

My watercolor class “staycation” continues! These sketches and paintings from recent weeks feature views of the Italian countryside, which I visited during a Franciscan Pilgrimage to Assisi several years back. During that trip our group traveled in vans and we stopped along the way for lunch, an amazing experience with the wine, bread and cheeses and of course the views. I was busy sketching and taking pictures. When we got back to our housing on a quieter day some of us would meet on the patio and paint or write about what we saw.

It is so fun to paint these scenes and imagine what they were all about. As we painted I told my class to just go into the scene and feel and put yourself there. The warmup and sketches give some direction on colors and composition but each artist sees it differently, and that is a good thing. Then they can just have fun and we need that right now to relax.

Starting with February 12, I’ve scheduled two-hour Zoom classes on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings in February, continuing the staycation theme. See the Classes and Events page for details on current offerings.

Sketch and painting of another view, with onlookers added