Liberty Bell Mountain

Posted: November 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

Some years ago, after teaching a workshop in Anacortes, WA, we planned to visit our son, then living in Kelowna, B.C. Our new Anacortes friends suggested we take the North Cascades Highway instead of the interstate, as it’s more picturesque. They were so right, and it turned out to be a terrific trip, as we encountered some spectacular landscapes of high granite peaks and turquoise lakes. I even found a bit of time to sketch along the way.

I’ve always wanted to go back to painting some of the scenes from that day. And recently, I had a good reason to go back. As part of my Peaks and Valleys launch week events, yesterday I used a quarter sheet to paint Liberty Bell Mountain, captured in a photo from that drive. If you’d like to see my process for painting this — from value sketch to drawing to final painting — I will be posting all the steps tomorrow in my launch week email update. If you’re not on my email list you can sign up here.

I hope you enjoy seeing the process as much as I loved revisiting that long-ago drive.

Peaks and Valleys: Sketching Mountains in Watercolour

Posted: November 10, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

There’s a lot going on these days. Last week I held my first local in-person workshop, and it was terrific fun. I’ll post about that soon. We also had our first (way too early!) snowfall yesterday. Just a sprinkling, actually, followed by a lot of freezing rain. But this morning there was still snow on the ground, so I am planning to get out there today to sketch a winter scene of some sort.

But the real news? Today I have a new online course on my school website.

I’m very excited to have just launched “Peaks & Valleys: Sketching Mountains in Watercolour“, based on the sketches I created following my recent trip to the French Alps. In this course, we sketch three of my favourite views: a sunlit granite peak all aglow after a storm; a range of snow-covered peaks at 14,000 ft., which I actually sketched following a breathtaking cable car ride; and, of course, the stunning snow-covered Mont Blanc from a valley view.

These scenes are all in the Alps, only because that’s where I happened to be this past summer. But in fact, the sketching techniques we cover can apply to any mountain scene. I just had a look back at some of my older sketchbooks from the Canadian Rockies, the Cascade Mountains in Washington State, as well as mountain ranges in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. The methods and techniques are the same: tonal values, atmospheric perspective, colour temperature, edge control, etc. In the new course, we also discuss and try out the best brushes for creating those jagged peaks, and how to mix the best greens for near and distant valleys.

As always, there’s a special launch price on Peaks & Valleys: Sketching Mountains in Watercolour, valid this week only. Normally priced at $49 USD or $69 CDN, I’m discounting Peaks & Valleys​ to $42 USD or $59 CDN until midnight (ET) on Sunday, November 16, 2025. If you’d like to know more about this course, have a look at all the info and the course trailer here.