Deborah’s garden
Posted: August 9, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: flower painting, millford paper, St. Cuthberts Mill, watercolour 14 CommentsMy friend Deborah has an incredible garden — swathes of perennials, apple trees, carefully tended shrubs, exotic lilies and colourful annuals flowering in containers of different sizes. I think late July or early August is the best time to visit.
When I visited her last week I had a bit of time to paint in the garden, with Alice happily sleeping by my side. I chose to sit on a low stool and look right into the flower beds. Instead of focussing on one section of the painting, I tried to convey the beautiful pattern of daylilies (at my eye level) and daisies (a little above me).
I’ve been trying out some new stock: Millford watercolour paper from St. Cuthberts Mill in the UK. I bought a block a few weeks ago and have used it (and enjoyed it) a couple of times. You can read about the features of the paper in my link, but basically it is sized so that the paper stays wetter longer. As with all cotton papers from that mill, this is really nice to work on and it does indeed stay wetter longer even on a warm summer day.
Cape Ann paintings and a lesson learned
Posted: July 26, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cape ann, gloucester, Halibut Point State Park, plein air painting, rockport, rocky neck, watercolour 22 CommentsOn my first morning in Rockport, I rushed down to the harbour to paint. I have a favourite bench in a shady spot, a little bit away from the pedestrian traffic of Bearskin Neck. It’s fitting that my first painting in the town this year was of the visitor’s centre across the water. That was where I did my first boat sketch of Rockport all those years ago, and where my love of Cape Ann began.
It was a misty day when I painted this one, but the lack of light and shadow is offset by the multitude of shapes in the harbour. I can always find something to paint in Rockport.
I also spent a very hot morning painting at Halibut Point State Park, again in a shady spot across from a visitor’s centre. I love the description of the park on the Mass.gov link: a granite edge between the Atlantic Ocean and the mainland. It’s those granite edges of the former quarry that make painting there such a challenge, especially on a calm day when the rock reflects in the reservoir. Truly a place of quiet beauty when sometimes the only sound is of flapping gull wings in the still water.
I also returned to one of my favourite Gloucester painting spots: the view of Low Tide Yacht Club on Rocky Neck. Again, a favourite bench, a misty morning, the tide coming in, and no lack of shapes to paint. This one comes with a near-disaster and lesson learned: don’t take the tape off the painting until you are indoors. As you can imagine, that is not what I did. I won’t get into all the details, but the short story is that the tape came off, the wind grabbed the painting which was only lightly clipped to the plexi board, the painting landed upside down about an inch from the incoming tide and I managed to rescue it from floated away before the next gust of wind came along. This also included a fair bit of shrieking and scrambling down rocks. A story with a good ending but as I mentioned: a lesson learned.
Pigeon Cove and some new paper
Posted: July 23, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cape ann, millford paper, pigeon cove, st cuthberts mill, watercolour 5 CommentsEach time I go to Cape Ann, I return to my favourite painting spots. I don’t always have time to sketch but I take lots of photos so that I can continue painting when I get home. This time, besides returning to Pigeon Cove, I also returned home with some new paper: a block of Millford watercolour paper from St. Cuthberts Mill.
I’ve been reading about this paper and seen a few people using it online. One of my favourite watercolour sheets is Saunders Waterford paper, and this one is from the same mill. What makes it a little different from their other papers is that it is hard-sized, meaning it is made to stay wet for longer. It’s a block of paper so I couldn’t wet the paper on both sides but it seems to perform as advertised: both the initial sky wash and the first glaze on the foreground rocks stayed moist and glistening for a longer time than I am used to. This test was done in the controlled environment of my studio. It will be interesting to take it outside where wind and heat usually dry the paper too quickly.
A few from Geneva
Posted: June 22, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Geneva, sketchbook, Switzerland, watercolour 15 CommentsI am still unpacking art supplies from my recent teaching trip in the French Alps, but my sketchbook is sitting on my desk and I’ve dusted off my scanner to begin the process of scanning all the sketches from the two weeks.
These first two are from the only full day we had in Geneva before heading to our workshop location. Drawing is always a great way to knock the jet lag out of your head, and fortunately Geneva is a beautiful and sketchable city.
Place du Bourg-de-Four is a cobblestone square lined with restaurants and cafés, as well as some good benches for tired travellers. It’s also just steps from the Caran D’Ache store, if you are interested in really beautifully presented art supplies.
My friend Evelyn and I also attempted to capture the famous Jet d’Eau de Genève, that giant fountain that throws water 140 meters above Lake Geneva. It’s not an easy thing to sketch, especially in watercolour. I used a bit of Schminke masking fluid in a handy dispenser bottle that I had just bought on a whim earlier in the day, and it was pretty useful for creating a white line for the centre of the fountain. The final sketch falls into the category of “been there, sketched that”, but that’s ok. It’s a lovely spot to sit and watch the boats on the lake as evening sets in.
A few in blue
Posted: May 9, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chania, Crete, flower pots, flowers, Greece, plein air watercolour, pots, watercolour 19 CommentsIf you read the last issue of my newsletter “The Wheelbarrow“, you’ve probably already seen this little blue wheelbarrow. It’s one that my husband spotted tucked away in a corner of the Botanical Park and Gardens of Crete. It was so perfectly rusty and of course so perfectly blue, that I had to sketch it and add it to my collection of wheelbarrow sketches. A few people asked what blue I used to paint this. It was definitely a Holbein pigment because during this trip I was testing out that brand in my two palettes, but it wasn’t one single colour. I likely used a combination of Turquoise, Horizon Blue and Cerulean Blue, mixed in with a little bit of Burnt Sienna, of course.
I was fascinated by the rows of potted plants that people place outside their doors in the narrow streets of Chania, and of course by the shadow patterns their shapes create. On many occasions I saw these pots, as well as many others, being lovingly tended by their owners. This particular road was not much wider than the width of one car, but I set up my stool against the opposite wall and managed to wedge my easel in there too. Not long after I started to paint, a white van pulled into that narrow space, totally blocking my view and almost knocking over my easel. I was ready to pack up my gear and finish my painting indoors when a woman emerged from a door next to me. I understand a few words of Greek but language was not necessary in this instance. I understood from her gestures that she was telling the driver to move his van so that I could paint. With smiles of appreciation and my best efcharistó to both the driver and the woman, I happily finished my painting and moved on.
Seven port views plus a lighthouse
Posted: May 7, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boats, Chania, Crete, Greece, harbour, plein air painting, watercolour 43 CommentsSometime after my first week of touring in Crete, I gave up on posting remotely. I am just never satisfied with images that are photographed from my iPhone. I much prefer to scan paintings on my trusty Epson Perfection V600 scanner, clean the images up in Photoshop (bring the whites back to white, make sure the colour matches the original, etc.) and then post them. So here I am, one week after returning home, finally over the jet lag and back at my desk scanning paintings and sketches.
In all, I painted 8 views around the Old Venetian Port of Chania, Crete (mostly 16″ x 12″). I originally thought it was seven but then realized that my final painting of the lighthouse is really the entrance to the historic port so I added that to the count. There would have been a ninth view if it hadn’t rained on my last day. Forgive me if you have already seen a few of these but the colour is not accurate in the previous images so here they are again.
I could paint this port for a year or more and never get tired of it. If you look it up on Google maps you’ll see that it has several bays. The one on the western side is lined with shops and restaurants and it has a wide strolling promenade. The eastern side is where you’ll find the docks and the boats — little fishing boats, great white yachts and catamarans, speedboats that you can charter to take you to beaches inaccessible by car, and strangely, a mini red submarine that allows you to have an underwater view if you choose. You’ll also find the remaining Neoria there. These are the old Venetian shipyards with the peaked facades that you can see in the third painting below.
On the outer edges of the port there’s also a long, narrow seawall that takes you to the lighthouse. I painted in a shaded spot along that wall for several of these paintings. In all of these, I tried to convey a sense of architectural history (bits of the remaining Byzantine and Roman walls, the clay-roofed colourful Venetian buildings, the only remaining Ottoman mosque that forms the corner of the Western section of the port) as well as a sense of what the port is like at different times of day. I was there during the period around Easter when it’s quite crowded so I included lots of people, but I imagine that a place as beautiful as this is crowded well into the autumn.
It was wonderful to live a bit like a local for a few weeks in Chania — to set off in the morning with my palette and easel in my backpack, not knowing where in the port I would stop to paint. I don’t think I’ve ever had the luxury of so much painting time in any other place.
In the next post: the sketches from our frequent road trips to different villages in western Crete.
The yellows
Posted: December 2, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: paint tubes, watercolour, yellows 38 CommentsI have way too many tubes of paint. If you paint, you probably do too. The oldest ones are left over from my university days. The next oldest ones made their way to me from my mother’s collection, after she stopped painting. Some have come from sponsors at various events, and of course there are many that I have purchased. Colours that I have wanted to try because I’ve seen them used successfully by other artists or colours that have simply called out to me from a shelf at the art supply store.
There are very few that I don’t like. In this bin, there’s a Jaune Brilliant that I bought for an online course. It’s the only one that was a real mistake, at least for me. This bin of yellows lives in a drawer with bins of the reds, the blues, the greens, the purples/blacks, and two bins of earth tones, separated into raw and burnt pigments. I may have a paint addiction, but at least I’m organized.
Cyclamen, two ways
Posted: November 20, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cyclamen, direct watercolour, flowers painting, watercolour 52 CommentsWork has been keeping me busy these days, and my sketching feels very rusty. I notice it as I draw and also as I paint. But I needed a break from my computer today and I had these beautiful cyclamen sitting on my dining room table — a beautiful gift from a friend that needed to be recorded in my sketchbook.
I started my first sketch with an ink drawing and then added watercolour. I really wanted the pink flowers to stand out, but I knew as soon as I painted it that the dark background was a mistake. I lost all the delicacy of the flowers and the whole thing became too heavy. My rusty painting manifested itself here with paint that is too thickly applied.
For my second try, on the facing page of my sketchbook, I gave up on the ink line and went directly to drawing with my brush. And not just any brush, it’s a new swordliner from Rosemary & Co. It’s a long pointy and slightly floppy brush (I have the 1/4″ version) that holds a lot of paint, and I am just getting to know it (and to love it). I think the dancing movement of the petals is much better described with lighter and more juicy washes, and I’m much happier with this version. I’ll make sure I post other experiments with the brush. I think it will be fantastic for florals and also for foliage and trees.
Cornfield
Posted: October 8, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cornfield, step-by-step, watercolour 12 CommentsCornfields are everywhere around here. I passed many on my way to paint this scene the other day. I was hoping to paint the corn on location but there’s nowhere to set up my easel by the side of road without getting plowed down by a tractor or a combine harvester, so I took a bunch of photos and then painted back in my studio.
I wasn’t sure what to do with this type of composition. There’s really no focus. It’s just a pattern of colours and contrasts. I also wanted to convey the light coming through the stalks and hitting the tops of the floppy leaves, as well as give a sense of all the colours that you see when you get close to the stalks and the decaying foliage.
If you want to see the step-by-step photos of how I painted the cornfield, it’s in the October issue of my newsletter “The Wheelbarrow”. If you’re not on the mailing list, you can sign up here. Also new is a downloadable pdf “25 Ideas to Get You Sketching Everyday“. Have a look!
The one that survived the lake
Posted: September 24, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boat painting, hudson yacht club, watercolour 49 CommentsI didn’t think there would be any more opportunities to paint boats in Hudson this year, but my friend Michelle reached out with a nice invitation to join her at the yacht club last weekend, and I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I’m so glad I did.
We chose a painting spot out on the pier where we could look back at the marina and the trees on the shore. It’s a complex viewpoint but I chose to focus on the blue sail cover in the foreground and the masts behind it. Two thirds of the way through my painting, I briefly considered tossing it in the lake and starting again, but I think it was just missing darks. I repainted the background to darken it and that helped a lot. Painted on a pad of Arches 140lb CP paper, using lots of Cobalt Blue that had escaped a well on my palette.
