Piazza San Marco

The most expensive coffee and sandwich ever, just to get to sit and sketch this view.  With Richard Franko, Marc Taro Holmes and Laurel Holmes in Venice.

More Venice Views...

Two more from the Grand Canal...

Ca' D'Oro in the cold after a big rain.

From the Accademia Bridge.

Canals in Venezia

When on the road, it's hard to post to the blog in real time.  

I am already in Civita (where the weather is crisp and clear, cool breeze and hot afternoons, unusually green) and the workshop folks arrive this afternoon!  I am really behind in my posts...of Venice and also Orvieto where Rich and I stayed one night.

Here are more images of Venice.  While there, I had the great pleasure of sketching alongside of the really amazing Urban Sketcher Marc Taro Holmes from Montreal and walking the narrow stone streets also with Marc's wife Laurel who herded us cats!  Marc draws very little and paints a lot, I draw a lot and paint little...was interesting to see.

Midday watching the parade of gondolas,
Bridge of Sighs, Venice

Yet another canal, this one with lovely towers.
Overworked the water with paint,
I'll blame it on the jeg lag :)

First Sketch in the heart of Venezia

Jet lagged, overwhelmed by the place and people, nervous about sketching anywhere near Marc Taro Holmes, this was the first sketch in Venice.  

In the several days that have followed, I've come up with some good sketches, some bad sketches, some OK sketches... I think it's like photographers who shoot 1000 photos to get only one really good one. Sketching is little like that too, it truly takes work and practice.

The Piazza San Marco is an amazing place, it really is "the living room of Europe" in many ways.  Something about the scale of the spaces, the angles of the buildings (was anything square?), how old this place is and how many centuries of incredible people have stepped on these same stones below my feet.  Really inspiring.

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Let the Sketching Adventures Begin!!!

One of the very best things about Urban Sketchers is being a part of a world-wide community of people who like to sketch as much (or even more) than I do.  As luck would have it, my travels in Italy this summer happen to overlap with the amazing Montreal sketcher Marc Taro Holmes and his wife Laurel.  We all sketched together as part of a group last summer in Brazil after the Paraty symposium and enjoyed it so much, we will also sketch together as part of a group in Cambodia after this year's Singapore symposium. Someone pinch me, this is all pretty amazing!

I am now spending a few days sketching in Venice with my husband and Marc and Laurel. Marc just finished teaching his workshop in Cortona, and I will start teaching my workshop in Civita di Bagnoregio this week.  

It always takes a few days to warm up and find the right feel in a new place, but here are some starting sketches on location for the trips this summer...many more to come!

3 days to go...

During the winter, my blog posts are reduced to mere drips as I get busy with work, teaching, life.  But in a few days, the blog posts will start up again with a vengeance!!

In only 3 days, yet another summer of amazing adventures will start! I invite my friends, family and fellow sketchers to follow along via this blog and my flickr page too as I travel to:

Italy--Venice to sketch and paint with the amazing Marc Taro Holmes and his wife Laurel, then  Civita di Bagnoregio to teach the DRAW CIVITA sketching workshop for 5+ days,
then to Holland to see family...


Seattle for only 5 days to teach a quick workshop at the Northwest Watercolor Society's 75th Anniversary celebration, then off to

Singapore for the Urban Sketchers Symposium to teach an interactive lecture and take wonderful workshops, 
then to to Angkor Wat in Cambodia with an amazing group of sketchers, 
and finally, several days in Bangkok, Thailand.

Someone pinch me. I can't wait to see what appears in my sketchbooks!