Market and Tower, Santiago de Compostela

Late afternoon quiet before the noise of the night.

Sunday Sketchbook: Alexandria

Today I'll be walking the streets in Alexandria with my class, paper and pen in hand, trying to look at an old familiar place in a new way.

Sunday Sketchbook: Provence

Every summer when I teach in Provence, we return to the same hill towns to paint. Once again I look through narrow walls to a deep valley and violet mountain, and try to get down on paper how the whole thing fits together--and what it feels like to be sitting on a stone step in cool shadow, looking out to sun and another distant hill town.

Between Houses, Viens

Light and shadows, hollyhocks, and a view to blue hills from the high walls of a fortified hill town.

Sunday Sketchbook: Spring

"What I like are the spaces between things...and how being far away makes a thing so small.


For example, a flower in the foreground is larger than a house. Everyone knows that size is relative, but only the artist truly believes that...


and also knows that the most mundane reality is always stranger than fiction."

Sunday Sketchbook: Alexandria

In my travel journal class we make an accordion sketchbook and explore a neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, looking at the familiar with fresh eyes.

Sunday Sketchbook: Study

Thinking out my 7/7/08 journal painting.

Sunday Sketchbook: Provence

A page from Provence, with cerulean bed and cobalt door.

Arch and Ruin, Bonnieux

Bonnieux is a town of contrasts: sharp-angled shadows softened by blooming flowerpots, dark passageways framing spotlit walls, and above relaxed vacationers, a looming medieval fortress.