The Minotaur of Zuccarello

The Minotaur of Zuccarello

While wandering the winding stone streets of the nearly deserted medieval town of Zucarello looking for a quiet place to paint, a startling sight made my blood run cold. Built into a niche was a locked cell of iron bars that held a very lifelike creature with bulging...
Urban Sketching in Porto and Madrid

Urban Sketching in Porto and Madrid

Getting to Portugal for the international Urban Sketchers Symposium was not difficult, but demanded some tricky connections as I started off from Maine.  So I took a ride on an 8 seater Cessna from Rockland to Boston where I caught a flight to Madrid.  I was able to...
A Plein Air Setup for Large-Scale Urban Sketching

A Plein Air Setup for Large-Scale Urban Sketching

I find sketching to be an antidote to the high-tech, socially networked, Instagrammed world we live in. After a year of sketching in a small sketchbook I decided to go larger, but this meant upgrading my equipment. I’d been looking for a plein air rig that would do...
Watercolor and Urban Sketching in Italy

Watercolor and Urban Sketching in Italy

Last May I spent time in Rome and Tuscany, eating wonderful food, drinking wine, and sketching the city and countryside where opportunities to make and view art abound.  These are my choices of the best images from my trip. Take the stairs down to the banks of the...
Traveling with Homer

Traveling with Homer

My watercolor teacher Timothy J. Clark introduced me to the life and work of Winslow Homer – probably the greatest American artist of the 19th Century. Born in Boston on February 24, 1836, he was a completely self-taught artist. He began his career as an illustrator,...
Maine Watercolor

Maine Watercolor

This summer in Maine I continued my exploration of plein aire watercolor painting. “Plein aire” means that the work is done outdoors, and there was no better place to do this than the rocky beaches and little towns around Acadia National Park. My wife and I go up...