Plein Air Watercolors

Whenever I travel I take my small box of watercolors with me. There is nothing I enjoy more than soaking up the sights, sounds and scents of a new environment while touching brush to paper. Rather than trying to portray scenes exactly as they are, I prefer to capture their essence and let my mind fill in the details upon review. I rarely take photographs of my travels. A snapshot can never do the scenery justice or truly capture the ambiance and when I paint, I look - really look.

I am ever longing to go to exotic places to paint. I love the quaintness of Europe and the trade winds and heat of the tropics, but one summer limited by funds, I became a traveler in my native Seattle and it’s surrounding areas. Painting what had become the ordinary forced me to see things in a new and fresh way. The paintings in this blogt represent such a local trip. They are my little treasures. I hope you like them too.