Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part Seven of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain!

Some of the highlights of our visit to Barcelona were Park Guell, Basílica de la Sagrada Família, The Cathedral of Barcelona, The Gothic Quarter and La Rambla. The painting inspired by this leg of our journey was Park Guell designed by architect Antoni Gaudí.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part Six of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain!

We stopped in Naples and skipped a tour of Pompeii to catch up with our friends. It was sooooo good to catch up and see their growing family. We did see a few historic places as well, but relished our time sharing pizzas, gelato, and chocolate pistachio cake.

Today’s sketch was the Fountain of Neptune.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part Five of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain! In this next leg of the journey, my family joined me, and we hopped on a cruise to Italy and Spain. Our first stop was Genoa, where we toured the town on bikes. Some of our favorite points on our route were the Home of Christopher Columbus, Boccadasse Beach with boats and cafe’s and the Piazza De Ferrari fountain in the middle of the city.

This is me in front of the house of Christopher Columbus! Now I’m walking in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus. It’s so amazing that something this old exists and that we can fly across the world to visit it. Below is a watercolor sketch of the scene from Boccadasse Beach in Genoa, Italy, along with a quick study of the scene in oil.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part Three of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain!

There is so much to see in Arles and St. Remy, and I only had one day here, so I’d love to go back and spend more time. For this trip, I focused on following the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh. I went on two tours while I was there, and the best one was actually through an Airbnb B&B Experience hosted by Veronica and Nicolas. I highly recommend them for their professionalism and knowledge of the area

Van Gogh is one of the artists I am greatly inspired by, both because of his bold use of color and brush strokes, but also because of his painful personal journey. I had one of those. In his story, one of his happiest periods of painting was in St. Remy, while he was in a mental hospital. When I visited there, I saw the olive trees he painted as well as the cafe at night in Arles, and felt more connected to him than ever. Starry Night was also inspired by the scene in Arles by the river.

The image above is from my Beautiful Star Painting and was inspired by Van Gogh, so I thought it was the perfect header for this post. I plan to paint some of these places myself soon, with my reference photos, but for now, here are a few pictures and a sketch from my visit.

While in St. Remy, I visited the hospital where Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself in 1889. This was one of the highlights of my day in St. Remy. I got to stand and look at the same olive grove that actually inspired some of his work. He was fascinated by the continuously changing colors of the olive trees. The painting above is my own attempt to capture that dancing light and color, and was inspired by the same scene.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part Two of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain!

On the second day, I visited Pont Du Gard and the hilltop villages of Roussillon, Les Baux, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, and Gordes. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful. The food was delicious. The inspiration was priceless. I loved walking through the winding streets lined with both bustling shops and quiet sacred places to rest. I think Roussillon was the most beautiful, but the others each had their own individual charm.

I purchased a few lovely watercolors from an artist at the market in Roussillon. She is not online, but her name was Dominique. In Les Baux, I found a soap shop, and in Gordes, the highlight was actually an art exhibit of an amazing artist 2L. Her work speaks the language of life and healing to my soul, and stumbling into her free exhibition was the dessert of the day. Some other color-soaked highlights from the day are below.

It was a full day with very little downtime, but here is a humble offering from my sketchbook for this day.

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that it felt real…I did…and it was. Welcome to Part One of my dreamy journey to France, Italy, and Spain!

My first stop was Avignon, France, where I soaked in the ornate medieval architecture and shaded streets full of shops, fountains, and this cute phone booth repurposed into a used book library. On a beautiful September afternoon, I walked to the immense Gothic Palace of the Popes and the famous Pont d’Avignon (Pont Saint-Bénézet) bridge. I loved the view from my hotel, the windows that actually opened, not needing air conditioning, the croissants, and the history around every corner.

A few scribbles from Avigon in my sketchbook…

This eight-foot-high wall separates our Airbnb property from our next-door neighbor, and the mural on it was about four years old. Here are some photos of the original mural from 2017.

Last weekend, spring and a three-day weekend beckoned me outside to revive it. Some of my favorite flowers are zinnias, coneflowers, and peonies, so I made them the stars of this show. The background of the wall was “Deep Water” from Valspar at Lowe’s, which is a beautiful dark aqua color. I also used several blues, reds, yellows, a pink, and white to mix my own colors and saved them in smaller jars. All the paint was exterior satin, and we did prime the wall first.

After the background color dried, I chalked out the large floral design and got started. This step was quick and easy as I could just erase chalk if needed with a wet paper towel and keep sketching.

The mural is actually in three sections because of a fenced patio we have, but the total width was about 20 feet, and it took me two days to complete the actual painting part. I love that this is my view from my art studio and that our upstairs guests can enjoy it as well. Happy Spring!

As a child in Ohio, I remember hours of play in the snow. All the neighborhood kids would come sledding together, or ice skate on Briar Lake. Snowball arsenals forts and snowmen were a regular part of my winter journey as a child. In Texas, snow is a rare occurrence. If it does happen to snow, it usually does not last for days, but in January, we had what I would call delightful snow here. I loved its crunch as I walked in it and how it stuck together. I took the reference photo for this painting during a winter bike ride through the park near my home and loved the idea of capturing the vivid colors of the grass and trees with the cool blues of the snow and water.

It’s for sale in the shop for $350.00 and on display in our VRBO space upstairs.