My head is always filled with a thousand plans for the future, but as I dug my feet into the sand and sketched a place I’ve been calling home for nearly three decades now, I felt my mind grow still.
A little birthday sketch by the sea.
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Introducing Summer’s Sketchbook 2014.
If our inaugural Summer’s Sketchbook last year was any indication of what’s to come this summer, I couldn’t be more excited to see the sketches that unfold over the new few months.
An illustrated love letter to Salt Spring Island
Right in the middle of perfectly ordinary moments – moments that happen by circumstance or serendipity – life is made extraordinary. And this, I’m slowly learning, is the real magic of Salt Spring.
Notes on sketching the places we call home.
I know I won’t ever lose my love for sketching faraway places – but for now, I’m grateful to be turning my sketchbook’s attention (and my own) to views a little closer to home.
The eternal circle: An illustrated history of yurts
It is this blurring of worlds I will miss the most when it comes time to leave my yurt on Salt Spring – an eternal circle I will endeavor to keep living under, no matter where I call home next.
Introducing the Great Affair’s newsletter.
It’s on milestones like today, when I can look back and remember how much leaving London felt like a giant leap into the unknown, that I’m filled with so much gratitude that I’ve been able to keep going.
A watercolor wander to Burgoyne Bay.
How do you describe the momentary beauty of two trumpeter swans or a Great Horned Owl? I’m beginning to realize that you can’t, but you can move through each day with an awareness that invites them.
Sketching the edge: Notes from Mile Zero.
Here on the edge of a country, you have only a crystalline sea and the sky above you. You must trust those other lands are there; that the only land is not just the one behind you. You must trust it is also a beginning.
Introducing the yurt: A watercolor housewarming
The yurt gives me faith, really, that nothing is ever for nothing. That the threads weaving through our lives may disappear for a time – but they could still re-surface again, somewhere farther down the tapestry.
Your Favorite Place: Announcing a new custom watercolor painting promotion!
After sketching across Europe and Asia, I loved the switch in subject – from places I’d never seen before to places that mean a great deal to people; in a way, places that play a key role in their story.