Selected a bunch of sketches and paintings I'd done in and around Mystic, Connecticut, over the years to create a 2015 calendar on Shutterfly. Got two of them made as gifts for M.'s mom and grandmother. It was really easy to create, and the printing and paper quality are excellent.

Small paintings of downtown Stamford, CT, from my original photos.

Had to create a video for a conference speaker application, so I made M. learn iMovie, and I made a quick visual listicle about sketching while on the go.

At the junction of Wilson and Rowayton Avenues in Rowayton, Connecticut, is this Civil War cannon, inscribed with memorials to area veterans.

There's something about Cleveland. And not because of that guy who left and came back. One of my favorite places to go on Saturday mornings is West Side Market. This time we found out we could climb up into the balcony overlooking the stalls. So we got crepes and perched there and ate (and I sketched) and watched the market slowly fill with people.

Before meeting a friend for brunch at Urban Farmer, I slipped into the Cleveland Public Library for a few minutes. How could I not have seen this place before? I could have stayed for hours. I was smitten by the John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection -- the world's largest chess/draughts library. And oh, those adorable miniature books!

While I couldn't meet up to draw with any of the Cleveland Urban Sketchers this time around, I did happen to meet illustrator Bruce Biddle at the library. Turns out CPL's fine arts collection is extensive, including shelves upon shelves of watercolor books. So many treasures.

S'why we keep going back. Any other Clevelandphiles out there? What are your faves?

I've spent the weekend getting ready for the annual office holiday bazaar. Since it's in Cleveland, I've been painting scenes of the city, inspired by photographs I took on previous trips.

I flew in on a Monday, flew out on a Wednesday -- but what I saw of Wroclaw, Poland, was postcard-lovely. Much of it is relatively recent reconstruction, given that the city lay in ruins after WWII.

I went to the Philharmonia one evening to see Mario Hossen and Les Orpheistes Festival Orchestra of Vienna play Vivaldi. The concert hall itself was nothing to look at, but there was no need for anything to distract the eyes given what was coming out of the musicians' instruments.



Daylight hours found me at the office, but a colleague kindly took me on a nighttime ramble around the Old Town, university and Ostrow Tumski.

My last day there, I took an early morning walk around the Rynek (market square) in a chilly, driving rain. I huddled beneath a doorway, trying to keep my sketchbook as dry as I could.



Wroclaw has gnomes and vintage neon signs and a cathedral and trams (I do love trams) and lots and lots of bridges. All of which (and the pierogi!) will certainly bring me back again.

Tagged along with M. to Germany a few weeks ago, as he was speaking at Frankfurt Book Fair. We flew out a few days early so we could spend the weekend in Strasbourg, France.



I expected the half-timbered buildings (aside: they are really tedious to draw even after you figure out the pattern) and the ubiquitous flammkuchen (tarte flambee). Turns out Strasbourg is also multimodal transportation heaven. There are trams and riverboats and bicycles and pedestrian-friendly squares.





Oh yeah, and a famous cathedral.



We had a nice meal at La Corde a Linge, a riverfront restaurant that specializes in spaetzle and is thematically decorated to evoke a vintage laundry.



I didn't even get to the EU Parliament building or the Rhine, and I hear there's great biking among the vineyards in Alsace -- all to-dos for a future trip.

Sept. 20 was a lovely (though breezy) day for the Walk2End Alzheimer's at Ocean Beach Park in New London. As we waited for it to get underway, I sketched a yoga class on the beach and then the pavilions and event tents.

I was in Cleveland again for work a few weeks ago. This was the view from the Aloft Hotel in the Flats - East Bank, before a day full of meetings.

Can you guess the mood? Nina Johansson had us channeling stress and calm and sadness and joy in her workshop and interpreting those emotions in our marks and our colors.





Amazing how choices of color and line style can completely alter the feel of a sketch.



Paul Heaston taught us about wide angles, challenging us to cram everything we could see from ear to ear into a fisheye rendering of the world.





Our lovely B&B, Pousada Pontal Gardens, had a two-person kayak for guest use. So we carried it to the beach and bobbed along the water. As M. paddled, I held on for dear life (it reinforced my dislike of sit-on-top kayaks) and sketched the view, leaning over to dip my brush in the water.



Too soon it was time to leave. I kept a pen and sketchbook handy from sunrise at Pontal Beach to day's end in Rio, so I could capture little vignettes from the transport van.











We spent the last two days relaxing at the Sheraton Rio, listening to the hypnotic crash of the waves on the beach. We had fabulous food in Leblon, especially at Q Bistro Brasileiro.



Before heading to the airport, I sat in the Sheraton Club Lounge and drew the Chacara do Ceu favela on the hillside. Interesting to sketch, to be sure, but heartbreaking -- when the rains come in the summer, we were told, the sirens sound for evacuation as it's not safe for the residents to stay lest there be a landslide.



I miss you already, Brazil -- and now I see why you make us get a 10-year visa: we can't resist your lures for long.

Read Part 1 | Part 2

Paraty, halfway between Rio and Sao Paulo, is a time capsule colonial town that seems to hold a different festival or conference every week. There are horse carts and cobblestonesboulders and pousadas with questionable plumbing. And hummingbirds, and tiny birds that sip greedily from cut watermelon slices (who knew?). Walking involves carefully choosing your steps, except when the tide comes and you have to wade, ankle-deep.



In Simonetta Capecchi's workshop at the Engenho d'Ouro distillery, we chronicled the making of cachaca, the famed sugarcane liquor found in the caipirinha.









When I tired of the machinery I turned my watercolors to the misty mountains beyond.



With Lynne Chapman we splashed color and drew lines and used mixed media to get over the fright of making marks on a blank page.







Read Part 1 | To be continued...

As of a few weeks ago my passport has a stamp from a new continent: South America. I admit I was skeptical when the venue for this year's symposium was announced. But I fell hard for Rio, and Paraty was charming in its way. I see now why Rio is called the "cidade maravilhosa" (marvelous city).

Before heading to Paraty, we stayed a few days at Casa Beleza, a lovely and quiet B&B in the hilly, artsy Rio neighborhood called Santa Teresa. On our first day, we ran into fellow sketcher Rita Sabler lunching at Rustico.





At Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Mountain), we stayed and gawked till the sun had set.



Dinner was at Espirito Santa, which specializes in delicious Amazonian food.



The views from Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) were equally fabulous.



We skipped Copacabana and sank into the sand at Ipanema beach.



In the business district of Centro, we made the requisite stop at Confeitaria Colombo, the art nouveau cafe with its lavishly decorated mirrors and floor-to-ceiling displays of decorative plates...



...and then I sketched a narrow slice of old Rio (Arco do Teles) as the light began to fade.



To be continued...