It’s awfully easy to depend on taking photographs when you travel. We all do it. It’s a quick way to capture what you see, and wonderful to have an album to look back on later. But I have to tell you, sketching is better! You have to look longer, pay more attention, and think about what you’re seeing. And not just the view… but the movement and the sound of the waves, the smell of the pines and the warmth of the rock you’re sitting on. In the end, the sketch is a key that unlocks a whole body of memories, and means so much more.
Quiet cove
And when I come to paint the subject back in the studio, hopefully you get the message too! These two landscapes are not tied to any specific location, but in my head they are what Hvar means to me. At least on a calm day in summer!
Calm in the channel
Both of these paintings are acrylic on canvas, 10″ x 30″.
Go Hvar 
A sketch is such a personal impression. Put several artists to draw/paint the same view and they’ll all do something different! I love that. And it’s why, I guess that my own travel sketches mean so much to me. I love looking through my travel sketchbooks, too!
I was looking through my travel sketchbook the other day and remembering all the places I’ve been…I love having to pick a place and sit still long enough to draw it. You do see it differently.