I had the Rodin Museum garden all to myself for a bit one rainy morning. It suited the garden. The sculptures look just right in the rain. And I found a couple of sheltered places to sketch, though you can see a little bit of rain droppage on the pages.

I also got a cup of tea to warm up at the garden cafe and did one sketch snugly indoors.

I enjoyed my fast train sketching on the way over here, and I'm going to try to stay in that mode for a bit and not get too labored.

So here are some early sketches from

Abbesses, the cool area just up the hill from me.

I met my friends Audra and Pascal for a sidewalk bakery visit. They're musicians who came to stay with me last year as they toured though the States. Audra even wrote a song that has Sun Studio and Mr. Darcy in it. I can't wait for the cd to come out, because it's lovely.

I sketched Pascal looking incredibly French, leaning against the bar with a coffee at his elbow. They both draw too, so they're nice enough to get it.

It's really lovely to get into town and have such a warm welcome waiting. I'm looking forward to hanging out with everyone and hearing them play. All my friends here seem to be musicians, which is marvelous.

So I came really planning to sketch outside and paint lots of bridges. And I've done a good bit of that. But what I am enjoying more than anything is doing tiny museum copies in my sketchbook. So I may just do that for my last couple of days. It is vacation, after all...

I've got my tiny watercolor tin and the waterbrush that works like a pen, so I can work standing up in front of a painting of there's not a handy bench. Above is a Dutch follower of the Barbizon school in France. Below is a Daubigby. I like him more with each painting I see. Both of these are from Saturday afternoon in the Rijksmusuem.

I did two more Daubigny studies in the Van Gogh museum this morning. I discovered that if you get there 15 minutes early, the line isn't bad, and most people stop to get in line for audio guides and start obediently at the bottom floor. I went straight to the top (having done it chronologically in April) and had a peaceful, blissful 45 minutes or so before the crowds got up there to see my favorites.

I'll post the other couple of sketches in a separate blog post. I can't minimize the files on my phone, and it gets to where there are too many pictures in a post for it to load well. To be continued....

I have been out painting canals, because, well, I'm in Amsterdam. That is, in large part, what you paint when you're here. All those little rounded bridges are just so enticing.

After these couple of very detailed, maybe too tight, full watercolors yesterday, I did this one from the park bench across from my hotel where I carried my dinner out to enjoy the evening.

Today I tried to be a little looser with the full watercolor.

While I was painting that last one, the older man who lives in the house just opposite my spot took a photo of me working from his upper story and was kind enough to print it and bring it out to give me. Very, very kind. And kind of fun to see the birds eye view of myself working.

I've been dreaming about sketching here ever since my last trip, and I've got a pass to get in and out at will, which is lovely. That way I can go in, do a few rooms, and then do something else. I really have a great time sketching in museums too. My water brush and tiny watercolor kit are perfect for it. Very contained and easy to stand up with.

On the way home I halfway stalked a busker. He was walking slowly and looked so cool that I wandered behind him and sketched him for a block or so.

My final sketch of the day is a nifty old building (I love the "Comestibles") that is now an antique store.

My lovely friends at the woodworking school Country Workshops invited me to come and stay with them for a few days. I'm in a busy patch of life, but they are dear people, and it was lovely to get away for a little bit and see my sister on the way as well as my friends who live there and around there.

I also ran into Asheville for a little recreational bookstore time.

I was in St. Louis early in July on my annual sister baseball trip (see the last blog post), but of course I found a little time to paint in my favorite park as well. I did all of these with my tiny watercolor kit and water brush pen. It's handy to not have to set out multiple cups of water to just do some quick sketches. I didn't have a lot of time that trip, but I always try to paint at least a little bit in Tower Grove.

I usually go with my sister to St. Louis once a summer to take in some Cardinals baseball. It's a fun time, and I look forward to being in Busch stadium, since mostly I just listen at home on the radio. This year I was pleased to be asked because her wedding anniversary fell on the weekend where the Cards played the Padres, which is her husband's rooting team. They made an anniversary trip of it and took in four games, but they very kindly and warmly bought extra tickets to the second two games and asked me to come join them partway through. I was delighted, and it was a lovely weekend with the two of them.

I mostly watched the games, but I did one sketch at the beginning of the game each day. The second day I restricted myself to a Stabilo fine liner and one grey Faber Castell marker, which was the sketching equipment I was handing out to teenagers on a retreat later that week where I would be teaching sketching. (I'll write about that soon. I am SO behind on this blog right now.) I wanted to do a couple of demo sketches and also just think about the best ways to use those materials. Mostly, though, I just had fun and enjoyed two Cardinal wins and hung out with the siblings.

I've got a new painting underway for my fall exhibition at Dixon Gallery and Gardens. This is an evening sky I painted in watercolor when I was in North Carolina last fall. I've already done a print from that sketch, but the image continues to call my name. My favorite thing to paint in oils is big, lush skies. That medium does skies better than anything else I work in. I've enjoyed getting back into oils for this exhibition.

This craze is sweeping the Urban Sketchers online, and I have completely fallen for it. I made my first tiny watercolor tin in a mini-sized Altoids tin, and I have used it incessantly ever since. When I was in Amsterdam this spring, I was delighted to find that one of the huge items for the Dutch tourism industry is tiny mint tins. I bought several at different museums. At 1.75 x 2.25" they are slightly larger than the Altoid tin, but about a quarter of an inch. Six empty half pans (which I ordered in bulk from Cheap Joe's) fit inside, as oppsoed to five in the Altoid tin, but I have the same number of colors. I just put the ultramarine blue in the bottom right directly into the corner of a tin instead of in its own half pan.

I can get almost my full regular palette into the tin, missing only yellow ochre and viridian green. I don't have as much mixing space as my full one, which I still get out to do finished, stand alone watercolors, but this is delightfully easy to use with a water brush (a pen-like contraption with water in the barrel that you squeeze gently as you use the brush) for quick sketches. It's perfect also when you're standing up or working in your lap at the theater and don't have space to set out cups of water for dipping.

Here are the colors I squeeze into my tiny kit. The first one I made didn't have the lemon yellow, and I missed it, so I've got three colors in that section. Everywhere else only has two. The purple fits along the side in the Altoid tin and at the bottom in these new ones. I usually use Windsor and Newton professional grade watercolors.