Hello my sweet subs and strangers of the internet!

Imagine my joy when Squarespace sent me a weekly report and I had subs! I see you people. Thanks so much, it really means the world and is the motivation for this here post.

A year ago I was in Seattle; honestly a trip of a lifetime. So much freedom in discovery, indulgence in my love. Here are some pages from that trip…

I had sketched this on the ferry from Bainbridge Island, the link we used to get to Olympic National, to Seattle. It was a quick sketch, just some watercolors and the pastel pencils I acquired from a store near Alki Beach earlier that week. Funnily enough I thought I’d lost them up until this moment. I found them in the car just that morning; it’s probably for the best that I didn’t use them while we were at ONP- I love pastels, but gosh do they imprint on everything. And the feel of fixative spray gives me the ick.

There were so many different landscapes in ONP… but I will never forget the beaches.
I started this painting at Ruby Beach.

Instead of sketching with pencil, I’ve been experimenting with sketching with just water before painting. It’s been a nice way to eliminate other tools and pencil lines. The standard Moleskine art sketchbooks are a far cry from true watercolor paper, but once you learn how it functions, you can get by. Often I do wonder how my art would look if I utilized actual watercolor paper…

As someone who grew up on the east coast, it felt very strange. Instead of shells, stones. Instead of warm waters, icy cold waters. No sand dunes or marsh, but huge stacks of driftwood and downed trees followed by beautiful forest. Large rock structures on the horizon. But the best part were the tide pool creatures. We made sure to be out there at low tide just to catch them.

I drew most of this after our trip. Some day I hope to go back and sit there to draw every observation. We touched everything. The starfish were strong. The anemone were sticky and a little numbing, the barnacle insides were disgusting.