Paintings Around the World
NORTH AMERICA
UNITED STATES: Alaska, California, Nevada, National Parks
CANADA: British Columbia
This series was inspired by a walk through Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC. My husband found on Trip Advisor, a photographer, James Stevenson, who took us on a tour of the park, and showed us his favorite places to take photos. He spent the whole day with us as we went through the entire park. We even bushwhacked off the beaten path to see the double image of the native person carved into a tree trunk. which we would never have seen had we gone on our own.
The entire walk, as I admired these huge old growth Western Red cedars, I couldn't help admiring even those that had died, especially after seeing the carving. It brought back Shel Silverstein's book, "The Giving Tree" which I had read to our children many times. I imagined different purposes for them, especially once we saw the native people's carving which was fairly early on in the day. It was especially fascinating seeing the two trees whose roots wrapped around a fallen log, the tree that made two 90 degree turns and the new growth coming out of broken stumps, and the "Two Spirits carving which turns out to be a piece of guerilla artwork. Guerrilla art is that of art left in unconventional spaces for the public to find. The artist of this tree carving is unknown.
James even sent us his photos of objects of interest, and pictures he had taken of us during the day.
CENTRAL AMERICA
BELIZE: Chan Chich Lodge
SOUTH AMERICA
COSTA RICA & GALAPAGOS
EUROPE
FRENCH PYRENEES SERIES
One of my favorite travel experiences was in the French Pyrenees while Art hiked the Grand Randonee 10. I had traveled by car as his “Sherpa” with my painting supplies -sightseeing and painting to capture memories. I got to a place called Bareges. Art was just finishing his hike for the day, and he called me from his cell telling me to follow the GR 10 trail markers, and to come meet him. As I was about to enter the woods, I came to this sign in French which basically translated as: Introductory Path to Drawing, Nature Trail. Further along was a rustic workstation with a seat and pointers about drawing on the desktop. Continuing, I saw more of these, until I finally met up with Art, feeling that this was where our two passions met. We walked on together to the final station where there was giant book filled with what looked like an inside peek into the sketches of someone’s personal journal along the trail.
I was so excited to see a focus on tuning people into what they see, by viewing it through an artist’s lens. So often in America we see the focus on health and exercise with par courses for runners…but this was so novel. It was a way for someone to stop and really take time to observe, and then, without fear of judgement, attempt to document what he/she saw through drawing in a personal journal rather than with words. I did a painting of a Creperie that was nestled off to the side of the trail, alone. It too was a surprise to come upon.
FRANCE: Paris, Versailles
