水彩
This little sketchbook has become my mini, portable zendo where I meditate in 水彩. Pronounced shuǐ cǎi, 水彩 is Chinese for watercolor. This watercolor journal has become a place for me to experiment, to learn, and to think.
Follow the hashtag #pshcinque_水彩_sketchbook on Instagram to see snapshots of sketches from this sketchbook.
SEEING BOTH SIDES
When I participated in The Sketchbook Project, I experimented with creating trompe l’oeil illustrations that utilized both sides of a page in the sketchbook. Double-sided portraits extend my meditations on seeing and appreciating the subject as a whole, from all sides.
[Hint: To see both sides of the illustrations below, mouse in and out of them on desktop or tap in and out of them on touch devices]
LANDSCAPE PORTRAIT
Since my first watercolor lesson in Feb 2018, I have painted things. With all of the time we have spent at home during 2020 due to the pandemic, I have spent a lot of time dreaming about places – ones that I miss, and ones that I hope one day to visit and explore. At the beginning of 2021, to celebrate the new year, we made a field trip to one of my favorite beaches, Waddell State Beach. The beach was strewn with logs bearing the black scars of the wildfire, just a few months ago. We shared the beach with seagulls, oyster catchers, and even a lone elephant seal. It had rained just they day before, and the light, the reflections and the clouds were magnificent. I took many photographs – one of which inspired me to paint my very first portrait of a place – a landscape.
This sketchbook was artfully handbound by Lake Michigan Book Press (with my favorite watercolor paper, Arches Cold Press.)