TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip – July 8, 2025


Approach painting like a chef preparing une création du chef, approach cooking as un artiste. “All is mysterious, magical, spellbinding, that which is accomplished between the moment of placing a pan or cooking pot and its contents over the fire, and that sweet moment, full of anxiety and sensuous hope, when you uncover, on the…

TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip – June 17, 2025


“Try not! Do!” Yoda Yesterday, I thought oil painting would be a good idea, but setting up and cleaning seemed like a lot of work. Thankfully Tricia gave me a bit of encouragement and I got my stuff out and started. Once into the motions I enjoyed doing a small painting from our trip to…

This week in The Pearl – June 13, 2025


Last Sunday we got back to our longstanding practice of Le déjeuner dominical (it has been jokingly called le messe du ventre – the mass of the stomach). Tricia and I both cook, I resist using the phrase “cooking duties” as that implies a burdensome task; for us it is a pleasure. The Brits use…

This Week in The Pearl – a bit of café culture


Tricia frequently says, “Wherever you go, there you are.” Jimmy Buffett sang that “you take the weather with you.” Both of these thoughts came to my mind this week as I was sitting outside at Via Delizia, just down the street. Wednesday was a good day – a trip to Oblation Paper & Printing, a…

TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip – May 27, 2025


Add people to your sketches. Including people in your sketches adds interest and perspective, and it turns it into a story – it is quite simple and they don’t have to be portraits. Check this sketch I did of a road we walked often near our home in France. The first is without a person,…