Here are some images from when Paul, Kerry and I camped out at Watch Hill on the Fire Island National Seashore a few weeks ago. It’s an incredible stretch of nature, and refreshingly isolated from the more popular beaches on the western end of the island. There were close encounters with a huge snake (a Black Racer), countless nocturnal toads, rabbits and of course, the voracious mosquitoes. We managed to beat the odds on the gloomy weather forecast, and were able to do some painting (see my landscape above), drawing and night photography.
See more pictures on Flickr here and here

Just after July 4th, Corrie and I spent three days kayaking and camping in Casco Bay, Maine. The trip was truly amazing. Organized through L. L. Bean, our small group of ten was led by two enthusiastic and experienced guides to the Goslings, two small islands, where we created a base camp. From there we explored the surrounding area, practiced our kayaking skills and got very, very wet while waiting out a storm. All our meals were prepared by our guides and all of it was top notch. We even had lobster! In fact I had two!!
A Flickr set our trip can be found here. Most of the images have captions and all have been placed on a map.
The sketchbook image above was begun on the trip but completed at home thanks to some gorgeous photographs taken by one our guides, Gregg Bolton.

Another image of from our hike on the Escarpment Trail. This one is a sketchbook watercolor of the view looking south towards High Peak and Roundtop Mountain.

Bláfjallakvisal. Fjallabaksleið / South Iceland interior. N 63º 43′ W 18º 48′
A small casein image painted from a postcard Corrie purchased while exploring Iceland with her family last spring.

This is a small gouache landscape I did in my sketchbook, looking down onto the Hudson Valley from the top of North Point on the Escarpment Trail in the Catskill Mountains. A small sketch to remember a fun excursion into the woods.
Having not done any backpacking in a few years, Kerry, Paul and I were determined to do a trip early in the summer to get our mojo back. Kerry picked this amazing hike, which was a perfect way to break us back in. And we needed it.
This was such a spectacular geological area, with a whole range of mountains and lakes perched high above the Hudson River valley on steep rocky cliffs. Thomas Cole painted these very views years ago. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, and it made for a beautiful hike, the way the trail hugs the cliff’s edge, constantly rewarding you with sprawling views, each more splendid than the one before.
We camped out near a peaceful meadow, in a shaded grove of pines, and had a hearty campfire to eat our dinner by.
We also saw a huge snake on the trail, which was quickly identified by the flickr community as an Eastern Milk Snake.
Pictures from the hike can be seen here.
Of course my fellow Google Earth nerds, you may look at the placemark of our hike here.

Here’s a smaller subset of the pictures I took on our recent trip to Morocco. We spent time in Casablanca, Fez, Marrakesh, Merzouga and Ilmil in the High Atlas. It is one of the most fascinating places I’ve traveled to, and I’m still reeling from all that we took in and experienced in the time we were there.
Fellow Google Earth nerds can check out the path we took around the country by downloading this placemark.
You can see the full set of pictures here (with descriptions).

This was painted on the roof of the wonderful Casa Lalla riad in Marrakesh, Morocco on March 29th. The large minaret in the upper left is the Koutoubia mosque, next to the famous Jemaa el Fna Square. I had done another version of this in gouache, which I thoroughly screwed up. Pictures from the trip coming soon…
Continue reading below to hear the call to prayer being called out over the entire city by loudpseaker…it’s a haunting, droning cacophony.

Click here to read more »

I totally forgot to do this post!
Back in October, Julie and I returned to one of our favorite places we have visited together, the mysterious and majestic state of Utah. Having visted Bryce and Zion a few years ago, we promised to return for Arches and Canyonlands. Utah has such raw natural beauty and varied terrain, it’s hard to believe it’s all in one state.
A big thanks to fellow invisibleman Jamie for the use of his amazing Nikon D70. An amazing piece of hardware…

I just got back from my two week trip to Europe. We visited Germany (Düsseldorf and Cologne), the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Denmark (Aarhus, Copenahgen and Møns Klint). We saw over a dozen museums and galleries, the best of which was probably the Louisiana Museum north of Copenhagen which had a really inspiring Matisse show (more on his tree drawing later).
On our last day we took a journey down to the southeast corner of Denmark to the island of Møn. There we found the most spectacular landscapes of our trip in the 400 foot white chalk cliffs of Møns Klint. A breathtaking end to our great trip.
In addition to taking scads of pictures, I tried to draw as much as possible, and I’ve created a collection of a few of the sketches to share. Click on the above image to see them, or click here.
I also have to recommend the sweeping epic of a novel, “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell (recommended to me by fellow invisibleman PA). This was my travel book, and it delivered exactly what I was looking for on a good trip. It’s an epic that sweeps through time as well as distance. Be sure to check it out.

I’m writing this entry in the lovely Flingern neighborhood of Dusseldorf, Germany. I was determined to add to our “travels” category with a euro-dispatch, so here I am. My invisiblewoman and I have just returned from a little side trip to Amsterdam, and are spending the weekend in our home base in Dusseldorf, which happens to be our gracious hosts Marcus & Vanessa’s cool apartment. They have been taking us around to see the sights, all the art openings in Dusseldorf’s art scene, the best doner kebab shops…And we had a nice trip to Koln today. The Museum Ludwig was spectacular…
Amsterdam was really lovely, and our time there helped erase some unsavory memories of my first visit years ago. In particular, we were quite taken by the Jordaan neighborhood, which is full of great shops and bars, and some incredibly quaint canal houses.
Of course we took in some inspiring art, including the suprisingly good collection of van Gogh’s drawings at his eponymous museum. Nice to his his little sepia sketches in his folded letters to his brother Theo. They had several of his sketchbooks on display, which was a treat! Off to Arhus, Denamrk on Monday, then a brief visit around Copenhagen.
Couldn’t scan in any of my sketches while on the road unfortunately, so the above photo will have to do until my return. A few more photos are available for perusal here.”