Traveling as an artist: Spain 2018 Paintbook

      "Traveling. 

It leaves you speechless, 

then turns you into a storyteller."

   From April 30 to May 7th, 2018, I taught how to travel as an artist and create Paintbooks along the Spanish Costa Brava.   'Paintbooks' is a title I have given my style of journaling using watercolors, multimedia, paper scultpture and special effects.                                            Starting and ending in Barcelona, we were hosted by the tour company French Escapade. They took us to inspiring locations, breathtaking seasides, museums, a medieval village and a gorgeous botanical garden. We could focus on our art.                                            

  The pages of this book reflect imagery and experiences that cannot be shot from a camera. 
 It is created from collecting ideas, subjects, cultural sites and even the little-est of details.

I assigned the students to have a pre-workshop plan and designate each page before we arrived.

There are titles and prompts for each two-page spread that allow the artist to be flexible.

Compiled into these 54 pages, it represents unique visuals recorded while traveling.

Travel inspiration can be illusive. Time schedules, weather and overseas logistics can affect plans.
The Paintbook may not be entirely finished while abroad, but the treasured story is saved.
This is what makes it all so creative and a once-in-a-lifetime memoire.

First day demo, Callela de Palafrugell.

Maps: showing flights from San Diego to Spain, Barcelona favorites, and Costa Brava on the north east Spanish coast.

Flip up of Costa Brava map.

My intentions for this trip from the airplane over to Barcelona and Quotes for my students.

Itinerary in paint...

First demo on the cliffs of Calella de Palafrugell...showing layers and levels of paint application.

Dali---- Gaudi---- Picasso, wow!

Demo of backside view of cliffs for the first demo.  Looking through the Jardins de Cap Roig.
 Added layers of watercolor paper for depth and texture.

A warm-up painting in Barcelona.  Capturing a scene like this brings back every memory from that experience that my camera could never achieve.  Somehow, painting in these books brings back all of the senses.  I can feel the breeze, remember exactky where I sat at a cafe with a window to this scene, what I drank (cappuccino of course), the nice couple that I talked to, the birds and the soft glow that just got better by the minute.  It was all about that glow.

I've returned to Placa Reial many times. It has a special relaxed feeling amoung a square filled with tourists, cafes, fine dining and these stoic palm trees.  I selected the prompt for this page of different techniques with the same repeated image.

Perfect example of why I travel.  "Stop the van! We MUST paint this glorious field."

A lesson on architecture from the medieval city of Pals, inbetween raindrops.  :))

Just below our hotel is this stunning home that lured me to paint it a few times during our short visit.
I wish we could have met the infamous Velcro Man!

Flip out to display the sea glass I found.

We used real flowers, painted with watercolors and pressed onto rice paper and into our books.

Airplane painting!

One of my goals is to experience tall monuments during my travels.
The Columbus Monument at the end of Las Ramblas is shown here as it can be extended out of the book.

Pre-workshop assignment to sketch and paint our drawing tools from the materials list.

Another Pre-workshop assignment to sketch and paint our PAINTING tools from the materials list.