It is The Year of the Goat

Happy Chinese New Year a day late! Although this is from the goats I saw in Greece on a tiny island off of Aegina called Moni Eginas.

It was cute and covered in goats and peacocks.

My friend brought bread to feed them and got head butted by an aggressive male when she tried to pet him. She said she should have known better and had giant bruises to prove it!
They had glorious horns!

Moni Eginas; magical land of goats and peacocks

Traveling to Romania in the fall!

The monastery on Aegina Island

Since it is too cold to get out, here is a sketch from some of my photos of Aegina Island off of the coast of Athens, Greece. We went there in 2011.

It was an amazing place! We were visiting a friend who was teaching at a satellite campus there.

This same friend is going on sabbatical in Romania so I plan to visit her in the fall and do a LOT od sketching. I hope to visit some of those lovely medieval villages in Transylvania.

We have not been in Romania since 1998. I am curious about what has changed and what has stayed the same...

Pictures from Greece Uploaded!

Finally!  Here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14121972@N07/sets/72157627982573615/

Because everyone loves holiday snaps! "And this is Uncle Ted even nearer the side of the house, but you can still see the front."

Greece Sketch Book

These are some of the images I doodled in my sketchbook during my trip to Greece... I just got a plein air easel set up so I hope to start painting outside here soon. I wanted to do a little painting there, but fear taking paints through customs.

There are some sites online where people post their urban sketching. I hope to get a lot of practice. I am not totally happy with the thin Moleskin paper. My last one had nice thick paper. I use ink a lot and you cannot draw on both sides.

Not only were the subway cars really clean in Greece, they ads were for art supplies!

Back in Town and New Book Cover!

Just as I got back from vacation in Greece! While I sort out the pictures and get them uploaded to Flickr (including some urban sketches I did), here is a little post on the final cover design for my book coming out in Fall 2012...

It is a wrap around cover and below is the full composition. This one has a really cool concept. For those interested, here is the sketch

And finally, a touch of Santorini from my trip.