Big Update on our Etsy Shop

It’s always fun to be able to say, “I just sold an original watercolor!”

We’ve recently updated our Etsy Shop, to include one hundred original watercolor sketches, and this was the first to sell :)

One of my favorites from our 2016 trip to Portugal, even though it’s not a historic landmark – just a rutted dirt track and some pine trees. Sometimes the simplest of views line up with the perfect time of day, and suddenly you have a favorite memory.

I feel like I remember every one of the good pieces. The ones that magically work out. Because it doesn’t happen every time! That’s for sure :) Watercolor is so difficult; one success out of ten is a good result.

When everything flows for you, when the color and values just click, and the brush drawing sings; you remember these magic moments, even years later.

{ A Marathon of Miniatures, 2016 }

That’s why travel and sketching works for me. I can’t always just sit down and be inspired; like flipping a switch. We’re going to make a work of art now! I find I have to go out, do stuff, see new places, eat the local food, and all the while be continually sketching.

Eventually one of them takes you by surprise. You never know which is going to be the one that jumps off the page.

{ Day Three of #OneWeek100People 2018 }

I should say; it’s actually my wife Laurel who made this happen.

We have a room filled with boxes and boxes of sketches from all over the world. I’ve tried to keep them organized by date and country-of-origin as they accumulated, but to be honest it’s quite a raven’s nest of books and papers. She’s been diligently selecting, and individually matting and photographing over a hundred pieces from our archives. It’s taken her almost a year of work in her spare time.

{ Sketching Ireland: Five Strategies for Sketching in the Rain }

So yes; For some of you, it might be uniquely inspiring to own one the pieces from my old posts!

My time as an urban sketchers correspondent was a very special opportunity to see the world and develop myself as a painter. All while working alongside so many wonderful artists.

{ #30x30DirectWatercolor2022: Hokiin Temple, Japan }

Some of the sketches in the shop are workshop demonstrations, some from life drawing, but most of them are original works made on the street. Often leaning in a doorway or against a lamppost, trying to be out of people’s way. Sometimes standing under the hot sun, because it’s the only spot for the good view; sometimes trying to get it done before the rain erases your page; sometimes while entertaining a crowd of locals or excited kids.

{ Steam and Stone with Simonetta }

Each one is a piece of the Urban Sketching life that we were so lucky to enjoy for over twenty years.

I’m almost convincing myself we shouldn’t sell these! These are my real life experiences put down on paper!

But there you go; maybe that’s a truth about being an artist. You do the work for yourself, for the enjoyment of the creative flow; but you also want other people to love it. It can’t just stay in a box in your attic! The real fun is in the sharing.

{ Inside Front Cover; ebook edition of Direct Watercolor, 2018 }

So as always, my thanks to everyone who’s followed the blog for all these years, and I hope you’ll find something to love on the Etsy store :)

Thanks, and take care!
~ Marc