42: Reflections on Ten Days in Spain
Teaching, new friendships, and elements of travel that are out of your control.
I returned from Spain over a week ago, but it has taken me this long to feel like myself again. It was a great week of drawing and painting with sixteen others in the mountains of Andalucia, Southern Spain. I always need a few days to re-adjust due to jetlag, but on top of that, a bunch of us got Covid on the last days of the trip. I didn’t know it was Covid until I was on the flight home from Paris to New York. I had been trying to get onto the in-flight WiFi for the first few hours, but it wasn’t connecting. When I finally was able to connect, I saw messages come in on our retreat group chat that a few people had tested positive. I quickly threw a mask on. Who knows if I infected anyone at that point? I really hope not. It was a real bummer of a way to end such a grand adventure, but I know that an invisible and unpredictable virus is very much out of my control. A bunch of us got sick, and it definitely made the friendships created during the retreat deeper, which is a silver lining.
I was lucky to have our apartment to myself and could avoid getting anyone else in my family sick. After three days of moving from the couch to my bed, I was able to sit up in our little home office and scan my small handmade sketchbook that I filled with memories of the trip. The book finished before the Covid drama, so that part is not included. But who wants to focus on that negative bit of the story anyway?
Looking through the pages takes me right back to all of the beauty that we experienced. I filled each page with happy things: people we met, art I saw, landscapes created using various art materials, little bits of food and wine, and a summary of the lessons Ohn Mar Win (who I co-hosted with) and I taught. Here is a post on Instagram that shares a flip-through. At the end of this email is a video of me describing the backstories on each of the pages.
The sixteen attendees were excited to experiment and try new things, and they accepted our different approaches with enthusiasm. Ohn Mar and I balanced our lessons well. While mine were a bit more complicated, as I tackled things like perspective and proportions, Ohn Mar’s lessons succeeded in loosening everyone up by sharing demos using watercolor. She focused on value and contrast, while I focused on capturing memories by layering various subjects right on top of each other.
Even if the lessons seemed disconnected at first, we would then tie it all together so that it made sense as a combined lesson in looking and seeing the world, and then deciding how to translate it all onto paper. Perspective, layering, proportions, contrast, and tonal studies all came together, for example, when we worked on a still life in the studio.
Below are two of my favorite spreads in my Spain sketchbook.
The next Draw Your World meetup for paid subscribers is on Monday, July 15th, and the link to register is in the chat.
My 2025 retreat in rural Sicily at Anna Tasca Lanza is now live and ready to book! This will be my fourth year teaching on the farm and vineyards. Each year has been so joyous and lovely, and I am thrilled to be going again. I will announce in a bigger way, soon, but since the link is ready, I wanted to share!
Following is a video sharing the stories behind each page in my Spain sketchbook. From waiting at the airport for my flight to Spain to the last night in Malaga, and the flights home—this video covers everything in between. Each page captures a unique moment, blending sketches, notes, and memories to create a visual diary of my adventure.