Carribean

Above: Coral, Grand Cayman (aka Chicken Island)

 Last month I went on a cruise to the Caribbean.  It's a little ironic for me to have gone there since, well, I don't care about the Caribbean.  The Caribbean is one of the last places I would say, hey!  Let's go there!  (Admittedly, there are many such last places.)  But, the trip wasn't at all about the stops.  (We would have gone to Alaska had that been an option in January.  For some reason it is not.)  I basically did nothing except sleep, eat, paint, read, and shop.  It was both the most relaxing and the most productive vacation I have ever had.

And I learned a lot.  (Not least of which: "how to make fellow cruise passengers cringe"...namely, don't go on any tours or to the beach.)

I painted the sunset *every day*.  That itself was an incredible experience, but not only did I do that but I painted over two dozen paintings during the time.  I almost couldn't believe I had managed such a feat.

I won't post them all here, but I will share many.

Another feat: I packed exactly what I cared to have.  I was a little dubious as to why I was bothering to pack a few of the art supplies that I did, but I ended up using it all and I was soooo glad that I had each of them, as they all came in handy at one point or another.  If I hadn't packed both my conte crayons and my pan pastels, I would not have been pleased with many of my paintings, and I would not have learned how awesomely they consistently went with my wet media.

Sunset south of Galveston, TX

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor and pan pastel

North of Grand Cayman

 ACEO, Strathmore Toned Gray, conte crayon, pan pastel

Sunset after Grand Cayman

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Between Aruba and Bonaire

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media,  Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Bonaire

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Between Bonaire and Grenada

ACEO, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Grenada

ACEO, Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Martinique

ACEO, Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

St. Maartin

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, watercolor, conte crayon

Sandbar, Aruba

4x7, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Martinique 1

4x6, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Martinique 2 (continues to from the right of the above painting)

4x6, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

I was fascinated by the water right by the ship, and I painted it a lot.

5x7, Canson Montval Acrylic, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

6x6,  Canson Montval Acrylic, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

6x6, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

8x10, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, watercolor marker, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

I learned a great deal from painting so much (and reading about Japanese grammar...who does that on a cruise??  I do.  Yes, I do.).  I had no idea the Caribbean could be so pleasant.  :)  The color of the water really was unbelievable.

I'm sad I couldn't post my Grand Cayman Chicken, but I don't have it anymore and I forgot to get a photo of it; I will try remember to post it later when I get one. :)