The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island. I call my line of cards and art-focused souvenirs "I Was Here," but this is a place I can only say "I Was ALMOST Here." First, I had a trip booked to Kiawah just after Christmas one year. The night before the flight, I stepped on a sewing needle and landed in surgery.

The second trip was for business, but because my skills were so needed for a pre-Kiawah meeting in Philadelphia, I ended up missing the flight and just staying in Philly.

Looking up from one of the back rows of the Basilica of St. Mary's in Minneapolis, I watched the silhouette of David Cherwin as he directed the National Lutheran Choir in the loft. I caught sight of him from a unique angle over the rail of the choir loft, backlit by the rose window. This is one of a very few paintings I have done that features an individual, and also one of just a small grouping of church interiors.

The House of Seven Gables http://www.7gables.org/ inspired this painting.

The way one is "supposed" to paint with watercolor is to create a wash in the background as the sky. A wash is a thin veil of paint, mostly water and just a touch of paint pushed around on the paper. I did something entirely different- and maybe to an art teacher it might be called wrong. What I did was to build layer upon layer of paint to make the sky. I mostly used blues, and then ended with white paint to do the clouds. I feel kind of guilty when I know what the accepted technique is and I just do not do it that way... but this is just the way I paint sometimes. Don't get me wrong. I make the sky using a wash sometimes. I guess I just do not want to be limited by certain techniques and rules.

The Wortham Center http://www.houstontx.gov/worthamcenter/ in Houston, Texas. I have happy memories of seeing the ballet with Mom and Dad here. It is a lovely facility.

This lovely orchid at Longwood Gardens (www.longwoodgardens.org) in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania captivated me. I do not normally paint flowers, but this one seemed almost architectural, so I gave it a try.

Gamla Stan (Old Town), Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla Stan (Old Town), Stockholm, Sweden

This is the grand staircase at Winterthur http://www.winterthur.org/about/period_tours.asp?part=7. I broke the rules of watercolor technique to make these. I used the paint to build up, which is different from how most artists use watercolor. I mixed the paint with just a little water, keeping it thick like a gauche.

These took a long time to paint. I worked on the three paintings simultaneously. I took the source photos using my Canon EOS Digital Rebel SLR. The source photos are shown here. What do you think?

In Torino, Italy, the bus I was riding in paused for a moment at a stoplight and I took a cursory photo of the Cantine Risso restaurant

http://www.esp.cityvox.com/bonnes-adresses_turin/cantine-risso_31844/ProfilLieu. When I returned home, I used my source photo for this painting.

I love the way the lace turned out.

Not every painting is a "success" in my point of view. This watercolor was a quick sketch done en plein air on a beach in Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands (http://www.b-v-i.com/JostVanDyke/). I was there for a daytrip with cients, and I broke away for a few moments by myself. I am not sure if it is the cursory speed at which I painted, my unfamiliarity with the terrain, or the challenges of painting water, but I don't count this piece among my favorites. Nonetheless, it reminds me of a beautiful day spent on a pristine beach.

I was in Torino, Italy for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. On one of my first mornings in the city, still suffering from jet lag, I awoke very early in the morning. Just a few blocks from my apartment, I walked to the spot I painted here. Looking across the Rive Po, I gazed upon the Church of Santa Maria del Monte dei Cappuccini. I snapped a photo and painted the picture you see here from my photo. Although the two look really different, my painting is a closer reflection of what I remember... the photo came out rather underexposed, but it was a good way to remember the spot so I could paint it later.

When I first saw this church, I didn't realize that it would look so different at night. As part of the Luce d'artista project (http://www.comune.torino.it/artecultura/luciartista/) artist Rebecca Horn (http://www.rebecca-horn.de/) made a ethereal installation called Piccoli Spiriti Blu in the yard around the church. I loved coming to this spot at night and looking up the hill at the blue lights around the church.