Other Lands

Cape Sable Island, on the southwest shore of Nova Scotia is a sanctuary for many water birds.

A tiny hilltop village near Monte San Savino, covered with groves of olive trees.

July in Tuscany near Monte San Savino, the fields of sunflowers are coming into full flower.

The sands and cliffs of Victoria-By-The-Sea, a village on the southern shore of Prince Edward Island, are a deep red sandstone color.

Low tide on the south shore of Prince Edward Island reveals the sandstone-red sands and creates shimmering reflections in the shallow mud flats which seem to go as far as the eye can see.

In Kathmandu, Nepal, a child peeks out at the strange foreigner from the shelter of her simple home.

During the Monsoon Season, as you walk in the bright sun along the white sands of the Maldives, you see the storms rolling in--huge billowing black clouds about to deluge you with their heavy rain.

The mountains of Vermont are just as beautiful from across the border. Eastern Townships, near Lake Memphremagog, Quebec Province, Canada.

Another memory of the magical island on Inle Lake in Burma.

This work was painted for a 2009 commemorative exhibition honoring Sri Lanka's most famous and influential architect, Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003), held at his country home, "Lunuganga" in Bentota, Sri Lanka. The painting is of a wall in the courtyard beneath his workroom. I love the play of light on the complex colors of the old wall.

In the fertile valley of Lake Memphremagog in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, we passed this field of sunflowers lit by the late afternoon light.

Driving through Tuscany, down to the Chianti Valley, we were surrounded by beautiful vineyards and mountainside villages. The light on the landscape was stunning.

As we traveled south to Rome we stopped to visit the walled city of Orvieto, sitting on an impregnable rock from which it has guarded the road from Florence to Rome through the centuries. The countryside beneath the city is full of vineyards, olive groves and fields of wheat. Wild poppies grow along the sides of the road. The city sits in magnificent splendor, visible for miles around.

Inle Lake is a shallow lake, 22km long and 11km wide, in the hills southeast of Mandalay. The 17 villages of the area are built on stilts right in the lake and food is grown in floating gardens staked to the lake bottom with bamboo poles. From our hotel we looked out over floating rice paddies and vegetable gardens. Men were out in their canoes tending the paddy. On an island in the distance was a temple. We could hear the chanting from across the water.

Our first evening in Bagan, we went to watch the sunset from the top of the Shwesandaw Paya, a large white pyramid-style pagoda offering a 360 degree view of the plains of Bagan (a vast 42sq. mile Archeological Zone in Central Burma covered with the ruins of 4400 temples).

We spent the night at an “Agriturismo', a working farm which took in overnight guests. Early in the morning I went for a walk with my watercolor sketchbook and sketched this scene, which I later painted as a pulp painting. The farm dog kept me company the whole time. I sat painting on the edge of a wheat field as the golden morning light gradually illuminated the landscape surrounding me with its magic.

As we were moving from one place to another in our motor-propelled longboat "taxi", we passed this island covered with stupas crowded together as far as the eye could see. We passed by so quickly that I was only able to snap a few photos. I never found out the name of the place, but still find the images very beautiful.