The EXTERIORS of the houses were far from remarkable—one stucco building blurred into the next, often with only a change in paint color to mark the property line…  

But the DOORS!

Bramante’s Tempietto, Rome, Italy, 1998

Long before I began painting the architectural watercolors I make today, I carried a small leather-bound sketchbook through Italy…

Palladio’s Basilica, Vicenza, Italy, 1991.

I vividly remember painting this scene of Vicenza, Italy.  It was my first attempt at painting with watercolor.  I recall positioning myself along canal Fiume Retrone which gave me a view of the south side of Andrea Palladio’s famous copper-domed Basilica, its clock tower rising in the background. After lightly sketching the outlines of the scene…

During a summer in the early ‘90s, as an architecture student, I had the opportunity to study in Vicenza, a northern Italian city in the Veneto region.  Much of my time was spent training my eyes to see—and my hands to record—the beauty before me. 

With a pencil and a travel watercolor set in hand, my journey into architectural watercolor began.