This small painting was a mental challenge and something different for me. I painted it (in reverse - top layer first, bottom layer last) on the inside of the glass in the frame. I certainly enjoyed the physicality of "smearing" paint on glass! I would like to try a few more like this and may do so later in the fall. This painting is currently in the Courtyard Gallery in Enderby, B.C.

"Sunny"
Painted on the inside of the glass (in reverse) with acrylic paint. 7" x 7" in a black lacquer frame.
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Back from holidays, it was time to reorganize, clean up the studio and catch up on posting. This was a fun online summer event. Jed demo's a painting a week for seven weeks and then asked for paintings to be posted. It was amazingly challenging to find the time to do this as well as Dianna Shynne's weekly small painting. Summer is really an outdoor time for me. 
These were painted 7"x7" in my sketchbook with acrylic paints. I did not have the same colours as he did but enjoyed figuring out how to make it work with what I had. I watched the first video and then did my own rendition of the flowers later. I certainly enjoyed the variety as I paint what inspires me and this was perfect. Jed has a lot of Youtube videos you can check out as well as the artist behind Acrylic University.  @jeddorsey  Jeddorseyart.com

We took our bikes back in to Prague via metro on the last stop so we would have time to get on and settle in without a rush of people. We handed our trusty steeds over to George Transphere Bike Rentals, stripped the bikes of phone holders etc. and emptied out our panniers into our suitcases. George, Laurianne, Chris, Gord and I then went for a coffee/beer to debrief about our wonderful adventures. We all then went our separate ways. Gord and I had 2 days in Prague and then headed to the airport to rent a car to see more of Czech Republic and go across the border in Poland for a few nights at a ski hill town, Szklarska. What shocked us as we walked around was that the ski lift was right in the middle of town with very little parking! It was cold and very foggy so we did not take a lift to hike down the trails of the ski hill. I enjoyed small sculptures I found around town, and we drove to a glass blowing facility and had a delicious lunch while we watched wonderful glass objects being created.
We spent 2 nights at the Paris airport hotel (@ Roissy du France) and took the train into Paris for a day (rows 5 & 6 sketches).
The second last two rows is of the plane tickets (Prague to Paris, Paris to Calgary, Canada) that I doodled people waiting for their flights. The bottom picture is of my sketchbook before it has a few people photos added and sewn up. It was getting larger and larger. I think if I had a larger sketchbook for my next trip I wouldn't need so many pages. Once I have finished the sketches I rarely go back to add anything else even though I see a lot I could do...it is about the moments. What a wonderful and memorable varied holiday!!

We continued our biking journey with the skies darkening and definitely cooling off. We opted to sleep in, a leisurely pack up and headed to the train rather than bike in the hard (all day) rain. It sure felt good sitting on the train all comfy and dry. Each day we would check in to our separate accommodations (for each couple), explore on our own and then enjoy happy hour and dinner together out. It was fun comparing adventures! Just in time for a lunch stop we followed the loud cheers and announcements (didn't understand anything) and found ourselves watching sculling racers on a man made reservoir just for these events and training. A coach zipped back and forth on his bike encouraging his team. Sitting on the bleachers, watching some one else being physical was pleasant indeed. We never knew what we were going to find around the next bend!

We had a wonderful holiday with our friends Laurianne and Chris which included biking in Czech Republic. We met in Prague after a couple of days of sight seeing to get rid of the jet lag and time difference, at George's Transphere Bike Rentals. Gord and I rented from George last year and had exceptional service. We were fitted for our bikes, added our phone holders, accessories and switched our clothes from our suitcases into panniers. We biked to the train station and figured out how and where to put our loaded bikes onto the train and headed to Cheb.
This time I decided to bring a sketchbook that was still in individual pages so I could add pages of writing, receipts, maps and anything else that would spark memories.  I already had water colour paper cut down to 4" x 6" so decided to take that. I also cut copier paper the same size for the gluing and writing. It actually worked really well to set aside the finished paintings in a plastic bag in my pannier and keep adding to it.
With travelling and biking, I did not work on the pages during the day but added to it from photos and memorabilia at the end of the day. Sometimes I would have 2 or 3 to paint that I had previously sketched in. I would certainly make a travel sketchbook like this again but make it at least 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" as I found 4" x 6" a little cramped.

Top left: cover of my handmade sketch book. Top right: sketching people at the airport on the back of my flight ticket