Hi All

Followers of this site will know that I love to travel and to paint watercolours of the places that we have visited.

Occasionally I paint watercolours of places that I haven’t visited , but they may have been visited by friends or people who have asked me to paint a watercolour of a particular place.

Painting these watercolours always leads to me wishing that I might visit and holiday there and paint on the spot!

Sometimes just the planning can be a great way to get there ahead of yourself!

So I thought that now and again I would publish a blog post with a few of these “other places” for you to have look at too.

You could almost say this is my bucket list for the future, but in reality my bucket list is far longer than these watercolours portray.

Many thanks to all our friends ,colleagues, and family for these ideas of future travel and the pleasure that I have had painting “Watercolours from THEIR Travels”!

This month I have picked three places from the ever increasing list. The first one is of Lake Como in Italy, then the South Island of New Zealand, and finally Lake Bled in Slovenia.

First of all Lake Como

I painted this small watercolour as reminder for some friends who had sent me postcard of their stay in Bellagio. We have visited Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda which are very beautiful, but we have not yet been Lake Como. The town of Bellagio looks so delightful so I am sure it will make a great holiday destination, and a base for water taxis around the Lake.

Bellagio on Lake Como.
Watercolour,painted in 2011.

The second place I have chosen for this months blog is in the South island of New Zealand. We have visited the South Island a few years ago and had a wonderful holiday there with friends playing golf and sightseeing, but we were there for only a few weeks and never made it to the Fox Glacier, or the Haast Highway as it winds its way  through the Southern Alps of New Zealand . The Haast Highway is thus the subject of this painting. Again painted as a momento for some good friends who did manage to get there it tries to capture the scale on the huge mountains in that part of New Zealand.

Haast Highway in New Zealand. Watercolour,painted in 2010.

Finally for this Post I have chosen a very beautiful place that I really do want to visit.

This is Lake Bled in Slovenia. We have visited the Coastal area of Slovenia, where we found the food and wine terrific and the people very friendly. It is beautiful Country. Two groups of our friends have been to Lake Bled and this larger painting tries to capture the beauty of the Church on the Island in Lake Bled. Bled Castle can be seen in the distance and the Julian Alps are behind.. The Church, a Pilgrimage one, is dedicated to the “Assumption of Mary” and is also used for weddings as well as visits. The church has a 52 m (171 ft) tower and there is a Baroque stairway built in  1655 with 99 stone steps leading up to the building. (don’t try to count my steps, they may not all be there!)

Lake Bled. Watercolour 14 inches by 10. Painted in 2015

I hope you have enjoyed seeing these paintings of really nice places to visit. Some more another time.

Note to self…..I must get the planning underway!

Brian