We left early in the morning from Islamabad and started driving towards the north with Batakundi as the destination for the day - about 7-8 hours away. The sunrise was amazing on this day.

One thing I’ve probably learned the most from painting from life, especially outdoors, is the importance of making decisions. When doing plein air painting or travel sketching on location, there’s no time to waste - especially in the morning or evening light.

My journey for minimal travel sketching started in 2018 when I was planning a trip to Alaska.

So I made it back from Alaska in one piece, which isn’t too surprising. Although there was one part of the trip where things got a bit sketchy, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I had an amazing time and saw so many beautiful things.

After many years of wanting to visit Alaska, I finally planned a trip lasting 10-days across several different towns - Anchorage, Denali, Girdwood and Seward being the bulk of the trip. I’ve decided to go with watercolors and sketches for this trip and minimized my materials for ease of use when traveling.

I spent two full days in the Laguna Beach area recently to visit with family and I was also able to visit the Irvine Museum as well as the Laguna Art Museum and do some exploring around Heisler Park in Laguna Beach. Spending a good part of one day at the beach, I was able to explore the details of the shore and study the nuances of the ocean, waves and reflections as the day went on. My appreciation for the ocean and rocky shores grew very much on this trip as well as inspiration and ideas for future paintings.