Venice Watercolor Art & Dreams

Rose tinted Venetian Balcony

Watercolor

Dear Friends,

It is a joy to be writing to you, albeit after some time has passed. Since I last wrote, I have returned from my creative retreat to Florence. A journey of sketchbooks, journals, watercolor pens, paints, travel brushes…all packed and taken with me to enjoy creative discovery and play guided by Florence as my muse. I enjoyed exploring new and unique ways of both making art and experiencing the city, some of which I have been sharing on my Instagram.

One creative project is kept tucked in my studio; a book of a certain kind of wisdom I gained from the city. A collection of “love notes” or messages from Florence that I ended up binding into a handmade book, using marbled paper I purchased in the city.

As the time between my travels and my being back at home stretches, it opens more depths and layers of meaning. This is why I typically travel only once a year. To allow myself this time to fully absorb my creative inspirations and insights gained through travel.

That having been said, as you can see from the art shared, Venice lingers on my mind and studio, and dreams of my return are beginning to surface. I feel fortunate, I feel blessed to be able to dream of Venice, and to keep returning to the city that in many ways inspired the start of my creative journey.

When I am not traveling, another way I feed my wanderlust is through reading. I’ve recently finished the novel, “One Italian Summer,” by Rebecca Serle and am currently reading, “The Little Italian Hotel,” by Phaedra Patrick. Both are lovely, if you might like a reading suggestion.

I have also been adding new travel inspired art into my online shop. These watercolors memories of Venice and Paris, make beautiful gifts for yourself or a loved one, celebrating the joy of travel and how it enriches and colors our lives.

In the days ahead as we prepare for the holidays, I am also delighted to share a special offering from my studio.

Please enjoy complimentary shipping on all original art, with code: GIFTING.

I think of my art like watercolor heartbeats from the cities I love, capturing a place's pulse colored in the loving brushstrokes of memory. And I would be delighted to send one to you....

Until next time, I wish you and your loved ones much serenity, beauty, joy, and grace.

With my Warmest Regards to you,

Sophia

My Venice Art Excursion

Discovered moments of joy, painted in Venice

Dear Friends,

I write to you with a full, open, and grateful heart.

It has been some time since I’ve written last. If you’ve been with me for some time, you will know that I only write when there is something of beauty or meaning to share.

For those of you who are receiving this as a first letter from me, thank you for being here. It is a delight to share in this way.

It brings my heart great joy to share that I’ve recently returned from a beautiful creative retreat in Venice. A retreat that I designed and curated for myself; filled with creative prompts, treasure hunts, messages from Venice, culinary delights, meaningful engagements with locals, and much more. A gift that came to me at a perfectly aligned time in my life.

Life had been feeling a bit like a liminal stretch of time, in part due to all that has been happening globally. This trip felt like both a beautiful gateway and arrival into an ‘island’ of joy, wonder, excitement, and awe, all in the watery depths of renewal.

For a few months leading up to this retreat, I had learned of a practice suggested by a spiritual teacher. This practice was simple yet profound. Choose a word. A word for this stage in one’s life that one can hold in remembrance and allow to become a guide. A word to reflect upon and become receptive to.

I had chosen the word “open.” It is what intuitively came to me.

I think it is in part due to carrying this word with me, that I experienced Venice with more joy than I ever have in my previous travels there. And Venice is always a dream.

The art that I made was different than what I am accustomed to making. The entirety of my experience there was a creative act. My days felt like works of art and reverence. How I engaged with the city, with locals, and the inspirations and insights that came to me, was truly memorable and renewing, and remains so. The city, in each of its secret corners, truly opened me up to seeing and experiencing it from a new lens. In return I experienced life itself, through what feels like a new lens.

I will continue to share the gems of my experience, both visually and in written form, here with you. I will also be sharing my creative Venice diary on my Instagram, should you enjoy joining me there.

For now, I will sign off with a suggestion for both myself and to you, to take this moment - this small but infinitely precious moment - to fill our hearts with the joy of a beautiful place we have traveled to. And to recall how being there moved us. For me, that moment is here, in my memories of Venice, and the very first “message” I received from the city on my first day there, as I entered Piazza San Marco, to embrace above all things, Joy.

I hope you enjoyed receiving this letter as much as I’ve delighted in writing to you.

I will look forward to writing again soon. Until then, wishing you much joy, beauty, wonder, and delight in your days ahead.

With my Warmest Regards,

xx ~ Sophia

Painting an Italian Sunrise in Eataly

Torino, sunrise

Dear Friends,

I hope you have been enjoying the tranquility and warmth of long summer days or, if you are in the southern hemisphere, the cool crisp air of winter bliss.

It brings me great joy to write to you, albeit after a bit of time.

I am writing to you, first with pencil and paper, within my Italian leather journal adorned with the Tree of Life, while enjoying the comforting taste and aroma of ginger citrus tea. The day’s end is near, yet this moment is precious, as I have been looking forward to being here.

Life has been filled with delightful openings and “surprises” for the past several months. None of which I planned, but all of which I feel came into my life at just the right time. Isn’t it ironic....we arrive at where we most need to be quicker, the more we embrace a slower pace to life.

As for my creative world, I am over the enchanted moonlit sky to share the news of a special event that I have been planning for some time. I will be an Artist in Residence at Eataly Downtown, in NYC to do a live painting of the Turin sunrise; the city that is the birthplace of Eataly. This event is part of Eataly’s La Pizza & La Pasta A Colori, and the stunning art installation created in collaboration with Color Factory. I'll also have a selection of my Italy inspired art available for purchase.

A sunrise is about hope, beauty, wonder, color, and looking towards the brightness of what is ahead. It’s an invitation to a moment of reflection, that nature bestows upon us, as a message to trust what comes next. And it is given to us each and every day.

It’s a sign within this vast universe, waiting for us to notice. And all it takes, is walking outside and looking up. And there, in that moment we become aware and marvel at and remember this beautiful gift of a new day; a new beginning arriving each and every day, rhythmically, beautifully.

And yet each sunrise is different. In each moment we witness subtle shifts and changes, reminding us of the infinite possibilities that we are gifted with.

And so I am thrilled to be painting the gorgeous colors of a beautiful Italian sunrise, in place that celebrates a country that feels like home. I’ve also been interested in doing live painting events, and am grateful that this will be my first. If you are in NYC, I do hope that you will visit, as I would love to meet you there:

Saturday, August 21st, 1pm at:

Eataly NYC Downtown
4 World Trade Center
101 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10006

I will look forward to sharing more glimpses into my creative world in my next letter to you. Until then, I wish you joy, happiness, and beauty in blissful abundance. And perhaps I will be meeting you soon, if you're in NYC this weeekend..... :~)

With my Warmest Regards,

xx ~ Sophia

Wanderlust Art Letters

~ Ca' d'Oro, "House of Gold," Venice, watercolor ~

Wherever in this vast and beautiful world you may be as you read this message, I hope that your day is filled with serenity and joy.

Whether you are a new reader, or a long time reader, you may have noticed my “twin passions” for painting wanderlust inspired watercolors, and also for writing.

And what is lovely about living creatively (something I believe is available to each and every one of us whether or not we identify as Artists) is that we get to apply that creativity to how we live and what we want our lives to look like.

Along these lines, I had been dreaming for quite some time about creatively merging my painting and writing practices into something new. I also have a love for artful paper products, such as stationary and bookmarks, which I’ve sometimes offered here in the past. Weaving together all of these, is a delightful offering that I have been designing for the past few months. And I am so excited to be sharing it with you today....

Wanderlust Art Letters.

Wanderlust Art Letters are letters in which I share my travel tales and travel secrets, along with my watercolor art, featuring a different place each month. These are lovingly designed and crafted letters that are written and addressed to you, signed by yours truly. They will be delivered as artful “snail mail” to your mailbox, where you can enjoy moments of watercolor wanderlust from the comfort of your home.

Your letters will also arrive with blank stationary, featuring my artwork, which you can use to write your own letter to a loved one, or perhaps indulge your own travel dreams upon.

Each letter is a story, a memory, a dream, and a watercolor painting, celebrating the beauty and enchantment of a place I have travelled to over my years of traveling and making art abroad. The stories will be own personal travel travels, sometimes sprinkled with a delightful touch of the imaginary. But all of it will be steeped in the impressions and inspirations I have gained from my travels.

Drawing from my background and practice in the field of Architecture, I will also be sharing fun Architectural and historically referenced facts about each painted location. These will be woven into the letters along with my own personal experiences of traveling there and what each place evoked in me.

We’ll start with Venice, of course! And subsequent letters will feature surprise locations.

There are various subscription options offered, and you can sign up for just one month, or three months.

The first letter, my Venice letter, will actually have a lovely hint of romance, in celebration of Valentine’s Day this month.

I do hope you’ll take a look, if this might sound of interest. And if you’ll enjoy signing up, I am so delighted to be sending you an artful treat in the mail, celebrating, dreams, travels, art, adventure, and the beauty of breathtaking places around the world.

As they say in Italian, Buon Viaggio, in wanderlust dreams and art, and perhaps something delightful will be making its way to your mailbox soon....

Venice Watercolor and an Artful Promise

copyright © Sophia Khan

Original ~ Sold, Available as a Fine Art Print here

I hope that wherever within this beautiful and vast world that we share, you may be, that you are safe, well, happy, and hopeful at the start of this new year. I write this to you, as I often do, partly within my journal first, then on my computer, with a warm scented cup of tea in hand, thoughts turned towards the romance of things beautiful to the eyes, lyrical to the mind, and emotive to the senses, imbued by the nostalgia of distant travel memories.

Painting places I have traveled to is one way I find hope and inspiration because these sites reflect the grandeur of the human spirit. They reveal our collective capacity for thousands of years to celebrate our vision of how we want to live in this world, through how we build. But also because these places often tell us stories within themselves, of how they were conceived, and continue to stand and inspire us, having been built with this foundation of hope within their very stones.

Venice...I talk about and paint her often, as you may know. I read stories about her, I remember and I forget her, I weave words and brushstrokes around the enchantment of her piazza, her canals, her edifices, her stones, her carvings. But I am grateful that, despite having painted her for several years, I always find something new about her through this expressive medium of watercolor. A medium which inspires me to remain, to linger a bit longer, to listen, to see, to dream in color a place where I long to be. And then, for a moment in my studio, in some way, through the use of the very same element upon which she rests, water....I am there.

Venice isn’t the only place I am grateful to know through travel. There are many others, throughout Italy, and other countries that have inspired my journey to becoming an Artist. Along these lines, through the space that staying at home these past several months has created, a beautiful idea that I am excited about has come to me. I will very much look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.

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Whether you reside in the US, or elsewhere, you are likely aware of the horrific events that transpired at our Capitol two weeks ago. The very same day that this attack occurred, in the midst of deep concern around my nation, I painted a watercolor of the Capitol, partly to give myself hope. I am now offering complimentary stationary, featuring this watercolor, titled “Promises to Our Nation.” The idea behind this piece is that it can be used to reflect on and write down a list of promises we make as individuals to our nation; a set of actions around how to never take our democracy for granted and what we can do to uphold that commitment. As a lovely family member suggested, it can also be worked on as a family exercise. If this is something that resonates, it is available as a complimentary PDF download, here.

If you use this stationary to reflect on your promises to your nation, I would love to see what you write. Please tag me on Instagram @sophiakhanstudio with hashtag #promisestoournation, if you are so inclined to share.

If you live in another country, I might suggest sharing with someone you know in the US, or perhaps even using this stationary to reflect on promises you make to your own country of residence.

I am very excited to share that this stationary will also be part of the resources available for Valarie Kaur’s upcoming People’s Inauguration. If you haven’t already, watch her deeply moving and inspiring TED talk, and join her People’s Inauguration, the day after our Presidential Inauguration, to be inspired and guided around birthing a new vision for our nation. I am very excited around the momentum she is building around the message of love, hope, unity, inclusion, compassion, and justice, and how to carry these towards birthing a renewed future.

I thank you for being here with me, both my new and long time subscribers, and I will look forward to sharing more of the colors, joys, and inspirations around my art and wanderlust with you in the coming weeks. As always, I love hearing from my subscribers, so if ever you’d like to be in touch, simply reply to this email. It may take just a few days, but I always write back :~)

Until next time, wishing you and your loved ones safety, hope, joy, serenity, and beauty at every step we take into our collective future ahead.

Paris Watercolor Art and What is Yet to Come

A Memory of Sainte-Chapelle, Paris © Sophia Khan

I hope this letter finds you safe and well, and being uplifted by the spirit of the holiday season and the promise of a new year to come. For me, personally, my art has been an escape for the past several months. This means that new subjects, new ways of painting in watercolor, and new color schemes have been emerging in my studio. I am so grateful. Being an Artist means being able to cultivate something of beauty, for ourselves and others. It’s a celebration of life and a knowing that beauty always adds value, meaning, poetry, healing, and inspiration to our lives. But perhaps most of all, beauty is a mirror to how we hope to see ourselves in our highest potential.

The above watercolor was one I have been painting on and off for a while, recently completed by adding the finishing touches of iridescent gold and deep blue ink. It is available in my online shop here, if these brushstrokes and the city of Paris calls to you. It is a painted memory of Sainte-Chapelle.

One of the joys of traveling solo is that you can do whatever it is that makes your heart sing. Isn’t this one of the very reasons we travel, after all. I returned to this chapel twice in one day, to take in the breadth of its beauty and be graced by the stories illuminated within its stones and stained glass windows. Its history and story are one I return to every now and then, all the while always leaving something to my imagination, always retaining some sense of mystery. I don’t have to know everything about the places I visit, all in one visit, but I do have to feel like something of the place has moved me deeply enough for it to stay within my memory.

Every year, around this time, I typically write an “Annual Review” in which I highlight the year in terms of my personal, spiritual, and professional/creative life. This year I’ve been inspired to do something a bit differently.

I recently saw an interview with renowned Architect Renzo Piano and his son Carlo Piano, with the publisher Europa Editions, discussing their new book Atlantis: A Journey in Search of Beauty. I have been drawn to Renzo Piano’s work since my time studying Architecture, so I was very happy to learn of this new book. In the conversation, he said something I found very powerful, which has stayed with me. He said, to paraphrase, that it is not about what we have accomplished in life, but what we have yet to accomplish.

And so this year, for the annual review that I will write, I am not as interested in highlighting what has happened this year, but looking towards the next year whilst carrying the seeds of what I have planted this year, that supports this future. For me, this looks like composing a collection of dreams and ambitions I would love to work towards; with each supported by remembering all the ways from my past in which I have already begun planting their seeds. In this way, the focus is towards the future, while in the background there is the evidence and support from how I have been cultivating a path towards this future, from my past.

If the idea of writing an annual review, in this manner is appealing to you, I invite you to perhaps explore this for your own personal dreams and wishes.

However it may be that you usher in this new year, I hope it is beautiful, it is blessed, and points you towards more joy, tranquility, and hope in the new year to come. Anything new always feels like an invitation. I hope your invitation is one that graces you with how you most wish to be welcomed into this new beginning. Because if 2020 has taught me something, it is that whatever our dream, it matters and the time for it will never be more ripe than now.

Until next time, I wish you and your loved ones much serenity, beauty, wellness, and grace.

xx ~ Sophia

p.s. If your are near a Barnes and Noble, or any other book store, be sure to check the travel section for the recent edition of Lodestars Anthology, for which I was commissioned to provide artwork for their Puebla, Mexico story, pictured below.

Watercolor Beauty in Venice & in Our Selves

copyright © Sophia Khan

We can always turn to beauty. For me that means not only finding awe in great works of art, but also in the process of bringing forth my own version of beauty.

When looking at the sites and monuments I have visited throughout my travels, no matter what the space was built for, be it for worship and devotion, for burial, for gathering and celebrating, or mourning, there is most certainly always beauty. Because, as it has been said, “beauty never lies.” And that which is beautiful and engages our emotions, points to what is true within us.

Even when much time has passed, and a place no longer holds the same quality of meaning that it did when built, something of that spirit, that imagination and inspiration from which it was formed, remains within it.

That something, untouchable by the patina of time, is what I love to find in my travels and to paint, no matter where I may be. Because deep down inside, no matter the place, those inspirations and stirrings are always the same. Much like the shared experiences that move us all in life, no matter our background, values, or beliefs.

Venice, my most beloved muse, contains an endless palette of colors and moods in its beauty. For each traveler, the lure in this beauty offers a different meaning. That is true for many places. When we travel, we remember what a place evoked within us, what it inspired in us, how it moved us. In essence, it is a part of our selves we remember, when we remember our travels.

I initially began painting watercolors many years ago, to remember and find awe in the memories of my own travels. Over the years, the work has evolved from this seed, and I continue to hope that it can hold and evoke a certain celebration of place and self, for all of us who enjoy travel and architecture.

The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, is one of those places that is experienced very differently depending on where we view it from. Yet, what remains is that it has an element of something elusive. If you’re curious, I invite you to explore this in your next, or first, visit to Venice.

There are many reasons that I love to paint Venice, and they all have to do with the great blessing and gift of having traveled there. I would not be able to paint it with the expressiveness and emotive qualities that I seek to, had I not.

I don’t need to write much about how this year has been challenging for much of the world. We find that elsewhere. Here, I want to focus on the awe, inspiration, imagination, and beauty that carries us through all of life. And the joy.

In light of this and the upcoming holiday season, I would like to offer you, my reader here, a small gift. If you would like to collect a work of art, please enjoy complimentary shipping (on all purchases over $100).

Kindly enjoy the offer code: BEAUTY

I’ll also be sending a small but special artful treat that will be lovingly gifted with each purchase, regardless of your purchase amount. I will be offering this for a limited time, and it only happens once a year, so I hope you can enjoy it if it may be of interest.

And if you purchase one of my watercolors or prints, for yourself or a loved one for the holidays, I hope it can be a memento of the beauty and awe contained in these places built with imagination and the grandeur of the human spirit; something that is and will remain within each of us.

Venice Watercolours in my Studio

copyright © Sophia Khan

Still on the canvas of my mind….San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

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Exquisite Wings, Birds in Flight Watercolors

It's been a long time coming, but these wings of grace are finally ready to fly....

The details of our lives are what give it, its unique flavor of wholeness. A few years ago I took a most wonderful photo workshop - which was more like an art experience - with artist Catherine Just. It’s flavor still runs deep within. When I look at my life through the lens of a certain "framing" to isolate, capture, and revel in a detail within what is the entirety of experience, it allows me a certain reverence and newness in what I see. And lately I’ve taken on some new morning meditative practices in which I open myself to experiencing this reverence simply through breath and presence.....I will circle back to sharing more this practice.

Gyms have been closed, so instead of my evening workouts, I've been walking and jogging right outside my home. And looking upwards. A lot. And noticing the changing colors, the shifting moods, the lightness of all things above us. Being in nature, simply by stepping outside the front door, gives us the pleasure and the divine gift of a limitless universe before our very beings.

A message came through to me one morning, during my practice, and that was that everything is going to be alright. In these unpredictable times, we are reminded, life is always unpredictable, is it not? But the colors of a setting sun tinting the horizon of the sky, the horizon of our life, with gold, pinks, purples, shimmering orange, reminds me of being carried. It offers us that while we are here and have been given this gift of life, in one way or another, things will be okay....and this is echoed by the sun, the moon, and the stars of creation.

I don't want my art to be or look too thought out or contrived. Instead, I enjoy the mystery of seeing what comes through in the process of approaching a blank 'canvas'. And that is exactly what happened when one morning, when carrying somewhere within me the serenity of the sky above, I simply had to put everything aside and paint. In deciding not to paint any particular subject, one was decided for me. "Exquisite wings" I now call it. Birds in flight. One and many. Having both reached somewhere blissful, and still carrying the grace and elegance of continuing their flight. Isn't this how we experience our own journey of life.

And isn't life most beautiful when we feel a certain flow or synchronicity within our days. I will offer, from experience, that this is always available to us. We experience it simply by making ourselves more receptive to it. Creating space within, in whatever way we find we are most able to.

Other details of my day to day life that am I reveling in....through my senses these days are citrus, rose, and lavender. Both in my tea, and the essential oils blends that I am making. Yes, this is a growing interest of mine, and some of the sources that are helping me with it are Shiva Rose's book, "Whole Beauty," and the educational/instructional articles offered online by Mountain Rose Herbs. If you'd like to try your hand at making your own blend, I will share my latest blend which is absolutely heavenly...and quite simple. Bergamot oil and Rose otto oil, diluted in jojoba oil. If you do try it, I'd love to hear what you think. As for the tea, its Venetian Mosaic by Caffe Florian, in Venice. A delicious black tea with lavender, and orange peel, I stock up on every now and then. I also enjoy Tulsi Rose tea steeped with a cardamom pod. And......strawberry rose yoghurt, as well as lavender blueberry yoghurt. And yes, it's as good as it sounds.

If you have any details within your day to day life that you yourself are reveling in, and would like to share, I would love to hear, if you’d like to send a message.

I have also composed a gallery of my "Exquisite Wings" collection, which can be viewed at the link below. I hope you enjoy perusing, and if any of these watercolor wings speak to the dreams of flight within you, I would love to send to you.

With colors inspired by the sky above. Raspberry and gold dipped wings, sunset and sunrise, together with the time in between. Here soft as feather, there veins of gold. Explore the new collection here.

p.s. Speaking of my love for tea, I was recently featured as a "Teafluencer" with one of my favorite tea companies, Harney and Sons Tea, where I shared my love for tea, travel, and painting watercolors on tea stained paper. It's a wonderfully delicious interview, and can be read here.

San Giorgio Maggiore Venice Watercolor

copyright © Sophia Khan

Even when we're there, it exists for us somewhere between dreams and memories. San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Available as an original watercolor from my online gallery here.

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