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.

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.

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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Instagram

Heartbeat of Venice Watercolour

A place that celebrates both the city and our presence within it. A place both opulent, and warm and inviting. Piazza San Marco, the heartbeat of Venice.

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If you’d like to see more of my Venice watercolors on Instagram, you can follow along here @sophiakhanstudio

Piazza San Marco Venice Watercolour

How much does one need to say, to say Venice.

If you’d like to see more of my Venice inspired watercolours, you can follow along on my Instagram.

Light in Venice Watercolour

Capturing how light and water illuminate the stones and soul of Venice, in memory and on ‘canvas.’

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If you would delight in following my art & travels, I invite you to join my Instagram and sign up to receive “Letters from my Art Studio.”

Wonder & New Venice Watercolours

New Venice Watercolours being painted in my studio

The beauty, the joy, the ache, and the delight of life is that it is ever changing. Oceans, winds, the flight of birds, clouds across a waxing moon....everywhere we look we are reminded of constant change, flux, and the beauty of movement.

The mood and air around my studio and life in general these days have been one of embracing this ever changing stream of life's changes, with a sense of wonder. A bit more about this......

The past few months have humbled us to the truth that we are not quite in control of everything. And that there are things that are beyond our full comprehension.

Thoughts can't save us. How we feel can't save us. But what can free us, I suggest, is wonder.

It's a tool, and a way of being, that has never failed me. Even prior to our current global condition, curiosity and wonder have always paved a path ahead whatever may come my way, in the delightful changes of my day to day.

The way it works is simple. Let's imagine there is something coming up in my personal or professional life, that feels a bit challenging to me. Rather than letting that create inertia, I shift the situation to one of curiosity and wonder, by engaging with what might look like one of the following questions:

~ "I can't wait to meet with......I look forward to enjoying our conversation and seeing how the meeting goes."

~ "I wonder what will happen when I......."

~ "Tomorrow, I am planning on.....It will be interesting to see what happens."

Exercising this shift not only frees us from any hesitation or worry we might have when anticipating something ahead, but it holds a beautiful lamp of curiosity from which we can see and experience things with a certain richness and child like wonder, which have little attachment to preconceived outcomes, or even the past.

Wonder is also something that keeps a certain freshness and joy in my studio, while painting watercolours. As is the case with a new series of Venice watercolours I am working on, some of which are shown above.

I've been enjoying a text written over 100 years ago, on Venice, which is infusing the air around my studio with a desire to paint the city in new and exciting brushstrokes.....these watercolours are becoming more about Venice's romance with the sea. I look forward to sharing more of these as the process continues to unfold.

As is often the case with my best work, or the work I feel is most aesthetically pleasing, it is often that moment when I am painting and think to myself, There is nothing to lose, that the real magic begins to happen. When I paint with this approach in mind, it takes my art to new places that I wouldn't be able to go if I keep painting within my 'comfort zone.' And when I paint as if there is nothing to lose, there is immense opportunity inherent in the richness of that moment. And this leads to the most interesting results. Yes, thank goodness I am not a surgeon! Yet, I must say, I do believe in the healing abilities of the Arts, be it a painting, music, a place, or anything made beautifully and with the humble grace of an intention to move others.

I am grateful that the practice of Art, and being a Watercolourist, specifically, has taught me much that I can apply to other areas of my life. What if, just like when I paint, as I am going through the beautiful motions and changes in the ocean of life and my path begins to feel hazy or not that well lit ahead of me, I think to myself as I continue ahead despite the uncertainty, What do I have to lose? And what if I return to the practice of allowing wonder and curiosity to take the reigns. I can't wait to see what lays ahead.

If this might be something that perhaps speaks to you, I invite you to see what it might offer. Perhaps it's a practice you already embrace?

And on another note, on my Instagram I recently shared a delightful interview I had with Create Magazine titled, "Landscape of Feelings and Memories," which, if you didn't happen to read and would like to know more about my creative journey and thoughts, is available here.

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

The Joy of Venice Watercolour

A Venice watercolor, work in progress, Palazzo Ducale, copyright © Sophia Khan

May the year 2020 be one of immense joy and abundance for you. May it be a year of gratitude and unending reasons for more and more gratitude each moment, every day ahead. May it bring you gifts beyond what you dream of. May the spirit of love and warmth, friends, family, and community surround you. May this ripple in beautiful waves to all those we know, all those we encounter along our paths, and may this lead to more pathways to love, acceptance, togetherness, healing, and bliss throughout our world.

May we all remember and cherish the gift of life, and remember the gift of being here on this Earth. May we remember to see not only ourselves as luminous but one another as such.

I thank you, dearly for opening your inbox to my art, travels, and creative diary. It brings me immense joy to share these with you.

The new year is often a time of reflection for me on the year that past and the one that will come ahead.

This past year I had the pleasure of exploring a few new creative avenues. They are all distinct from one another, but they all come together to enhance and bring new life and creative energy to almost anything I do.

Many people say that when we do the things we love, we lose track of time. I believe this to be true. I find there is also an element of losing 'self.' I believe in having a muse. What that is, is not for me to know or even inquire. But I do know that my best work comes when I stop thinking, stop analyzing....simple stop being as I am in the world, and allow for a space, an opening through which inspiration arrives. At the same time, the muse works with our inherent and unique gifts, so it is deeply rooted in who we are as individuals. Perhaps then, the creative act it is a sort of meditation. One is which we do lose 'self' but are 'found' again with this muse, through the very things we make, be it a painting, a sculpture, a song, a poem or other. The creative life is something I am deeply grateful for and hope to always nurture. If you are also a creative in some way, I would be curious to hear your thoughts and what your experience around this may be, if you might like to share.

One of my new creative explorations is the joy of learning to play an instrument, which I look forward to continuing this year. In my art practice, I have three new watercolor series that I would like to paint, along with some studies I am doing in my watercolor journal around John Ruskin's Stones of Venice. I look forward to sharing this new art with you.

I love the idea of new. But I also love remembering the best of the past, and allowing that to guide the new. I have a lot of tools/exercises that I enjoy using around this time of year to allow myself to do this. If these might interest you, simply reply to this message and I can happily share.

I look forward to each moment ahead and to the creative possibilities that are stirring in my studio. I hope that whatever brings you the most joy, you are able to embrace even more of in 2020. And may this joy continue to bring an abundance of gifts into your world, for you and those around you.

Until next time, wishing you my very best, and a most beautiful and wonder filled start to this new year.

If you enjoyed reading this, I would love to send you my thoughtful and occasional art letters:

For the Love of Venice

What feels like a "dark night" for Venice, but cannot be....

As many of you hold Venice close to heart, you may have been deeply saddened to hear of the devastating acqua alta that the city experienced last month.

Not long ago, I started reading John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice, to know the city better. In Chapter 1, of the first volume, The Foundations, Ruskin describes Venice as a “ruin:”

“[Venice], is stell left for our beholding in the final period of her decline: a ghost upon the sands of the sea, so weak - so quiet ,- so bereft of all but her loveliness, that we might well doubt, as we watched her faint reflection in the mirage of the lagoon, which was the City, and which the Shadow.

I would endeavor to trace the lines of this image before it be for ever lost, and to record, as far as I may, the warning which seems to me to be uttered by every one of the fast-gaining waves, that beat, like passing bells, against the Stone of Venice.”

This is what Ruskin saw well over a century ago. It feels...ominous, but also deeply frightening that the need for safeguarding Venice, which was so urgent even then, does not feel heeded.

On the other hand, if we choose to look towards something to give us hope around the current state of Venice, despite what Ruskin saw and believed, Venice still stood, and still stands. To anyone who has visited the city, while there is much that endangers Venice, you will know that it cannot be called a “ruin.”

In an article in the New York Times, titled “Waters Close Over Venice,” Shaul Bassi, professor at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, describes how he himself experienced the acqua alta, and also the aftermath. But he also shares an opportunity for hope. He writes about how Venice could become an "international laboratory" for ideas and research around the issues that face not only Venice, but cities around the world threatened by the environmental crisis. He refers to the writings of cultural historian Salvatore Settis who called Venice "a thinking machine that allows us to ponder the very idea of the city."

What if the very spirit and ideas, the sensitivity and harmony between the natural and built environment, which helped create the foundations of the Venice most celebrated in our memories, are what those who make decisions about Venice's future return to when looking forward? This could perhaps allow Venice to not only be saved, but once again raise victorious.

Those of us who have the honor to know the city through our travels, or who long to one day know the city in this way, can play our own small part in helping Venice. For now, part of this looks like being aware, sharing what and how we can, and also helping the city repair itself after its flooding. In response to the recent acqua alta, the nonprofit, Save Venice, has partnered with the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC, to set up an Immediate Response Fund, if you feel so inclined to help at this time. (Just an fyi that I am not affiliated with the organization; I am a member and wanted to share the news for those who may want to help).

If you happen to purchase art from my online gallery, I am also currently donating a portion of my sales to this fund.

And lastly, I wanted to close with a beautiful silently powerful meditation on Venice which I learned of through Dream of Venice. It can be experienced here.

Until next time, I wish you joy, I wish you warmth, I wish you love, laughter, and the happiness found in being surrounded by loved ones, and I wish it all for you in beautiful abundance.

XX ~ Sophia

Venice as a Horizon Watercolor

Venice Horizon

A horizon is one of the most beautiful and inviting sights I know. For those of us who love Venice, I think our affinity for horizons is part of what lures us to the Venetian lagoon.

A horizon, wherever we may happen to find one, is a place we romantically look towards. I think this is because, through its visage, we are gifted a feeling of renewed hope around our lives and within ourselves. We find tranquility and excitement for where we are in life, and where we are going....the ripples of shimmering water ushering us towards an expanse which seems distant, yet is promising.

While the horizon may seem like a place where sea and sky meet, it is, in essence, an illusion. Except when the horizon appears to us as Venice; a place conceived and existing within this otherwise imaginary line. For me, this means Venice invites us to believe in everything that otherwise seems impossible.

In Venice, the sea weds the sky in infinite ways, throughout each second of encounter. I like imagining that the shape of the gondola - the means by which we navigate for ourselves this ever changing horizon of Venice - is symbolic of this meeting between the vertical and horizontal. On a personal note, perhaps it is for this reason that the experience of drifting on a gondola is one that I have intuitively reserved for a future time in my life...

Venice Horizon

Venice is a place that also reminds us of what is beautiful within each of us. How we experience the city and what is most memorable to us about the city, reveals something about ourselves we might otherwise not be aware of when we are home. This certainly has been my own personal experience.

Being an Artist who often reflects on why I make art, it is my hope that what I’ve written and painted here might offer an opening; a moment of repose within your day, a moment to dwell within a field of infinite possibilities, which the city of Venice graces upon us. And if you're blessed to have had your own experience of the city, perhaps it may also be an invitation to bask in a special memory, or feeling, that the city has gifted you. Whether this respite is around what is happening in Venice or within our individual lives is unique to each of us.

As I painted these watercolors and wrote these words, it certainly offered a very special opening for me. And I share from a place of knowing that experiencing joy and hope, and believing in miracles is one of the greatest and most precious gifts we have....

If you feel called to these words and watercolors, and may want to have your own personal "Venice Horizon" - an art experience inspired by what is most memorable to you about Venice - sign up for “Letters from my Studio,” here, and I will be sharing more.....

Venice Horizon