The Compounding Rewards of Travel

Your Weekly Wednesday Update

Ido and I travel a LOT.

This is a *really* intentional thing.

We spend hours and weeks researching new locations. We intentionally make room in our budget for travel by cutting back on other non-necessary expenses. And the moment one trip is done, we immediately start planning the next one.

It's something we've embedded into the rhythm of our relationship - and it's been easy, because it's something we both deeply value.

💚 We both prefer to buy experiences and memories over "things"

💚 Quality time is a BIG love language for both of us - and this is our favorite type of quality time together

💚 We're both adventurous and curious people - we always want to see more and do more and learn more

💚 And we also believe that travel makes you a better, kinder, more open-minded person, which is what we want to be :)

And, of course, all of these travels have seeped into my art, and my art practice has also become a part of our travels.

(At least one time on every trip, Ido lets me sit and paint a vista for 30-45 minutes while he listens to a podcast. And when I request a detour to fill up a small water bottle from a local river or coastline, he always makes the stop)

The wonderful thing about the relationship between these travels and what I create is that it doesn't stop the moment we board the plane back home. If anything, each new trip gives me creative kindling for years to come:

I am still creating artwork about Kilimanjaro (you can actually see one piece in this blog).

I am still using geometric patterns I saw on a vase in an Athens' museum.

I am still using my pictures of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan for color ideas and arid landscape shapes.

My mind and camera roll are forever FULL of colors, shapes, stories, valleys, historical facts, sculptures, waterfalls, stone castles, faded frescoes, everything.

So even when I retreat to my tiny office and close the door on the world to create in quiet - all of the world is still there with me 🌍

The more I travel, the more I see it as a gift that keeps on giving. Especially in my marriage, and in my art.

> > > what's inspiring me this week

As you can tell from the intro by now, it's been my travels that have been inspiring me this week ;)

(Probably because Ido and I have a trip coming up soon, so I've got travel on the brain - !)

Over and over this week, I seem to keep going back to pictures of our previous trips - Jordan, Greece, Tanzania, Seychelles - when I'm looking for ideas of something to sketch for my 30-day art challenge.

Keep scrolling - you'll see how it's influenced what I'm learning and what I've been working on this week :) 👇

> > > what I'm learning right now

Strangely enough, I'm learning a little bit of photography this week

More accurately - I'm learning how to use a camera that isn't my iPhone 😅

Yes, it's a little guy - not a fancy DSLR or anything like that. And in some ways (especially in low light) my iPhone camera can probably outperform it.

But it has a WICKED amount of zoom-in power. And it's the camera I carried with me every day of our Kilimanjaro hike, and on our three-day safari afterwards.

(If you look closely enough, you can still see some of the dust from the mountain in the crevices of the camera - which I just love)

I really only dust it off when Ido are about to go on a trip - which we are! June 7th, we're flying out to Slovenia for a week of vacation.

And, while our trip to Athens back in April was INTENSE historical tours, this trip will be more nature-focused, full of panoramas and mountain vistas and waterfalls and coastal Italian villages. So - they'll be more picture-taking, and less note-taking :)

However, it's been a while since I've used this camera! And I definitely need a refresher.

So I went back to this amazing short course on my favorite artistic app, Domestika.

If you're an art-loving person and like to learn new crafts LOOK UP DOMESTIKA NOW. I first found Domestika's short artistic courses during Covid and I've been OBSESSED with them ever since.

So, this is what I've been slowly reviewing this week - Giulia's course, and taking notes on how to use my camera for our upcoming trip :)

> > > what I'm working on this week

Once again, i've kept up with my daily art making, which I'm STOKED about (Today makes day 17!)

The consistency, and freedom, has been really inviting, and made it very easy.

And this week - partly from convenience, but partly from some creative ideas bumping around in my head - I've been creating a lot of digital art in Procreate:

I know, at this point, it's a little bit hard to tell the difference between the two :)

Basically, I've taken a panoramic landscape picture - one of my own pictures, in Tzoumerka, Greece, from when we traveled there in October of last year - and I've started simplifying it's shapes and drawing over it, using the photo as a reference.

I don't know what it is, but I really *love* the crisp simplicity of digital art landscapes. They still capture the essence of these beautiful outdoor places I love so much - but in a new way, with clean pleasing lines.

I did something similar earlier this year, when I created this poster for Ido's birthday, summarizing all the important details of our Kilimanjaro trek back in 2021.

Honestly, I'd like to do more stuff like this. I'd like to turn this into a template - as well as a design for all the other Kilimanjaro trails - and turn them into a little passive income, selling them to other hikers who want to commemorate their trip :)

Anyways.

After Ido and I get back from our trip to Slovenia, I actually have plans to do more plein air sketching and painting. Go to the beach, a park, a forest, even just walks in my neighborhood (which is filled with flowers, palm trees, and fruiting trees).

Again, my sister-in-law Sharona and I want to create a special class, where I teach an outdoor painting class and she brings her beautiful vegan food to share with the students. So, I want to start practicing outside, and coming up with ideas of what to teach (and how to pull-off an outdoor class!)

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Nothing new in the shop at the moment :) But, until I do, you can always check out the existing originals and products in the shop (they're still available and waiting for you :) ) And I hope to add to it very soon.

Visit My Shop

And, as I increase in my email + blog frequency again, I will also be trying to post a little more often to the social places

You can follow me there to see what I'm working on (or see the lovely old stuff I've just forgotten to post before and am just now sharing)

Facebook /// Instagram

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Until next Wednesday! ✌️