Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - August 2026.

It is August, and Ukraine is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Independence. There are many phone calls and many memories from 35 years ago, and all the things that happened before and all the things that happened after. I see many videos online that are made along the lines of "a list of the most important moments in the 35 years since Ukraine's independence was proclaimed" - I wonder what my parents would put on that list. Though it might be a tough conversation to have - there are many opinions in the family about many different things :) 

But that is a great thing about Ukrainians and their history - there is no "one right version" - there are heated debates about things that happened hundreds of years ago, 25, 15 years ago (and sometimes 15 minutes ago). One thing I am sure about, though - we all are glad that we voted for independence. Freedom of self-determination is worth fighting for. 

Since my last update, Mom had some health-related adventures and now has a surprise new hip joint and some follow-ups in the future. Her flowers suffered during her hospital stay because my Dad was watering them 4 times a day, but otherwise he stoically took Mom's absence, played chess, drove his electric wheelchair to stores, and invented even more recipes. Family and friends rallied around him during that time, and we are truly grateful. And always grateful to all who support Ukraine and fight for it!  

You can read a whole story about this series of portraits here: War in Ukraine: Guide Through Posts on this Blog.

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 10: Miscellaneous!

As always, there are stories and sketches in each trip that are hard to categorize - I told you most of my Toulouse adventures in the previous 9 posts, but much is still left unsaid! I scanned a few more pages to add here as a reminder that there is more :)

For example, I took an amazing collage class from a long-time online art friend whom I saw in real life for the first time - Marina Grechanik. How we got to share materials with a great group in this class, got bombed by a pigeon, and how much joy it brought me to collage a leaf from that park in my sketch, and how I still think about what I learned there. 

And how there were parakeets in the park near our hotel, and apple trees and many interesting birds, and mice and rats - especially if you are out for a stroll at 7 am. How after a few days I had "stairs friends" and how breakfast became my most important meal of the day. How there were fireworks on Bastille Day and an important soccer match watched by the whole country, and how I slept through it all. How there were treasures to find and draw. How I went to an art museum to see Sorolla and saw Bonnard. How I played art games with friends and how I spent an unexpected extra time in Toulouse. 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 9: City - Shorter Sketches

In the first part of my "City Sketches" report, I collected longer sketches which required more time and more space for my materials. 

This is the second part of my report - sketches that were done with a minimum amount of tools which I could whip up in seconds. A few markers, a marker and my pocket printmaking kit, or a few pencils - all had to fit in a little pouch attached to my sketchbook with an elastic band. 

And these sketches covered everything - from sketching from a moving boat to a quick stop in a cathedral or sketching while eating an ice cream. By the way, I highly recommend this technique as a timing device - given a choice of overworking a sketch or losing part of my ice cream portion due to melting, I choose saving my ice cream every day!

I like the limited color range, and it is interesting for me to see (again) which sketches were done early in the trip (still stiff, jet-lagged, etc.) and how things opened up one-by-one. Some of these sketches were done at night - I wish I did more night sketching - something to think about! 

I hope to use more of this "extended pocket set" of tools - it is very small but more than what I usually have in my pocket (one pen), and it brought me a lot of joy this summer! Here is to a super portable kit that is more than one pen!

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Toulouse, France 2026: Trip to the Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around It. Part 8: City - Longer Sketches

I decided to split all my "Toulouse city" sketches into two posts. Mostly because when I look through them, I see two very different approaches and two different things to learn from them. 

This is part 1:

These sketches took longer; they are mostly painted with gouache and mixed media, and I used different papers. I can definitely see which ones were done at the beginning of the trip and which ones came later - with a more relaxed and "in the groove" feeling I developed by the end of the trip. Looking at them now - after almost a month since I was there - I wish I could re-do them all :)  It is obvious that there were several sketches that had to happen only so that better sketches had a chance. There is a long list of "what is wrong" in my head, but I am working on focusing on positive things in each sketch. So here they are: 

• I am grateful for the idea of pre-mixing certain gouache colors to take with me. 
• And that there were not too many of them. 
• I am glad I thought about pairing my paints with other media in terms of colors and how they work together. 
• I liked the overlapping, and leaning into a more gestural/dancing approach to composing my pages.
• I like how white space worked in the bridge sketch. 
• And I remember how I enjoyed adding typographical elements - even is it is ineligible mostly now. 

Trip to Toulouse, France, 2026: Urban Sketchers Symposium and a few days around it. 
Part 1: My Workshops
Part 2: My Demo

Part 3: People

Part 4: Rooftops

Part 5: Japanese Garden

Part 6: More People 

Part 7: Markets

Part 8: City: Longer Sketches

Part 9: City: Quick Sketches

Part 10: Miscellaneous

Succulent Garden as and Answer

When in doubt about what to draw, if I have limited time or am still jet-lagged, there is an answer to "what to draw": succulent garden! Gouache in my new Etchr Hot Press Sketchbook - gifted by Etchr as one of the sponsors at the USk Symposium.