We are leaving the Vancouver area today, after having spent ten days visiting with my Mom and other relatives. Below is a photo of me with my Mom, who just turned 95, and still has an admirable zest for life in general, and major league baseball in particular.

When we visit Mom, we like to stay at Pacific Border RV Park, a full service campground with immaculate facilities, just south of White Rock, BC. It's very quiet and just a five minute drive from my Mom's apartment. Below are some photos from their web site.

Another really desirable feature of this campground is that it borders a new housing development that contains several hundred upscale homes and condos, offering lots to see during our evening exercise walks. What especially appealed to us, is that the homes use elements of Craftsman design, something that the famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, incorporated into many of his iconic Prairie style home plans.

The photo above shows a typical street in this housing development. Note the houses are similar but still unique in design and finish. They share a back lane that gives access to detached garages and parking pads.

All the homes featured front porches with interesting Craftsman style columns, quality front doors, and attractive colour schemes, such as on these models above.

We liked the stone and siding combination on the garage pictured above, as it gave us an idea what our house and garage will look like when we change the siding next summer. We will be using board-and-batten style blue vertical siding, rather than horizontal, but our stone wainscoting will look like this.

We plan to use a narrow border of river stone along the back of our house, similar to that shown above. It helps deter field mice from entering the house, and makes an attractive edging that is easy to look after when trimming grass.

It's amazing how square columns and linear trim features can give a house a sense of early 20th century Craftsman style, while still keeping an up-to-date look, and making use of modern materials that are easy to maintain.

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Today was another exceptional day, spent with friends, enjoying great food and fine British Columbia sunshine. This time we cruised from a dock in Richmond (near the Vancouver Airport) up the coast to English Bay and False Creek in downtown Vancouver.

My husband John's high school chum and his wife (pictured with John, above left) took us out for the afternoon on their beautifully restored power boat. It had fore and aft double sleeping berths, two heads, a galley, an enclosed lounge area finished in vintage mahogany, a flying bridge, and an open deck at the stern. Our friends did the restoration work themselves. 

We cruised westward out of the river mouth and into the channel, then headed north towards English Bay.

We saw lots of commercial vessels, such as these tankers (above) waiting to enter Vancouver's harbour.

This is Disney's luxury cruise ship 'Wonder' departing port (above). Yes, those are Mickey Mouse ears on the funnels. Way cool.

We went under three bridges to get to the end of False Creek.

Houseboats moored in False Creek. Note the high rises of Vancouver in the background.

Artistry on grain elevators in False Creek (above).

We anchored at the end of False Creek, with this wonderful view of downtown Vancouver, BC Place Stadium, and a luxury boat marina, and enjoyed a delicious barbequed dinner. As daylight faded, we cruised back to home port in Richmond. Another fantastic day in British Columbia, thanks to our friends.

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This week we had two marvelous opportunities to see the coast of British Columbia, as guests on boats belonging to friends and relatives. This article is about the first cruise.

The weather was sunny and breezy on Saturday, as six family members boarded a 38 foot sailboat that was docked at West Vancouver Yacht Club (above). My brother in law is pictured here, and the boat belongs to his brother.

Shown above are me and my husband John. Our cruise was about 90 minutes north along the coast from West Vancouver to the Elliott Bay Outstation, a private docking facility belonging to the Yacht Club (shown below).

We docked here for a few hours, ate a delicious picnic lunch provided by the captain's wife, chatted with neighbouring sailors, and walked on hiking trails in the hills above the bay.

We saw these ferns during our hike. It was a magical place.

Above is the sailboat docked at Elliott Bay. On the way back to West Vancouver, we had some excellent views of the coast, other sailboats, and a huge ferry. Below are a selection of my favourite photos.

I was surprised how uninhabited the coast appeared to be, north of Vancouver. I guess the terrain makes development too costly. As we got closer to the city, we saw more signs of human activity.

And as we neared our harbour at the Yacht Club, we saw more homes on the coast.

What an amazing day, thanks to my Vancouver family!

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Have you wondered how to paint lifelike rocks? Check out this progression of photos from my recent watercolour class, 'Newfoundland Beach Rocks'.

Here are my four students working hard on their paintings.

First, I sketched a contour drawing in pencil on 300 lb watercolour paper, and masked out the white caps on the waves with masking fluid. Then, using New Gamboge, Antwerp Blue, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson, I mixed up some dull washes of paint and applied them to the boulders, using a darker mixture towards the bottom of each rock, and a lighter mixture on the tops. (The entire painting was created using only these three colours of paint.)

I wet the sky area with clear water and dropped in some blue and grey mixtures, leaving some white areas to represent clouds.

While the sky dried, I painted the ocean area using a slightly darker mix of blue. I pre-wet only the calm section directly under the headland, and then added horizontal strokes of blue, interspersed with strokes of clear water, starting at the top and working my way down toward the near shore. This produced the effect of waves. I added darker blue under the white caps.

When the sky and ocean areas were dry, I painted in the distant headland using a charcoal grey mixture. Then I dropped in spots of clear water to create intentional 'blooms' or pale shapes, simulating the look of distant shadowed cliffs.

Applying paint to dry paper, I started adding some stripes to the boulders, using various mixtures of grey and tan.

I completed adding stripes to most of the large boulders, and darkened the rock shadow areas using a dark grey mixture. I also darkened the ocean with a more vivid Antwerp Blue layer, and removed the masking fluid, to complete 'Newfoundland Beach Rocks', 10 x 8".

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These are the official photos of me accepting my medal and a framed illustration award from the Reader's Favorite Book Awards, for my book Watercolour Toolbox: Essentials for Painting Success.

I was one of about 250 authors honoured at the ceremony, which was held in the nightclub of the Regency Hotel Miami last November, during the week-long Miami Book Fair International festivities.

Among the award winners were two authors from Canada, some from Australia, Denmark, England and other foreign countries, with the majority from the US. Everyone was dressed in suits and party dresses, just like the Academy Awards in miniature! My husband and I had a grand time that evening, chatting with authors and their spouses, all with interesting life stories to tell (go figure!).

We also spent a morning walking through the street fair portion of the Book Fair. There were hundreds of booths showcasing authors, publishers, publicists, printers, and other facets of the international book industry. Many venues hosted seminars and presentations by writers.

The first picture above shows me with my book in front of the Reader's Favorite booth, and the second gives a view of part of the Book Fair, which took up about six city blocks in downtown Miami. I tell you, the book industry is a whole other world out there...

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Isn't it interesting how most artists need affirmation of their work? That is certainly the case with me, and I received a great boost this week.

At the PineRidge Arts Council's 15th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, my watercolour painting Blue Rose of Sharon (pictured above with me at the opening reception) won the Mayor's Award and a cash prize.

It was an honour to have Ajax Mayor Steve Parish present the award to me on Friday night (see photo above).

He made a lovely speech beforehand, touching on the recent, tragic murder of a Canadian soldier as he stood guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Mayor Parish noted how art can bring all people together in harmony, no matter their religious or ethnic backgrounds, and he reminded all of us how necessary art is to bind multicultural communities together.

The Juried Exhibition is on display at the McLean Community Centre in Ajax, Ontario, until November 22. About 60 art pieces are on display, chosen from 178 entries.

Thanks to Mary Cook, PRAC photographer and webmistress, for taking the photos and sharing them with me.

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I have some exciting news to share.

Readers' Favorite Book Awards announced recently that my art instruction book, Watercolour Toolbox: Essentials for Painting Success, has won an Illustration Award, as well as a Bronze Medal in the 'Non-Fiction Home/Crafts' category of their 2014 book competition. The awards will be presented at the annual Miami Book Fair International in November.

Earlier this year, my book was a Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and a Bronze Medal winner in the How-To category at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, both held in New York City.

When I wrote Watercolour Toolbox, I focused all of my talent and energy into offering simple solutions that would help artists overcome universal artistic challenges. I illustrated the manuscript with photos of 40 of my watercolour paintings, and chose FriesenPress as my publisher because they could make my book available virtually anywhere books are sold. I wanted to share my painting techniques and strategies with as many people as possible.

It feels great to have my efforts recognized internationally, as each of these competitions attracted thousands of entries worldwide.

For more details about where to purchase my book, visit http://karenrichardson.ca/pages/where-to-buy.

After years of searching for a suitable property throughout central Ontario, from Owen Sound to Bancroft to Brighton, we have selected a home in Lindsay, (30 minutes NE of Port Perry) and will be moving there this summer.

We've been packing like mad since selling our Port Perry home at the end of April. It's amazing how much you accumulate after 22 years in the same place, and we have done lots of purging and downsizing.

Many people have asked if I will be teaching after we move. I do plan to offer painting classes in our new home, starting in 2015, after we are settled in and finish remodeling.

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I'm delighted to let you know, my painting instruction book Watercolour Toolbox won a bronze medal in the 'How-To' category at the Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York City this spring.

This international competition attracted over 5,500 entries, from all 50 U.S. states, 9 Canadian provinces and 32 other countries.

Watercolour Toolbox also was a Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards that were announced in May, and was awarded a Five Star Review from the Reader's Favorite Book Awards earlier this spring.

It's lovely to have my book recognized by industry experts, but it is the appreciation my readers and painting students express that really warms my heart.

Where to buy Watercolour Toolbox