Handmade sketchbook !

 In August before our trip to Rocky Mountain national Park, I made this sketch book -thanks to clear instructions found on YouTube!  It’s not perfect and have not decided on the cover yet but is filling up with a few en Plein aire and now at home sketches and watercolors at done at home. I will do a flip thru once the sketchbook is completely of my memories! I find sketching at home after the trip is as satisfying as sketching done in situ - I get to live through the experience all over again ! For me, it’s important to sketch no matter where or when as it is so easy to fall behind in sketching and posting!  

Btw, it will soon be 19 years since I started this blog - though lately I have been very remiss in updating it regularly due to sundry reasons. I will keep it though :) 

Cherry Blossoms

 

Cherry Blossom watercolor by Meera Rao

The cherry blossom viewing I learned has a name in Japan: hanami.  Late last month, I sketched a quick view of cherry blossoms on the opposite bank and the Washington monument sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.  

watercolor by Meera Rao

watercolor by Meera Rao

watercolor by Meera Rao

watercolor by Meera Rao

Walking around the Tidal Basin enjoying the beautiful scenery, I decided I would fill the 12 panels of the  little DIY journal I had made by folding a 9×12” watercolor sheet with cherry blossom sketches.

 Missing the little ‘stumpy’ I dug out a photo from 2024 and sketched it to embellish the haiku I wrote. 

Cherry blossom clouds

Wind whispers petals quiver

Soft carpet below. 

I finally completed the last two panels of the sketchbook with a few facts about the cherry trees from my research. I was surprised to read that wild cherry trees are native to Himalayan region. There are now hundreds of species/cultivars. 

watercolor by Meera Rao

The cherry blossoms on a tree last about 10-14 days, but it really depends on the weather.  A thunderstorm or strong winds shorten the show trees put out!  No wonder it is a symbol of ‘impermanence.’ The first opening of the bloom is called ‘Kaika’, and full bloom is known as ‘manakai’.  The art and science behind predicting the first blooms and peak blooming are fascinating as well! 

watercolor by Meera Rao

Sketching and researching the blooms surely made the cherry blossoms last a lot longer for me! 

Filling the pages made the cherry blossoms lasted much longer for me :) 

A Prayer

Cairns watercolor by Meera Rao

 Cairns painted with every color in my Derwent Graphitint pan set. It’s my humble attempt at a small memorial on paper and a prayer in response to what is happening in the world around.  

I recently read that Claude Monet was very ashamed and guilt ridden to be painting while ww1 wreaked havoc around. He wrote on Dec 1, 1914 :  ‘’ I feel ashamed to think about my little researches into form and color while so many people are suffering and dying.” He was working on the now famous water lilies series.  Sixty five years earlier in his life, his father had given him a choice ‘go to war or give up painting’ He went to war then, rather than give up painting. He served in French military in Algeria.  According to https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/monet-and-the-flowers-of-war-concert, “ Monet felt his late paintings were an attempt at healing. They were his artistic response to the traumatic events of the war and arguably the greatest climax to any artist’s creative career”. Many years ago I saw the paintings during our trip to France - but never really grasped the depth nor beauty of the paintings. Hope I get another chance to see ‘ the two rooms filled with 22 enormous panels - more than 80 square meters of canvas. ‘ I can’t imagine the pain  and trauma he must have felt. 

Bud to Bloom

Bud to Bloom WIP watercolor by Meera Rao

Happy New Year!! I am relieved to start the new year with a negative test result for Covid. I was down with it for the last ten days of 2025 after dodging it for the past five years. As I recover, I decided I needed to do some art work everyday for my own wellbeing.  That decision has resulted in small 3x3" painting everyday as I record the amaryllis that was blooming. That was a wise choice! Posted above is the first twelve days of the my efforts.  There are still many more to come as I slowly make my way through the various stages and different angles of the bud to bloom chronology.  I am wondering if I also should record the end stages of the blooms.  

I am thrilled to discover in my research that  Amaryllis is considered a symbol of winter beauty and resilience in classical poetry by Milton and Thomas Campion to modern authors like Susan Meissner.

“An amaryllis is always waiting to delight and surprise you, 

even when your world seems cold and dark.” 

~Susan Meissner, Only the Beautiful~

How appropriate! I wish you all love, good health, positive energy, safety and peace in 2026.

Memories

Poppies in Bloom! week 25, 2021 by Meera Rao 

The spread on my upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021

We recently returned from a trip to the UK. While we were there, during early November, we saw 'Poppy Appeal' to benefit veterans and their families. My research showed that the use of poppies to commemorate veterans not only in the UK but also in the USA & Canada began after World War 1.  An American woman, Moina Michael, was inspired by a poem, In Flanders Fields, by Canadian soldier-physician Major John McCrae in 1915, began wearing poppies every day as a symbol of sacrifice by the soldiers.  Soon, poppies became the symbol of remembrance of the lives of soldiers lost in wars. It's a coincidence that the page from my 2021 upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar, which served as my pandemic diary and was long overdue for its place on my blog, had a sketch of the poppies from our garden. 

The Smithsonian photo on the facing page is of Tropical Harvest,1973, a design by Suzie Zuzek for Key West Hand Print Fabrics, Inc. It is now at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum. 

Poppy table at Edinburgh Railway Station, Scotland, Nov 7, 2025 photo by Meera Rao

 Nature's Quilt, week 25, 2021 by Meera Rao 

The sketch for week 25 from the 2022 Smithsonian Calendar upcycled as my pandemic diary is a colorful patch from our garden that seemed to mirror the photo of Howard Mehring Dark Star n.d. -acrylic on collaged canvas from the Anacostia Community Museum. The Yellow coreopsis, Red/Orange cannas, and the purple-hearts all resemble a flower quilt!

The spread on my upcycled Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022

 

Unexpected Street treat

 I came across the colorful piano at Durango on our trip last year. It was on the sidewalk outside a bookstore. While I was admiring the bold colors and designs, another tourist walking by stopped and put down her backpack. She sat down and played a beautiful melody expertly.  When done, she laughed happily, joined her partner and both walked off :) Later on, my research said that the ‘Durango Street Piano Project’ was by Zack Robinson. What a fabulous idea! I really enjoyed reliving the moment when I painted this later in my Travel Journal. 

My Art on Different Walls

Dip and Shake  watercolor By Meera Rao 

This painting juried into ´Fauna and Flora’ at the Capital Hill Art league DC show and all the paintings from my ’Artist of the Month ‘ exhibition at the Poquoson Public Library are back home now after good time away. I have been busy painting but forgetting to update my blog during hectic summer days. My other interests - mainly volunteering as a Virginia Master Naturalist, sketching/painting in art & travel journals, and reading, fill up my free time keeping me quite content! I am also happily guilty about checking out awesome art by many talented artists on social media and in I turn feeling inspired. I am yet to find a right balance to sneak in a pocket of time to post in my blog. Any advice ? 

Art wall with my paintings in August at Poquoson Public Library 

The butterfly counts 

not months but moments

And has enough time 

~ Ravindranath Tagore ~

Awesome Nature

Wilting shadow1 direct watercolor Meera Rao 

Wilting shadow2 Direct watercolor Meera Rao 

Wilting shadow 3 Direct watercolor Meera Rao 

Wilting shadow 4 Direct watercolor Meera Rao 

I admire people who can paint freely and directly seeing all the colors, values and composition well formed in their heads. Of course, I also note that some do the thumbnails and try out their visions and then plunge in with the brush.  I don’t do thumbnails - but play with my photo editor a lot. But I still find myself painting very carefully -tentatively ; ‘freely’ doesn’t seem to be my nature !!! This years June 30x30 Direct watercolor challenge has been so far may be 15/30 - the month turned out to be packed with travels, other obligations, fun and challenging in other ways ! 

These paintings are of a rose that was still a beauty despite losing most of its petals. When I took it off an arrangement and laid it on the counter, the glow and the shadows formed were just stunning. I wanted to capture that fleeting moment. 

My four teabag art At the Hill Center DC 

Four of my teabag art pieces were juried into the Capitol Hill Art League exhibition in May and will be on display until September 6 2026. If you are in DC do pop in -there are some awesome pieces in that gallery. 

 

Not Just a Tempest in a Teapot

Not Just a Tempest in a Teapot - It's a Great Wave by Meera Rao

Another used teabag upcycled !! This one, along with my three other teabag paintings, is in the Washington, D.C. Hill Center Galleries 2025 Capitol Hill Art League Juried Exhibition. The show runs from May 6 -September 6.  It has been a fun challenge to think up tea-related subjects to paint on the teabags.

A lovely teacup

Steeping leaves, the steam rises

Tempest? The Great Wave

~Meera Rao~

   

Float Like A Blue Lotus

Blue Lotus  page from my India Travel Journal 2024 by Meera Rao

 float like a blue lotus 

graceful, grounded 

and

unbothered by the mud 

The Blue lotuses bloomed in a mini pond on the balcony. They are small but oh so beautiful and graceful. I used my newly acquired Japanese Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints on this page and am very pleased with the results. I had penciled in the sketches in my Strathmore tan-toned sketchbook, and painting in the colors had to wait.