Well, I’m back. And I have a LOT to share.
A few weeks ago, I spent ten days on a watercolor travel painting adventure through Lisbon and Marrakech — sketching in golden Portuguese light, painting in Moroccan gardens and souks, and filling my travel sketchbook cover to cover. It was, without question, one of the best creative experiences of my life. Not because everything went perfectly (it didn’t). But because I showed up, I painted, and I came home different.
The trip was a painting retreat with Perigord Retreats and instructor Renee Walden — the same team behind my art retreat in France last year. When they invited previous group members to join a new Morocco edition, my answer was instant: “Yes! But…” — my husband couldn’t join this time (non-sketching partners are welcome!), so it was a solo adventure. I tacked on a few days in Lisbon first to beat the jetlag — a $50, 90-minute flight from Marrakech, and the perfect staging ground.
What I Packed
I wrote a full breakdown of my travel sketch kit before this trip — if you want the details on every brush, palette, and pen, that post has you covered.
This was the first trip where my kit felt JUST the right size. I didn’t touch the extras palette at all — I stuck entirely to colors I already knew, which felt right. No mid-trip palette panic, no regrets about what I didn’t bring. Progress!
(It’s a really good thing I didn’t bring more art supplies, though — because I went a bit overboard shopping in the souks. I went with a full suitcase, and came home with it BULGING.)
And the landscape sketchbook (a pre-trip source of panic)? Verdict: I enjoyed the challenge of composing spreads in a landscape format, but it wasn’t right for me for traveling. When my plein air setup is deployed, I can hold everything in one hand while I paint or draw with the other — but the landscape orientation made the book wide, floppy, and annoying to maneuver. I had good benches for a lot of my painting time, which saved me, but I really would have struggled without them. Next trip: back to portrait.
Lisbon: Sketching in the Golden Light
Lisbon was MAGICAL. I can’t wait to go back.
Here’s the thing, though: I didn’t actually paint in Lisbon. My days were full — I was keeping a strict schedule to combat jetlag, and I wanted to soak in as much of the city as I could in three days. I sketched onsite every day, but the watercolors stayed in my bag. I’m still super happy with everything I accomplished (and maybe even moreso, because I have so many good reference photos to paint from at home!).
And you know what? That was completely fine. Sometimes the best thing you can do as an artist in a new place is just look.
I spent my first day in Alfama — exploring the old castle, chasing peacocks, and trying delicious local cuisine. The second day, I took a day trip to Sintra to explore the palaces. I hiked from Pena Palace to the Moorish Castle, and just as I arrived at Quintela de Regalía, a heavy downpour blew in — creating an appropriately spooky scene for the gothic estate. On my last day, I explored Belém and Chiado. Most of the major sites in Belém are under construction right now, but the architecture was still gorgeous to behold.
What struck me most about Lisbon was how fast the light changed. Storms and clouds blew in and out like they had somewhere to be. On one evening, I watched the sun set from a miradoura (a scenic overlook) — and JUST as the sun hit that beautiful golden moment above the horizon, a whoosh of rain rushed in from the other direction. Half the city was bathed in this incredible golden glow while the other half was steeped in darkness. The contrast was like nothing I’d ever seen. I didn’t paint it, but I’ll never forget it.
I also had a minor setback — I slipped and fell on wet tiles, and my tailbone has been giving me trouble ever since. It slowed me down a bit and kept me from meeting up with some group mates who were also in town, but it didn’t dampen the experience.
Marrakech: Ochre and Shadow
If Lisbon was soft light and quick-changing skies, Marrakech was warmth, saturation, and sensory overload (in the best way).
We stayed at a villa about 15 minutes from Marrakech, with clear views of the Atlas mountains to the north and south. We had our own little oasis: a lush yard full of peacocks, turkeys, chickens, and guinea fowl. I watched the sun rise and set every morning and evening, and I couldn’t get enough of how the mountains shifted between pinks and lavenders and cobalts as the light moved.
EVERYTHING in Marrakech is swathed in color. The dirt, the buildings — it’s all a dusty rose, contrasted with muted turquoise on doors, windows, and accents. And the goods that are everywhere — hand-woven bags, herbs and spices, pottery, rugs, lights — are so vibrantly colored that coming home was genuinely difficult. My house looked so bland. (Fortunately, I brought plenty of colorful decorations back with me.)
Painting in the city itself was challenging, though. So much color, noise, life. I usually get “into the zone” when I paint — that state where I’m so focused on what I’m seeing and doing that everything else fades away. I couldn’t do that in Marrakech. There was too much to take in, and I wanted to take in all of it. The painting I did in the city was more fragmented, more impressionistic — which, looking back, might be exactly the right way to capture a place like that.
The group was wonderful. Almost everyone had traveled with Perigord Retreats before, so the group meshed quickly. There’s something really special about painting alongside people who share these trips — the shared excitement when someone’s piece comes together, the mutual respect for each other’s process.
Jardin Majorelle
My favorite painting experience of the entire trip was at Jardin Majorelle. It’s right in the bustling heart of Marrakech, but as soon as we walked through the gates, the world went quiet. We arrived early, before the crowds, and strolled through the gardens before settling in to paint.
I sketched a beautiful fountain first, before the area got too busy. Then I wandered and found one of my group mates on a bench in a quiet corner, so I joined her and spent the rest of the morning painting a lovely terracotta pot in front of the brightest blue wall. It was so peaceful to sit and work there that the three-hour visit just FLEW by. This is what I mean when I say painting changes how you experience a place — I could have walked through Majorelle in thirty minutes and seen everything. Instead, I sat with one corner of it for hours, and I’ll remember that terracotta pot and blue wall for the rest of my life.
The Paints: What Colors I Actually Used
For all my careful palette curation (two palettes! 37 colors!), I stuck to my tried-and-true quad for most of the trip: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, and Permanent Alizarin Crimson. There were pops of other colors in each painting, but these four continued to be the workhorses.
I’m starting to realize just how consistent I am with this combination. These four can do so much together, and there’s something freeing about not having to think about color choice when you’re trying to capture light that’s changing by the minute.
A special surprise: Renee gifted each of us two paints from Deep Deep Light: Rose Marrakech and Water Lily. These two colors are the EXACT match of the colors we saw everywhere. I can’t wait to explore them more back home.
What I Learned
1. Break Out of the Box
I noticed, flipping through last year’s travel sketchbook, that I default to painting in “boxes” — nearly everything has a drawn-in frame, and the composition sits inside it. This is a perfectly fine approach! But I wanted to push myself to break away from it. I wanted my compositions to be organic, to flow, to feel like they were one with the page instead of sitting on top of it.
I think I’m starting to do this. Some of my Marrakech spreads feel more fluid, more alive on the page. It’s a small shift, but it changes how the sketchbook reads as a whole.
2. Painting Is a Conversation Starter
I already knew this, but it really zoomed into focus on this trip: painting is a GREAT catalyst for conversation. And this lesson crystallized for me in the most unexpected way — because I met Brooke Shields.
Yes, that Brooke Shields.
I was sitting in an airport lounge restaurant between flights, painting in my sketchbook, when she happened to sit at the table next to mine. I said a quick hello — because what else do you do? — but the real magic was what happened next. A surgeon on his way to a conference saw me painting, struck up a conversation, and we ended up talking for the better part of my five-hour layover. All because I had a sketchbook open instead of a phone.
This was a MUCH better way to spend a layover than mindlessly scrolling. And it happens every trip: people see you painting, and they want to talk. It’s one of my favorite side effects of travel sketching.
3. When You Can’t Paint, Photograph
I’ve always enjoyed the photography side of travel, but this trip I was able to lean into it more — especially in moments when painting wasn’t an option, like weaving through the close-quartered madness of the souks. I got a new camera right before this trip (a Fujifilm X100VI) and I am so glad I did. I love my Sony, but it can be cumbersome and always requires editing. Having a compact camera that was simple, easy to use, and produced beautiful photos straight out of the camera changed the whole trip experience for the better.
4. Trust Your Kit
Bringing familiar, trusted tools was the right call. I didn’t waste time figuring out new supplies or second-guessing my palette. My colors mixed the way I expected. My brushes felt like extensions of my hand. When you’re in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar subjects, the last thing you need is an unfamiliar toolkit.
The Sketchbook
Here’s every spread from the trip. Thirteen paintings from two (three, counting the airport!) countries, one landscape sketchbook, and a lot of love.
What’s Next
I came home with hundreds of reference photos — there was so much to see and admire that I’ll be working from these for years to come.
A few things I’m excited about:
Standalone paintings. I typically work in my sketchbooks, but I’m excited to create full-featured, standalone pieces — not just sketches. The reference material from this trip deserves it.
Color theory deep-dive. Realizing how consistently I lean on the same four colors has me curious. I want to dig into color theory work next — exploring combinations, understanding why I reach for what I reach for, and seeing what happens when I push beyond my defaults.
More travel. Later this year, I’m heading to Venice, Milan, and Lake Como with my husband for our 10th anniversary (!!), and then I split off for another group painting trip in the Alps. I can’t wait to keep learning and applying what I’ve picked up.
Thank you for following along on this journey. If you want to see more from Lisbon and Marrakech — and whatever comes next — come find me on Instagram at @elyestelle.
Have you been to Lisbon or Marrakech? Are you a travel sketcher? I’d love to hear about your experiences — drop a comment below!