Ink sketches of Guimarães Portugal

Ink sketches of Children in Guimarães Portugal

We are in a new-to-us city, Guimarães, Portugal. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site because the city has maintained its medieval character while also developing into a modern city. The city is quite a change for me from my recent landscapes, so I started the morning with 5-minute ink sketches to develop a feel for its distinctive architecture. These are the kinds of sketches I simplify for gouache paintings, once I have a feel for what I see and value.

However, I never got as far as a gouache sketch. When I went back to the hotel in the afternoon, I began to read the morning news from the United States, which is several hours behind us.

I could not get past the news that our country is separating children from their parents and deliberately causing enormous trauma to both parents and children. I was a middle school principal for years and know the price that these children and their parents will pay for years to come. What have we come to that our country would do such a horrible thing to such precious and innocent children?

When I went back out, all I could do was draw children and worry. Here are some of those drawings as well.