Lake at Lucerne, Switzerland, watercolor on paper, 2 1/2" x 3 1/3".
This small painting is an Artist Trading Card. I did this en plein air while waiting for parts of another watercolor I was doing (of the lake) dried. It was an overcast, misting day which was not the best environment for doing watercolor paintings, but I was inspired and felt called to be outdoors painting.
I was in Switzerland as part of a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship. The purpose of the trip was to meet and interview the artist who invented the concept of the Artist Trading Card. He is a Zurich artist, Vanci Stirnemann, and the concept is to create "baseball-card" sized works to trade with others who create works the same size. Vanci conducts monthly trading sessions in Zurich where artist meet, socialize and trade their creations. It was a joy to be able to attend one of those sessions.
The Swiss Army knife pictured with the Artist Trading Card is the one I bought while in Zurich. Though I had not carried a pocket knife since I was a Cub Scout, I felt that there was no better place or time to start carrying one again.