Leslie Landers

A view over tiled rooftops of a small harbor near Kyparessi In Greece.

The Vietnamese Bay of Halong is well known for its 3,000 islands. Traditional wooden junk-style sailboats like this one set the scene beautifully.

Plein air oil sketch of a sailboat in the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor.

Not all of the color in the Santa Cruz Harbor is on the water. Here, I caught up with boats that were in for repairs or beauty treatments.

I chose this view to paint in the Santa Cruz Harbor because the sail was up. As often happens when painting outdoors … things change. Apparently, the sail was up just to make a fix and the work was completed rapidly so the sail came down. Happily I had the basics sketched in and as a bonus the sun came out. I’ll take it and count my blessings the sailboat didn’t sail off while I was painting it.

I painted this at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor on a morning filled with sunshine. In addition to focusing my attention on blue sailboat, I decided to include the 5 mph caution sign for boaters heading in and out.

This painting is all about the golden shimmer in the water from the ochre buildings that form the waterfront of Geneva Switzerland in the evening. Geneva is a large city that I find to be both global and intimate.

The sails on the boat in this painting are characteristic of very old style rigging variously referred to as Lateen sails, Italian rigging or Latin sails. No matter what you call it, it’s beautiful. In a world of white fiberglass, call me charmed. This vessel is seen near the town of Evian, France on Lac Leman.

It’s pretty easy to be charmed by a medieval castle set on a picturesque lake. Chllon is in Veytaux, Switzerland on Lac Leman. In this view. a traditional sailboat with classic rigging passes by.

This piece catches the colorful sails on the dock at Vasona Lake in Los Gatos just as they are being raised.