Jean Veigas, April 2026

Watercolor sketch of Sakonnet Point in Acadia Park

While working all her life in architects’ offices as an interior designer and, later, in the family environmental graphic business, plus raising three sons, there was not much time for Jean to exercise her love of sketching. But with partial retirement she got back to it, starting with colored pencil sketches during summer camp in Maine and later drawing classes at the DeCordova Museum and watercolor classes at the Danforth Museum.

Jean continues with weekly watercolor classes at the Kaji Aso Studio and enjoys organizing plein air outings with her local art group. Jean’s style tends to be what might be called “urban sketching”. She is slowly breaking away from feeling the need for vanishing points and pen outlines to a looser, freer style. She fills two or three sketch books a year and prefers staying within the spiral bound format to doing finished, framed watercolors. She treasures her watercolor journals from summer trips to Maine.

To deal with the isolation during the pandemic, Jean combined two loves: watercolor sketching and hiking, and had as a goal to visit as many of the 122 Trustees of Reservation properties in Massachusetts as possible. She asked family members, fellow artists, or hikers to join her. At each reservation she did a watercolor sketch and a written description, which she sent weekly to fifty or so friends, family, and colleagues. In the end, she made it to 45 reservations.