Painting Memories of Place in Watercolor: Sketching the City’s Soul Through Revisited Spaces
- Leila Ghasempor
- Dec 22, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 5
Introduction: Lindsay turns everyday life into a living archive of memories. Through her watercolor journals, she captures the fleeting beauty of places — a blooming flower after a heavy California rain, the rhythm of a restaurant moment, the art festival vibe, the rhythm of a family gathering, even the hum of daily news stitched into her embroidery appliqué pieces. Each painting she makes in her sketchbooks becomes a small, intimate world—one you can hold in your hands.
Her paintings are not just about places; they are about the emotions, stories, and human connections that live within them. Today, we step into Lindsay’s world of color, care, and memory — where ordinary moments become extraordinary.
Figure. 2. Lindsay's watercolor notebooks that she carries around and records daily treasures in sketches and writing.
IT All BEGAN WITH AWARENESS OF CHANGES IN A PLACE
People Around Us already had a studio visit with Lindsay where she talked about her artistic practice and interest in depicting landscape and seascapes in mixed media including acrylic and watercolor, mainly is inspired by themes that comes from her awareness and interest of what is going around her, maybe you can watch her studio visit at this link. The following are also from her flower themes inspired by a heavy rain in California.
Her watercolor journals are more than technique; they are memory holders — little records of time, space, and emotion. Each quick sketch becomes an entry in a visual diary that anchors personal experience to place.
Figure. 3. Acrylic on Canvas. Lindsay's flower series after experiencing a heavy rain in California.
LIFE, TIME, AND MEANING OF PLACES
Leila (People Around Us): Lindsay, in our last studio visit, you talked about how a heavy California rain sparked your flower painting series. Now, recalling those fleeting moments and considering your new work series in your watercolor journals beautifully captures small but meaningful moments in everyday life, set in the context of places and city structure. What first inspired you to start documenting your days in this way?
Lindsay: I enjoy recording moments in life, whether by sketching, keeping an illustrated diary or doing a series of paintings.
Figure 4. Lindsay's paintings, depicting landmarks and places that Lindsay relates to and often visits and notices the changes, you can see some of San Carlos train station, a scene of children playing in San Carlos Wine Festival 2025, Lark Artisan Store.
SMALL SKETCH SIZES AND INTIMACY
Leila: Your pages feel like a bridge between memory and place — almost like holding a little piece of time in your hands. What does “place” mean to you in your artwork? Also, the medium rectangular or square size of these framed journals gives me a cozy, warm feeling and prompts me to hold them.
Lindsay: I think artists are really like historians of time and place. When we record what we see in the world it’s a snapshot in time. Revisiting a place I have painted I often find things have changed. New buildings have been built on an open pasture, or vineyards have replaces fields of pasture land. The size of smaller pieces does add an intimacy to the art and forces me to focus on one small thing. Larger pieces have more impact for subjects like a series of work.
Figure 5. Lindsay also got an award for creating a design for 100 Years of San Carlos. The middle painting depicts John Barrows says now "I am famous."
MEMORY, CARE, AND EMBODIMENT
Leila: A big theme in your work seems to be care—care for moments, places, people, even objects. How do you think your art becomes a form of care or tending?
Lindsay: When something is inspirational and has a message like the exhibit of the Trolls at Filoli, I feel drawn to sketch it. We are all part of a fragile world and we need to take care of it and each other.
UNIQUENESS OF EPHEMERAL ACTIONS
Leila: You often take something ephemeral — like a blooming flower or a moment like what you captured in the San Carlos Art and Wine Festival— and turn it into something lasting. What draws you to recording these temporary experiences?
Lindsay: I find struck by the uniqueness of certain things and certain actions of people. I favorite memory of something will continue in my thoughts until I draw it or paint it, but I am actively looking for those ideas to keep my drawing practice continuing.
Figure 6. Watercolor on paper and wooden frame.
DAILY LIFE AND INSPIRATIONS
Leila: You also mentioned that you sometimes stitch while listening to the news or conversations around you. How does sound or daily life around you shape what ends up in your journals?
Lindsay: I look for inspiration and find it in many places, through new experiences like traveling or interacting with people in my daily life. It helps me to remember the important moments to keep sketching events in my life as well as improve my drawing ability. It is also a meditative experience I enjoy.
YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS
Leila: Your watercolor journals have such a fresh and spontaneous feeling. Can you walk us through your process — from seeing something that moves you to putting it on the page?
Lindsay: A number of years ago I took a journaling class at the Pacific Art League and loved it. I started doing it when we travelled and continued doing little sketches of local areas and events during covid since we had so little to do in that abnormal time. I get inspiration from trying to keep up a sketchbook record of my life and look for inspirational things to draw to keep my art practice up. Seeing light on the hills as I drive home, or even a simple thing like a bowl of fruit can be inspirational.
WORTH OF CAPTURING
Leila: How do you decide what moments are “worth” capturing? Or do they decide for you?
Lindsay: I find the ideas just come to me because I am always looking for what to include in my sketchbook, they pop into my head at unexpected times. I do look for them. Noticing the magic of a beautiful sunset or seeing interesting buildings as I do errands will attract my interest as something new to draw.
Figure 8. Watercolor on sketchbook, sketching narratives of daily moments and filling each page with a trace of time, memory and a specific place.
Leila: You work with incredibly fast sketches that still somehow hold an entire atmosphere. Is that speed part of the meaning for you? For me, that speed also reminds me, as a viewer, to think about time, life, and appreciation, so that I can capture a nice sketch of my life moment.
Lindsay: I don’t think it’s the speed of drawing but the smaller size of the paper that helps me draw more quickly. Picking a subject with interesting color or lighting helps make it a subject worth capturing.
PLACE, IDENTITY, AND BELONGING
Leila: You’ve painted so many local scenes — restaurants, landmarks, family moments around San Carlos or other places. How does living here shape your work?
Lindsay: We live in a beautiful place where there are hills and water and beautiful vegetation. There are interesting historical buildings and a beautiful climate so, it’s not hard to find inspiration.
Figure 9. Lindsay's work displayed at her studio. Watercolor on paper, 2025.
Leila: Do you feel that we, as humans, are defined by the places we move through? And if so, how does your art express that idea?
Lindsay: Yes, I think we are affected in by the beauty of where we live, and defined by the places we call home. I grew up in British Columbia, another inspiring place with fog and trees and ocean atmosphere. It’s also a place that nurtures our soul.
HUMAN CONNECTION IN HEART APPLIQUE
Leila: Your heart appliqué pieces came out of the COVID years. How did that period shift the way you think about memory, resilience, and the body?
Lindsay: The little heart pieces started as a project to use up scraps of fabric I had left from making masks into Hearts for Hope that some crafters were inspired to make and give to others like people fighting cancer and other adversities. I belong to a couple of nonprofit organizations and started doing them as a fundraiser for art and women’s education.
Figure 7. Lindsay's Heart Applique pieces, felt, embroidery and fabric.
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