I'm about to start my journey to the Arctic. I'll be making my way to Svalbard to participate in the Arctic Circle residency over the next week. to say I'm excited is an understatement!

Getting ready for this trip has been so interesting because it's not just about packing, it's about what do I want to draw with and what can I draw with. I wrote already about my experiments with materials, and wanted to share with you what I settled on. I would include pictures, but everything is packed :)

Sketchbooks

• Stillman & Birn alpha, 5x8 - taking two of these because they are my favorite
• Moleskine, 3.5 x 5.5 - I like carrying a smaller sketchbook along with the regular-sized one; also taking two of these
• Stillman & Birn alpha, 8x10 - this is already half full and I'm taking it just in case I want to use larger paper
• Oh you thought I was done? I threw in two Seawhite of Brighton sketchbooks because they are slim and have nice paper and are my usual trip backups

Materials - everyday carry

• Small watercolor palette from Art Toolkit
• Kuretake water brushes - I won't be able to use these outside, they freeze easily! But I'll have them around for the rest of the time.
• Kuretake water brushes with diluted sumi - These will also freeze! 
• Assorted pencils - Faber Castell oil base, Mitsubishi dual Prussian Blue & Vermilion, Prismacolor neon pink
• Pentel white gel pen even though those never work
• Rosemary & Co travel paintbrush

Materials - extra

• Colored pencils - Mostly Faber Castell Polychromos - and a sharpener
• Caran D'Ache neocolor pastels - These didn't seem to be affected when I put them in the freezer!
• Folio watercolor palette from Art Toolkit
• Extra water container to fill with vodka to use in the cold - I found that straight vodka worked best to paint with after sitting in the freezer for a while; when I tried diluting it, it froze.
• Sumi to mix with vodka to use in the cold
• Lots of clips to hold paper down in the wind - It's going to be super windy!

And that's it! It's not a lot but it's perfect for sketching. I will take pictures of all of it in use and will share when I return.

I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has supported me with this residency and in my career in general. I couldn't do this without you.

​My trip is about six weeks out, so I’m making a last push to get everything together. I’m still working on supplies – freeze-proof ink is out, Caran D’Ache Neocolor II are in. It took three tries to get the right coat! I’m now working on odds and ends, and still looking for a good second-hand camera.

I’m also reading up on all things polar – north and south! Here’s what I’ve read so far:
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
The Edge of Solitude by Katie Hale
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller
Magnetic North: Sea Voyage to Svalbard by Jenna Butler
Shackleton’s Boat Journey by my man Frank A. Worsley aka Wuzzles
 
Next up:
Seeds on Ice by Cary Fowler
The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

I urge you to call your elected officials to demand oversight hearings to push back on the administration's efforts to devastate our national parks and public lands under the guise of "cutting costs."
Some of that language was taken from the 5Calls app, which makes it super easy to call your senators and house representative - it gives you their numbers and a script! The people who answer the phone are always nice, and you can leave a message.
Public parks, both national parks and state parks, are super important to my work, and they are important for us as Americans to be able to enjoy freely. They are not cutting costs by firing workers at already understaffed parks and public lands.

​Since I’m planning out my sketching supplies for the Arctic Circle Residency, I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite travel sketches and thought I’d share them.

​Great Basin National Park hike, 2019
I love this one because I did it really fast. We were hiking and it was cold at this high elevation where we stopped at a pond to have a snack. We also needed to hurry up and turn around so that we would make it back to our car before sunset. I wanted to sketch and Toby said, Okay you have 10 minutes – go!

Nine sketches of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, 2020
We camped at Devil’s Tower and the only thing I could think about the whole time – even waking up in the middle of the night – was sketching it.

Grand Tetons, 2020
Same trip – we didn’t camp here, but we spent a couple of hours just hanging out with these beautiful mountains. I tried to sketch every single thing I could see.

Cape Cod, 2017
An older sketch – I made this one specifically to prepare for a class I would be teaching when I returned, but I can’t remember what the class was. You can tell this is a sketch I made on vacation because I obviously took my time with it to get all of those layers.

​Monument Valley, 2021
We camped in Monument Valley, then drove through it the next day. I made these on the road.

Santa Rosa Sound, 2023
I made these sketches very intentionally, knowing I would make work about this trip. This was a family trip with my Mom and siblings and nieces and nephews, and I’m glad they all just let me do this thing.

Rangitoto, 2023
One of my favorite travel sketching experiences ever. I went for a walk by myself sketched Rangitoto – it was very meditative.

Loch Ness, 2024
Another meditative experience, getting to know this space and watching the conditions change as I sketched.

Amsterdam, 2019
Just to show that I don’t only sketch nature when I travel, here is my final sketch from the 2019 Urban Sketchers Symposium. This sketch always makes me think of the great visit I had with Liz Steel while sketching the marina and museum in the distance.

​Traveling and experiencing new places, and getting to know those places by sketching them, is very important to my art practice. I’m grateful to be able to travel as much as I do, and for how travel has shaped my work.

I’m starting to think about what materials to take with me to the Arctic Circle Residency in May. I’m just kidding, I’ve been thinking about it since March 23, 2024, when I found out I’d been selected. But now it’s time to actually DO the work of putting a sketching kit together.
​
For years I’ve been using the same sketching supplies. I do switch out materials now and then – exchanging my fat pen (Pigma Graphic 1) for a chisel tip or adding and then removing a *fountain pen.

Here’s my current set up:

For sketching in the Arctic, what changes do I make? I rely heavily on water-based media, especially diluted sumi, which I often use to quickly lay out a sketch in a way that adds some weight to the final sketch. I’ve been trying to get the same effect using dry materials, but honestly, I haven’t been trying that hard because my diluted sumi works just fine in winter in Memphis.

​So – these are the things I need to do right now:

1. Try to get the same effect of quickly laying out a sketch with dry materials – pencil, what else?
2. Put my diluted sumi pen in the freezer and see what happens. Maybe I will be able to use it in May Arctic temperatures?
3. ASK FOR HELP. Do you have experience with sketching in very cold temperatures? Do you have any advice?

I am definitely taking all of these same dry materials. About the colored pencils I use – they are not watercolor pencils. I like the texture of regular colored pencils, and I like being able to paint over them. Other than watercolors, I use non-water-soluble materials (colored pencils, pencils, waterproof ink) because I don’t want my sketches to melt. Unless they are watercolor? I don’t know – I didn’t say this was logical.
 
If you have any input on this topic, please let me know! I’m open to suggestions!
 
*I don’t love fountain pens! I did for a while, but I can’t manage their inconsistency. I need my materials to be working at all times.

I’m thrilled to have been selected for a residency with the Arctic Circle program, which takes place on a wooden tall ship sailing out of Svalbard. This two-week residency in May of 2025 gives me a chance to expand on my current painting focus of transitional areas of landscapes where different elements intersect (water’s edge, rivers, mountains, walkways, bridges, roads), incorporating the vocabulary of the Arctic.
 
Sketching in the Arctic Circle will be challenging! I’m excited to share my preparations (adding vodka to my waterbrush? crocheting mittens from Newfoundland wool?) in upcoming newsletters and probably here, too.
 
You can help me prepare for the residency by buying some of my work. At the studio sale, I’ll be selling older work including oil on canvas, framed pieces and small watercolors, in addition to prints and zines.
 
Hope you’ll stop by!
 
Studio Sale
Saturday, November 2
12:00 to 4:00 pm
Memphis, TN
Click here for address
​

I don't want to jinx it, but I've been drawing in my sketchbook every day since starting this one on March 26.

Daily drawing or doing a daily "thing" isn't necessary for me - I have a regular practice of making things, but trying to do it daily is (usually) too much pressure. 

But I like it when my sketchbook feels like it's my best friend and I tell it a little about my day.

Sketching imagery from our trip to Newfoundland has taken me in an unexpected direction. I'm working in an 8 x 10 Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook and just going through my sketchbooks and pictures from the trip and filling pages with images.

I expected to continue this and start to notice compositions making their way into my sketches. 

What I didn't expect was to need to make things other than a composition for a painting - one day in the studio I found myself drawing this house and then cutting it out so that it stands on its own.

Then I started to look at other shapes from my sketchbook - shapes that were a part of every day when we were in Newfoundland (see my previous post on shapes) - and to play around with those.

I ended up with a new shape that still gives me the feeling of the shape it was derived from. I'm now working on making this into something more - stay tuned for updates!

The evolution of these shapes reminds me what is so great about having a regular art practice. Most of this was just fooling around until something sparked my curiosity and I thought, what if I did this or made it into that? That's how this process works - you just keep working (fooling around) until you get something that you need to do more of.

I could draw this shape with my eyes closed. It's often what I see when I close my eyes because when we were in St. John's, Newfoundland, this was the view from the bedroom. I would wake up and make out the shape of the hill in the dark. Every morning I would see the sun coming up over it. I snapped a lot of pictures of it, even when half asleep.

I finally sat down and sketched something from St. John's again - this hill, this shape, of course. I did some sketches when we first got back but have had trouble getting back to it because it was making me sad! I did not anticipate the intense sadness I would feel from missing being there so much. I felt like a teenager who had broken up with a boyfriend then regretted it and stalked his instagram. 

There is a live feed of St. John's Harbor on YouTube. I visit it a lot. I can see that hill, though at a different angle than from the bed. But I like to see how it's doing, if the water is rough, what the weather is like. 

On our last full day there, I sketched the hill and other important shapes - the little yard that dropped off to the water, and the view from over the kitchen sink of the hill behind our house. So many good shapes.

I sketched so much in Newfoundland and wanted to keep up the intensity when I got back, but the reality of, well, reality, is that sketching isn't as front of mind as it is when I'm traveling. But I did manage a few fun sketches my first week back.

This was a fun one - sketched at Cooper Young Festival while listening to a band. I've always wanted to sketch this house, and this was the perfect opportunity.