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 I was interviewed about the Arctic Circle Residency last week, and was asked about one memory that sticks out. It was so hard to narrow down, but the one that I ended up sharing was from our first full day at sea. Everything was new and our first time - first time on a zodiac, making landing, using snow shoes, hiking together in the snow. It was also our first chance to work on whatever we felt like working on, on-site, in the cold, snow-adjacent. I pulled out all of my usual supplies - a small stool that I perched on the rocks, my Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook and my watercolors. And because I have all of my usual supplies, because I've sketched with my little stool and my Stillman & Birn and my watercolors and my favorite pens, I just sat down and sketched, and was able to take in and focus on this incredible landscape because I wasn't fussing with my materials. I was all set.
 Come see my talk at the Dixon in January to hear more about my adventures!
Dixon Gallery & Gardens Munch & Learn 4339 Park Ave, Memphis, TN January 7, 2026, noon (It's free!) Join me at ShapeShifter Art School and Gallery to learn to get comfortable with your own sketchbook and to sketch your world! Getting Comfortable with Your Sketchbook January 15-29, 2026 6:00-9:00 pm three-week class on Thursday nights Sketching Your Everyday World, Saturday, February 14, 2026 one-day class 1:00-6:30 pm Happy Holidays!  This year's Thanksgiving was spent at my Mom's, having our traditional Thanksgiving and also saying goodbye to the house they've lived in for 24 years.  We helped Mom go through her things, which landed me a new tape measure!  I've never lived in this house, but I have visited it a lot. Still, I was surprised to feel a little sentimental about it being my last time there.  Couldn't resist sketching these wind-blown rest-stop palm trees on the drive back!
 Well, I'm back. In May, I participated in the Arctic Circle residency on SV Rembrandt van Rijn sailing out of Longyearbyen, with 28 amazing artist, four incredible guides, and ten absolutely lovely crew members. I'd like to tell you all about it. I'm posting some photos, sketches, and in-progress work based on my experience on Instagram. In August, I'm giving a lecture about the residency at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Poznań, and working on a possible lecture in Memphis. On this blog, I'll be focusing on sketches and the sketching experience. I'm working on scanning all 150 (-ish) sketches; so far I've scanned eleven, so it's going to take a while. In the meantime, I wanted to start here by sharing my sketching set-up and experience on day two of the excursion.  On our second full day, we visited Chomjakovbreen glacier. Shipmate Corinne brought a yoga mat, purchased at the Svalbardbutikken (the grocery store in Longyearben), and invited me to use half of it. I sketched the glacier - in this image it's in progress - with watercolor and Caran D'Ache neocolor pastels in an 8x10" Stillman and Birn Alpha, using my small folding stool as a little table. And on a day like this with the sun shining and minimal wind, I was able to use water without worrying about it freezing. Note the Stax Museum koozie that held my water container! We were sitting on ice - fast ice because it's fastened/attached to the coastline. So water was under us, a glacier in front of us, the ship anchored behind in Svovelbukta, and mountains on either side. Even though I had a bit of sensory overload and was probably still hungover from seasickness meds, setting up my sketching gear and getting started felt very natural because I've been sketching out in the world for so long. It's just second nature to me now. That day I ended up making 15 sketches.  A little about the day from my journal:
Sea ice. Feels like earth but not. Snow on most of it but in places clear and translucent. I sketched the glacier. The more I looked at it, the more colors I could see. An almost dark blue, purple, turquoise. 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
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.  diluted sumi, chisel-tip pen, Pigma Micron 01 So – these are the things I need to do right now:
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 |
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May 2026
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