Natural History Art & Science Illustration
Portraits of Nature in the Copper River Gallery
I have a solo show up in Cordova. It’s been up since the end of August but I wanted to share some photos with you, since I know many might not make it all the way there.
It is a similar body of work to the show I had in Fairbanks last summer, but with some differences, as happens over a year. So I want to give you a tour on my blog:
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Sketching as artist in residence in the Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve
Photo by Richard Kahn
I’m excited to announce that I am on a podcast and it’s up for you to listen to. Gale Straub hosts a show called She Explores about inquisitive women in the outdoors, on the road, and besides. The podcast episode starts with Gale talking to Chevon Powell about an exciting upcoming event called the Refuge Outdoor Festival. Then we talk about my story of how I grew up spending time outdoors, how and why I moved to Alaska and got interested in science illustration. I also talk about why it’s important for me to make art in the wilderness and to participate in artist residencies on public lands.
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Photoperiodism - The Journey of the Snowshoe Hare - Mixed media collage
This happens to me every summer. I don’t really want to beat myself up about it, but maybe you noticed that my last blog post was at the end of June? As hard as I try, the summer slips by, and I find myself feeling a bit like the Snowshoe Hare in the illustration above - like I can’t quite spread myself across all of that distance.
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I’m almost at the end of my 100 Day Project, well for now anyway. I set out in March to create 100 drawings of glaciers to make cyanotypes from. The project has had some ups and downs…
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Sunlight on the river at 10 pm, from my front yard
Happy summer solstice! Summer solstice officially occurs at 2:07 am Alaska Time. Where I live in McCarthy the sun will rise at 3:49 am and set at 11:17 pm for a total of 19 hours and 28 minutes of daylight. That contrasts with the winter solstice, where we have 5 hours and 22 minutes of daylight. Daylight gives us energy and makes us happy so it’s a reason to celebrate. You can use this daylight calculator to see how much daylight there is on a certain day of the year in your location.
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I just launched a Patreon page, Nizina Naturals, as a way to share my upcoming work with you. This is something I've thought a lot about. As much as I love putting a gallery show together and putting my work behind glass on big, white walls, I am really excited about creating something more intimate, that you can hold in your hands.
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I’m sitting down at my computer to write in the evening. I just watered the garden, but a new rainstorm is moving up the valley from the Chugach. I hear Robins and Varied Thrushes singing outside and I found that many of the Calypso Orchids are in bloom today. Many other flowers will follow them. Summer and its’ frenetic energy seem to have arrived on the Nizina. I thought I’d sit down and give you a summary of where I’ll be and when, so you can follow along with me.
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Cow parsnip stalks growing near the beach
“Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room and being aware of the space around you. It is a condition of separateness. Solitude is becoming one with the space around you. It is a condition of union. Loneliness is small, solitude is large. Loneliness closes around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. Loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nobody answers; solitude has its roots in the great silence of eternity”
-Quote by Kent Nerburn, which I found posted by @northernproject on Instagram several months ago.
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Part of the Nondalton School mural
This post is going to be more of a photo essay. I want to share my recent experience doing an artist in schools residency in Nondalton. First welcome to Nondalton! It takes about an hour to fly there from Anchorage, located on the Alaska Peninsula on Six Mile Lake which drains out of Lake Clark and into the Newhalen River. I was there in April, during their last two weeks of school so the lake was frozen, but you couldn't quite trust the ice to go too far. Even though it was break up you could tell the importance of the geography of the watershed. People drive over the lake in the winter and use boats to get around in the summer.
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This year I decided to participate in the 100 Days Project, a free, global project, hosted online where people do one creative act every day for 100 days. You can learn more about it on their website and see what other people are doing by searching under #the100dayproject.
Read moreSketchbook spread from the National Museum of Cambodia
I’m not the type of tourist who wants to see every museum that a place has to offer, but I do love to go and spend a couple of hours walking around an art or natural history museum. Often when going to a new museum there is so much to see that I get overwhelmed. One of my favorite ways to slow down and appreciate what’s in front of me (instead of worrying about trying to see everything) is to bring a sketchbook or journal and take some time for focused observation.
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My accordion sketchbook from Cambodia
While I was traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia I filled an accordion sketchbook, and I had quite a bit of fun doing it. Accordion sketchbooks are relatively cheap to buy, or are easy to make; they are portable, and provide a wealth of options for how to fill them. First I am going to show you how to make your own, then I’ll write a bit about how I filled mine while traveling.
Read moreThink about using both pages of your sketchbook (the spread) to spread out and tell more of a story, adding context to your original illustration. In this post are three examples from my travel sketchbook. I love drawing and thinking about plants, so that is my focus here, but you can obviously choose whatever you like as your subject.
Read moreCreating your own field guide or collection can be a great way to organize visual information. You also can be creative with it and don’t need to take it to a Sibley-level of perfection unless you want to. Here is an example of a collection of different tropical flowers I found while walking around Hoi An, Vietnam.
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Landing at LAX during the sunset. This was my return flight
I have a 13-hour flight from Vancouver to Guangzhou and then a 5-hour layover in China before getting to Vietnam. I thought it would be fun to write a post on some things you can do on the airplane. I especially wanted to provide some ideas that don’t involve the Internet or watching movies (though that is a great way to pass the time too). I want to prep a few activities that aren’t too mentally grueling and maybe are even a bit relaxing.
Read moreI’m leaving in a few days to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia (want to come with and share the experience? learn more here). Note that since I live in remote Alaska, it is going to take me a few days to get there. Before I leave, I wanted to write a post about what I’m bringing with me.
First of all, there is nothing wrong with keeping your sketch kit simple and affordable. A notebook with unlined paper and pen or pencil will suffice! Really lined paper would be fine too. However as a professional artist I have lots of art supplies, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites for taking on the go.
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I enjoyed sketching from this spot on the top of a waterfall overlooking Derickson Sprit in the Nellie Jaun -College Fiord WSA
I’ve been working on this blog post for a while. I keep putting it off because wilderness is a complicated idea near and dear to my heart. Before I begin I feel the need to disclaim that I’m not going to be able to fit all of my thought in one blog post, but that doesn’t mean I should share some of them.
One of the projects I am working on right now is to illustrate a poster for the Nellie-Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area. Last summer I did an artist residency there with the US Forest Service...
Read moreThis February I am traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia and I want to take you with me, via my sketchbook. I have cooked up some fun ways to share with you (learn more here), but I am also planning to write a ten-part blog series about my ideas for keeping a travel sketchbook.
Read moreThis is a continuation of my last post. At the start of the year I want to share a bit about what goes on behind the scenes as a working artist. In part 1, I talked about my daily rituals, which include journaling, planning, and reflecting. Today I want to share my bigger picture review process. Again, I want to share some of the resources that I’ve found useful in hopes that they’ll be helpful to others.
Read moreSome of my favorite planning books - Travelers Notebook with my bullet journal and a few lined journals for writing
I think that as an artist, I’m often sharing finished work, and even work in progress or studio shots, but I don’t always give a good picture of all that goes on behind the scenes. I put this post together to discuss some of the planning and reflecting I do to keep myself on track. I want to share a few art and independent business resources that I’ve found useful in hopes that they’ll be helpful to others.
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