Part 1. “A sense of place, a private view, and something more . . .”
As a confirmed scribbler in sketchbook and journal, I enjoyed a lifetime of family camping adventures in the American West with my biologist/naturalist husband and two children. I sketched, painted, learned nature’s ways, and grew to cherish the earth. In 1976–77, a year–long Sabbatical camping trip to the Southwest provided time to study, sketch, paint, and photograph diverse plant communities amid stunning scenery. I tell the story in my memoir: The Road to Beaver Park, Painting, Perception, and Pilgrimage (Resource Pub/Wipf & Stock: 2016).*
As I learned to paint, I learned to see, and I discovered that seeing is a radical activity—it changed my life. Watercolor paintings from that life–changing year comprise my Art Portfolio on this website. Titled, “A Sense of Place, a Private View, and Something More . . .”, I hope each painting expresses those three ideas. (Paintings are currently on display January–February, 2019 at The Friendship Center, 251 Main Street, Winona, MN.)
The joy of putting pencil/pen to paper happens every time I sit down to draw. Field observation combined with sketching and painting enriched my life with a broadened scope of how nature is put together, and the process literally expanded my horizons. Since Sabbatical my sense of place covers a sweeping topography: from the Northern California Coast, over the Cascade Mountains, eastward across ancient lakebeds of the Great Basin, into rugged reefs and monuments of Mesa and Canyon Country to the backbone of the North American continent, the Rocky Mountains. These land forms contrasted dramatically with the Colorado prairie, as well as low deserts of Death Valley and the Sonoran Desert. Read next week about my private view and “something more . . .”
*Available http://amazon.com http://barnesandnoble.com http://indie.bound.com