Robin Lee Carlson

The Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference is Just About to Start!

September 18-22, 2024

You can register to attend the workshops live online, or for a post-conference video pass.

The Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference is a welcoming, experience-packed, and incredibly inspiring annual event at which I am proud to have been an instructor since 2020.

The Conference is online over five very full days, with each day including five workshops, an evening keynote or panel, a daily poem and nature journaling challenge, and social and discussion time.

I treasure this time each year to learn from this international network of journalers, artists, writers, naturalists, and passionate observers, and to see nature through their eyes.

My workshop is on the first morning of the conference:

Wednesday, September 18, 202410:15 AM PDT

Painting Textures, Fast and Slow

A California newt crosses a dry trail on the way from its summer burrow to the stream where it will find a mate. Look closely, and its wrinkled, leathery skin tells the story of that exodus. So too the banana slug’s skin, with its finely grained patterns under a protective covering of slime, the detritus collected at the end of its tail telling the story of its trip across the forest floor.

Join Robin in an exploration of these skin textures, vital to the survival of their owners. We’ll use watercolor to experiment with two ways to approach texture: the first, applying layers slowly and carefully when there is plenty of time for close study. And the second, a fast and expressive method for noting textures when time is scarce in the field. We’ll let the lively interplay of water and pigment help us record the life histories written on the bodies of newt and slug.