Robin Lee Carlson

In this series of three workshops, we will combine drawing, painting, and natural science. The classes will weave scientific knowledge into accessible and engaging instruction, where students actively create stories in their own artwork. We will use our sketchbooks to get to know a place, slow down and get lost in the details in front of us, and build all those individual observations into a deeper understanding of the ecosystem as a whole.

You can still register to watch the recording of the first session (held in October).

And the second and third sessions are coming up:

Part 2: Virtual Field Trip, Sketchbook in Hand

Monday, November 18, 2024 – 7:00 to 8:30pm (Eastern)

$30 registration fee

Registration Link

Out in the field with a sketchbook, where to start? With sights, sounds, scenes, and species all around, it can be daunting to decide what to stop and examine closely. Join me on a virtual field trip to explore a nature reserve recently burned in a wildfire. We’ll talk about how I approached the burned landscape when I started my project, how I spent my time once I was in the field, and how I decided what to focus on and draw. We will draw examples of plant, animal, and fungus species that thrive after fire. As we go, we will experiment with different ways to record what we observe, to fit varying conditions and time constraints in the field.

Part 3: Continuing Exploring After the Field Trip

Monday, December 9, 2024 – 7:00 to 8:30pm (Eastern)

$30 registration fee

Registration Link

Back home after a hike with a sketchbook full of drawings, what comes next? Field sketches can stand on their own as documentation of what we observed. They can also be springboards into further explorations of a place or process, or invitations to more involved artworks. In the final workshop of the series, we will talk about ways to keep engaging with your field observations: ways to identify new species encountered, how to investigate questions that arose, and ideas for expanding one set of observations into a larger project. I will share examples from my wildfire sketchbooks, and lead participatory demonstrations of some of the work I have done to develop field sketches into artworks that tell a story that emerges over time.