Adventures at Wilder Farm

Next summer I’ll be teaching a three day field seminar at Yellowstone National Park! I’m so excited!! Not only do I get to go back to a place I love, but I’ll get to share a subject I’m passionate about — seeing nature through the eyes of an artist. The seminar will combine exploration of the park  with on-location watercolor painting as we follow in the footsteps of Thomas Moran, William Jackson, Ferdinand Hayden and the 1871 Hayden expedition. The workshop is offered through the non-profit Yellowstone Association Institute. Just staying at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch should be a treat, but exploring and sharing with others the sights of Yellowstone during the summer will be a blast!

Here’s the description of my field seminar:

Explore Yellowstone through the eyes of an artist. Thomas Moran’s field sketches from the 1871 Hayden Expedition played a vital role in the preservation of the park. View the paintings of Moran and other early explorers at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, and follow in their footsteps as you discover the pleasure of plein-air (open air) painting with watercolors. Through daily painting excursions, nightly lectures, and painting demonstrations, you’ll explore and learn the art history of Yellowstone. Enjoy three days of on-location painting that includes demonstrations, critiques and encouragement from your artist instructor. You may even get the opportunity to paint some of the same locations made famous by Moran.

If you’re interested in attending, please contact the Yellowstone Association Institute. All levels of painters are welcome!

Field Seminar: Moran Watercolor, August 10-13, 2010

Location: Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Yellowstone National Park

And here’s a video clip from the Yellowstone Association.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tD3Wcy2EnE[/youtube]

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Yellowstone Moran was a really exciting book for me to create. My parents are wildlife photographers and I grew up spending long hours sitting still in wildlife blinds, waiting for animals to show up. It was often cold, bum-numbing, and with mosquitoes so thick it could drive a person mad. We had to sit very quietly while we watched. Not having a camera myself, I often carried a sketchbook and wrote and drew about the animals we saw.

As I grew older I dreamed of being an artist explorer, like Thomas Moran, exploring the wilderness and painting it. Eventually I became a landscape painter, toting a French easel and a backpack full of canvases as I traveled to places to paint. The experiences made me respect what Moran had set out to do with his art even more- preserve the natural beauty of the land by painting it and convincing others it should be protected. I knew I wanted to write his story, how he played a vital role in the creation of our first national park.

Creating the art for this book was a challenge. How to capture spouting geysers, huge landscapes, and men and horses climbing over fallen timber. I had never painted horses before this book. But I found a rancher kind enough to take me out on horseback so we could explore land Moran had traveled. Both the rancher and my husband, Dave posed as models in the book.

My favorite part creating the illustrations for the book was capturing the natural beauty of the land. I drew form the experience I had as a landscape painter. Though I now use watercolors instead of oils, the principles are the same, and it was a joy to pull out the field easel again and paint on location throughout the Yellowstone.

Here are a few of the paintings I did before I created children’s books, when when my focus as an artist was to paint on location. I often combined my painting travels with trips to Europe to study art in museums. The experiences I gained painting from life, on location were vital to my creating this book.

Brittany, France

Venice

Thanksgiving in New Hampshire

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I just got back from ALA, and it was fantastic! It was not only my first time at ALA, but an extra special year since our friend and neighbor, Beth Krommes received the Caldecott medal for her book The House in the Night.

My conference began with my participation in the panel discussion — Inspiring Young Citizens: The Library as a Forum for Engagement. It was a great morning. We’re thankful to all those who attended and contributed to the discussion. I was honored to speak with my fellow panel members: authors Anne Sibley O’Brien and Phillip Hoose, librarian, Kelley McDaniel and children’s book advocate, Kirsten Cappy . Please refer to this link if you’d like to learn more about the discussion.

I then zipped over to the Penguin/Viking booth to sign the first F&G copies of my book Yellowstone Moran!

How exciting to have this book soon to be released (September). I’ve literally been working on this idea since I was 4 years old, when I first saw and fell in love with Yellowstone National Park. Over the years, I returned dozens and dozens of times, photographing wildlife with my parents and plein-air painting when I was a landscape painter. All together, I’ve spent over a year’s worth of nights camping and exploring the region, so the release of this book is an extra special moment for me.

My conference continued with a signing at the Disney-Hyperion booth, celebrating the fact that Pennies for Elephants was just released a few weeks ago. Then I rushed back to the hotel to change for the Caldecott banquet. What a thrill to hear Beth accept her award, as well as Neil Gaiman and Ashley Bryan!

I’m savoring the experience now and for the next couple of days before heading out again, this time to the MD/DE/VW SCBWI conference at McDaniel College, where I’ll be speaking with my editor of One Thousand Tracings and Pennies for Elephants, Namrata Tripathi. It’s been a busy summer, and I apologize for not writing more “process” entries lately. But quiet days at the easel will soon return and I’ll share work on the current book!

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We got the news the same day my lovely editor, Kendra, sent me the first F&Gs! This is a story I’ve wanted to do since I was 4 years old so I’m really excited to know that JLG liked the book. Yellowstone Moran will be a September 2009 release with Viking.

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I am still on cloud nine after my school visit at Gilbert H Hood in Derry, NH! Thank you to all the students, teachers and especially Kathy Lane, for welcoming me to their school and making it such an incredible day. Thank you also for the wonderful letters on foot tracings that several students gave me. I loved our lunchtime conversation about writing and am still thinking about many of the questions and comments that were posed during that time. I’ve been working so hard on my current book, and a day with motivated, bright students really got me reenergized about writing and illustrating.

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Continuing the discussion on developing characters in my picture books, I wanted to mention the importance of secondary characters. All characters that appear in my stories are important, even if they aren’t the main characters of the story. I gather reference, do complete sketches, and then do color studies for these minor characters. Sometimes they only appear once in the book. But their role is crucial. They must have the same sense of life—the same uniqueness—as the main characters.

Here is a short series, sketches to final art, of five figures (including the dogs) who appear in “Pennies for Elephants.”

The role of the husband and wife, the “Snooty Couple”, is to ignore the little paper boy. Their gestures and clothes wordlessly portray people who aren’t interested in what the little boy is saying. Even their dog can’t be bothered to notice the paper boy’s dog. These characters add some humor. And even though they have no dialog, they convey meaning just by their attitude.

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