A Shoutout from Kluane National Park (and other updates)

1. Creating a Narrative Painting on the Donjek Route

2. Also In the Sketchbook

3. Discovered While Sketching

4. Because of Sketching

5. Who Inspires Me

After a summer in the rainforest-cloaked mountains near Hoonah, in mid-August I went north with Ben to the Yukon Territory. We backpacked the trail-less Donjek Route in Kluane National Park. The route is named for the Dän Zhùr berries, used by the Southern Tutchone peoples as decorations on beaded work. The highlight is the Donjek Glacier, which rumbles its calving ice into the muddy Donjek River.

It’s an ambitious loop that required carrying 10 days worth of food and what is frequently a very dicey glacial river crossing. It represented another milestone for me in my decades-long recovery from a foot injury. Could I handle my anxiety over the possibly waist-deep river crossing? Could I carry the amount of weight needed? Yes and yes!

Rather than a sketchbook, I used a folded half sheet of Fabriano cold press watercolor paper. I roughed in a loose pencil line curving around the paper in approximation of the route. Then I sketched a continuous series of vignettes along the line, directly in pen or watercolor.

Here’s the final product, ten days later. Note the supplies used in the upper right corner, the campsite labels along the way.

The picture is neither to scale nor entirely geographically accurate (though we did travel right to left assuming that south is up.) But it fully captures what stood out to me at the random intervals provided by snack breaks.

Also In the Sketchbook (actually, additional 5x7 sheets of paper)

While in the Yukon, I also explored split complementary palettes which I learned about in Eleanor Doughty’s Stylized Landscapes course last fall.

Discovered While Sketching

Since returning to Hoonah, I have begun my annual 5-month-ish contract at Hoonah City Schools: for 30 hours a month of art integration. This year, I’m teaching nature journaling to elementary students, watercolor to a combined 9th and 11/12 class, sketch noting in middle school science, and field sketching and poster planning in a dual-credit oceanography class. I’m reviewing a lot of basic techniques to get ready for the sessions — always good to do — especially under the pressure of time constraints which makes me much more efficient.

Because of Sketching

And I have been floundering a lot — oops, experiencing abundant personal growth opportunities — by learning new tech for processing my artwork for sale. At the University of YouTube, the creators of tutorials always say: “work smarter, not harder.” But I just have to work hard and hope for the smartness in some future where applications don’t keep updating, thus requiring new learning — aka a new search on YouTube.

Who Inspires Me Currently

Beverly Duncan, illustrator of The Milkweed Lands (Storey Publishing, 2023), created delicate pen and watercolor images documenting the life cycle and history of the milkweed.

Written by etymologist Eric Lee-Mäder, the book engrossed me with its “all about the milkweed and its world” approach. What I had thought was just an ugly weed is actually a fascinating and beautiful plant critical to monarch butterflies. Thanks @rosaliehaizlett for recommending this book in The Nature Art Book Club on Substack.

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