Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamp 2024 Recap

We have just returned from four days in magical Aravaipa Canyon for the 2024 Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamp. Twenty three of us explored the creek, the canyons, and observed and recorded dozens of species of birds, many reptiles, and some fun mammals. We sketched the night skies, made plaster casts of coatimundi tracks, sketched a mountain lion track, enjoyed the use of superb field optics from Swarovski Optik which helped us watch baby bighorn sheep nursing on the cliffs above the ranch house. Below are images of all the activities and some of the species we enjoyed. We hope you can join us for a future Bootcamp in the Sonoran Desert or elsewhere.

The group photo.

The silly group photo.

Around the World in 80 Animals – No. 4, Africa, Part 1

Thank you so much to those of you who joined me for the fourth workshop in my second series “Around the World in 80 Animals”—what a CHALLENGING collection of creatures! Whew!

If you missed it, I’ve got the recording and resources page ready on my Nature Journal Academy > HERE < with recording, web links, downloads, image resource, images of attendees’ pages, and my demo pages.

Wild Colors Workshop – In-person, Arizona

Join me May 4, 2024 in central Arizona for Wild Colors of the Verde River: Learn to create paint and ink from wild pigments and plants, hosted by the Natural History Institute in Prescott.

You will learn how to find the right soil and plants, how to easily process them into paints and/or ink, safety tips, and more. Arizona’s Central Highlands are famous for their red soils, and we’ll work from pigments you gather, or that we provide from local foraging expeditions, we’ll do ahead of time to ensure we have enough material for everyone. We’ll also explore plants along the Verde River, and learn how to create botanical inks. For the last hour of workshop, we’ll create sketches of the landscape, plants, and wildlife of the Upper Verde using our new paint and ink—truly place-based art. Participants will take home sample paints and inks. Bring your own lunch and sketchbook, and don’t forget your binoculars.

DETAILS:

Cost: $75 (van transportation Included)

Time: Depart from Prescott, AZ, at the Natural History Institute at 8:00am and return 5:00pm

Difficulty: Easy (0.5 - 1 mile of walking) We will be stationed at the Rio Verde Ranch, which is a short 1/4-mile walk from the van parking. The day will be spent in one location, with options to explore the Verde River and forage for pigment materials.

Food and Water: Bring your own lunch, water, and snacks for a full-day excursion.

On Thursday, May 2, at 7 pm I’ll be giving a talk at the Natural History Institute in Prescott on the Art of Exploration: How field sketching and journaling bridge science, conservation, and well-being. Registration is required, but it is free. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-of-exploration-a-talk-with-roseann-hanson-tickets-873426049827?aff=oddtdtcreator

Meet the Minimalist Paint Set

I sell the Minimalist Paint Set on its own and as part of a full kit with a palette-holder and more.

When I was trying to learn watercolor ten years ago, I became very frustrated because I dove deep into a huge palette of colors (24!) that I knew nothing about. I tried several online classes, but none covered the basics of paint and one confused me hugely by breezing through quick descriptions of setting up your palette as either “analogous,” “complementary,” or “split-complementary” as though I would know what these were. All just gave students a list of paints to buy, focusing on techniques rather than paint characteristics and behavior.

I ended up with a confusing palette comprising multiple yellows, lots of blues, myriad reds, pre-mixed greens, bunches of earth colors, and many exotics (turquoise! those electric pthalos!).

The frustration of making weird colors, lots of “mud,” and no progress took the joy out of journaling for me, and made me back off sketching and adding color for several years.

Thankfully I persevered and through a lot of research finally found Jane Blundell, an Australian artist and color wizard whose blog posts unveiled the mysteries of watercolor: the fact they come in transparent and opaque consistency, warm tones and cool tones, and can be lifting or staining. And best of all, she introduced the concept of triad painting and busted the myth that the three primary colors are red, blue, and yellow.

After a lot of experimentation I came away with a simple palette of just five colors, the core of which is a true primary triad comprising a cyan, a magenta, and a yellow. Red and blue are not primary colors, even though that’s still widely taught; primaries are the colors from which you build all other colors. You can make a red (yellow + magenta) but you can’t make a magenta, for example. You can’t make a true cyan, nor a yellow. Cyan is a very specific bright blue-green. If you have ever heard of full-color process printing referred to as “CMYK” printing, that’s cyan-magenta-yellow-black. All printed colors come from just those primaries plus black.

I ended up choosing Daniel Smith Manganese Blue Hue as my cyan, Quinacridone Rose as my magenta, and Aureolin Yellow (Cerulean works as a cyan but it’s not as bright). These are bright, nearly neutral (veering toward cool), and transparent colors that mix easily to form vibrant, beautiful secondary colors (green, orange, purple) and tertiary colors (red, turquoise, maroon and so forth, see the chart below). Mix your cyan, magenta, and yellow together and you get a gorgeous brown.

With a little more experimenting I decided to add a very dark, very “warm” blue called Indanthrone to the palette, along with burnt sienna. These bonus colors are the key to a very versatile little set of paints. Burnt sienna mixed with the dark blue creates an instant rich black and a full array of grays, from steely to warm and earthy. The warm blue added to yellow gives you perfect pine-green; adding it to the other colors will result in changing a “cool” color to a “warmed” color.

Burnt sienna on its own is perfect for landscapes or add a tiny bit of it to your yellow and it creates that tawny dormant-grass color that is so common in landscapes. Add a little to magenta and you get an adobe rose that is perfect for sandstone. See the second chart below for the full array of colors using the Minimalist set. Thanks to Bethan Burton in Australia (International Nature Journaling Week), I learned that you can “mute” your brighter colors by adding its opposite on the color wheel. The muted and warmed oranges and yellows are perfect quick-substitutes for some of the ochres.

I hope this article helps you if you are feeling overwhelmed by watercolor and so many choices, or you just feel you are carrying too much stuff. I’ve included a video link below to show the process of mixing if you have not done so before.

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Minimalist Paint Kit
$63.00
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Minimalist Paint Tins - 2 sizes, with or without paint samples
from $14.00

Introduction to Nature Journaling — Arizona class

Introduction to Nature Journaling at the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve, Arizona, at the Amerind Foundation with Instructor Roseann Hanson

  • Saturday, April 20, 2024

  • 9:00 am – 3:30 pm

  • $75 non-members (link below to register)

  • $70 Members (please call to register)

  • Day long workshop Includes:

  • Lunch

  • a copy of the workbook, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life-a $35 value, free passes to the Amerind

Keeping a nature journal can both deepen our connections to the natural world and help us learn more about it. Neither science education nor art training is needed—we will develop the skills of a naturalist and a field sketch-artist along the way.

This workshop will introduce the tools and processes of keeping a nature journal with instructor Roseann Hanson, author of Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, Master of Field Arts, and the Southern Arizona Nature Almanac.

We will learn how to practice “intentional curiosity” as the core of nature journaling: to ask questions, to dig deeper into science, to focus our minds both intently and intentionally. The workshop will include:

• The nuts-and-bolts of journal-keeping (paper and ink types, archival systems, how to make entries that you can refer to later, laying out pages, prompts to jump-start observations, and tips on researching science questions sparked by your observations).

• Easy tips that enable anyone to get started sketching and painting. Roseann will help free you from your inner critic and start sketching and painting. Art in a nature journal is not only lovely to see, but an important component of your skillset because the very act of drawing and painting something from life involves incredibly intense observation. Your brain is wholly occupied by only that thing you are observing and drawing—it is a kind of meditation that results in new insights, deeper understanding, and discoveries.

• A short classroom session and, weather permitting, we will spend most of the time exploring the grounds and trails around Amerind and practicing our journaling skills. (Please wear suitable footwear and outdoor clothing.)

• A copy of the workbook, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, which includes blank journal pages — a $35 value. All you need is a pen or pencil and your curiosity about nature.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

Space is limited, please register early!

Members please call Maggie Ohnesorgen at 520-686-1336 or mohnesorgen@amerind.org to register/reserve your spot.

Non-members may also call or register at Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/amerindnaturejournaling04202024

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About the instructor: Roseann Hanson is a naturalist, artist, and explorer who has been keeping science-based nature and field notes journals for 40 years. She is one of the organizers of the Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference, and is the author of the popular books Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, and Master of Field Arts. She studied journalism and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, and has worked in the American Southwest, Mexico, and East Africa as a conservationist, naturalist, and writer. She has authored a dozen natural history and outdoor books, including the Southern Arizona Nature Almanac with her husband Jonathan Hanson, and San Pedro River: A Discovery Guide, both of which include her nature journal data and art. She was the coordinator for the trans-disciplinary Art & Science Program at the 115-year-old Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, part of the University of Arizona College of Science. She teaches nature writing, nature journaling, and field notes for biologists. She was named a Fellow of both the Explorers Club in the U.S. and the Royal Geographical Society for her conservation and expedition work.

Drawing to Learn — Two-day class online

We can all draw.

None of us is born “talented” or “not talented.” It is a skill that we learn.

And here’s an interesting fact: our brains love to learn, so much so that the more you push your brain to learn a new skill, the more neural pathways develop. So you get better not only at what you are learning, but at many other mental skills. You get smarter!

I like to say that learning a skill such as drawing is like learning a language. You are not born knowing how to talk. You learn it.

This course is going to teach you the words and grammar you need for the language of drawing, and we are going to use a technique that is proven to work:

We will DRAW TO LEARN, not learn to draw!

This two-day, five-part course Drawing to Learn with Roseann Hanson includes:

Lesson 1 - Study Your Subject

  • Learn how to intensely observe a subject in order to collect the “words” you need for your drawing language.


Lesson 2 - Make Marks

  • Practice those new words by making marks that represent your subject—this is a critical building block in unleashing the power of your drawing language.

Lesson 3 - Find Shapes

  • This exercise is critical for beginning to learn the “grammar” of your subject in order to get the context right.

Lesson 4 - Create Your Study Sketch

  • You will learn how to get proportions right—proportion is like the advanced grammar in this langauge of drawing;

  • You will learn to dip into your Marks to add characteristics to your subject, and check the shapes.

Lesson 5 - Dive into Details

  • Our final lesson brings us back to the study notes in Step 1, coming full circle to finish up our process of Drawing to Learn.

 
 
 
Class - June 2024 - Drawing to Learn
Class - June 2024 - Drawing to Learn
$75.00
Quantity:
Add To Cart
 

Live, online course: $75

two days:

JUNE 1 and JUNE 8, 2024
9 am – 12 Pm Arizona time

As you move through the lessons, I will encourage you to use our private Field Arts Community forum to post your sketches and ask questions—I will be on the Community nearly daily to help you and provide encouragement!

Around the World in 80 Animals No. 4 – Africa, Part 1 [FREE WORKSHOP]

You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Based on my series Around the World in 80 Trees (in which we spent a year traveling around the globe by region and sketching interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants), this is a new series based on animals—we’ll travel the world and learn as much natural history as we can, plus master the art of quickly sketching birds, mammals, monotremes, and more!

No. 4: Africa, Part 1

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet to sketch each animal, pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side). Hint: for animals go with larger squares, at least 4-5 inches.

When: Saturday, March 30, 2024 at 9 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE >>

Recorded: Yes, I’ll record and post here: You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Around the World in 80 Animals No. 5 – Africa, Part 2 [FREE WORKSHOP]

You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Based on my series Around the World in 80 Trees (in which we spent a year traveling around the globe by region and sketching interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants), this is a new series based on animals—we’ll travel the world and learn as much natural history as we can, plus master the art of quickly sketching birds, mammals, monotremes, and more!

No. 5: Africa, Part 2

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet to sketch each animal, pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side). Hint: for animals go with larger squares, at least 4-5 inches.

When: Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 9 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE >>

Recorded: Yes, I’ll record and post here: You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Journaling Aravaipa Canyon

During our writing workshop at southern Arizona’s Aravaipa Canyon Ranch last week I was able to take time out to journal while our participants were off doing their writing assignments.

It’s always a challenge to sketch the expanse of red-rock cliffs that frame the northern canyon—the temptation is to try to depict every rock spire, striation, and cactus. But keeping it loose and suggestive, rather than a photo-realistic drawing, seems to be the best for a journal page.

Bird migration was just starting, and we had some hummingbird action at the desert honeysuckle (forgot to bring the bird feeders!).

A sweet bonus: lots of Sara orange-tip butterflies bouncing around—these are classic Sonoran Desert spring harbingers.

The first two nights were cloudy but on the final night we enjoyed viewing Jupiter, and then early next morning a waning gibbous moon to the west.

Depicting night skies in our journals is hard—it’s tempting to lay down a very black background, but I find a very dark blue (with a tiny bit of purple) works better, and if you can succeed with a dry-brush to leave a little bit of white bits for stars, even better. If not, a Uniball white gel pen works wonders, as does white gouache for the moon.

Art of Exploration — Writing Workshop Report

We are just back from teaching a four-day writing workshop in southern Arizona at Aravaipa Canyon Ranch. The group was just perfect—small enough that everyone got plenty of time with us if they wanted input, and diverse enough to really expand our views through the gift of seeing the world from different perspectives.

The weather was also perfect for writing—rain, a blessing in the desert, to freshen things up, interpersed with beautiful inter-storm sunrises and sunsets. Spring was just making its appearance, the cottonwoods gaining green by the day, migrating warblers flitting through, Sara orange-tip butterflies bouncing all over, and cardinals starting their territory songs.

One of the ranch’s mousers, a big fluffy Maine coon cat, adopted us and became the subject of one hilarious short story. And thanks to Oracle Patio Cafe, the food was plentiful and delicious.

The writing was outstanding, and we enjoyed working with everyone on meeting their goals and expanding their skills. We will be offering this workshop again, so keep your eye on our events and workshops pages for an announcement.

Incorporating a Linear Strip Map into Your Journal

Strip maps are a very old way to depict a journey—appearing in the Great Britain in the 1600s as guides for travelers, especially pilgrims. Here’s a video tour of my journal pages from our nearly 4,000-mile journey from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Tucson, Arizona (hauling a cargo trailer with our truck, in deep winter!). I continued the strip-style map across pages, sometimes “jumping” pages with a little dotted line if I knew the route was going to change cardinal directions and I couldn’t keep going across a spread.

It's actually pretty quick, and an easy way to do more with less time on a long or busy journey. Deciding what little icons to draw is particularly fun!

About the journey: We left Fairbanks in early February and were blessed with perfect weather and made great time and experienced extreme temperature spans (minus 40 degrees F in Fairbanks to 64 degrees F in Tucson). Still processing the epic journey, the feelings of missing Alaska but starting something new (though we’ll continue to visit, we are selling our place in Fairbanks . . . for good reasons, soon to be announced!).

Enjoy some video and image highlights below.

Video Highlights — Fairbanks to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Dawson Creek to Tucson

Around the World in 80 Animals No. 3 – South America [FREE WORKSHOP]

You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Based on my series Around the World in 80 Trees (in which we spent a year traveling around the globe by region and sketching interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants), this is a new series based on animals—we’ll travel the world and learn as much natural history as we can, plus master the art of quickly sketching birds, mammals, monotremes, and more!

No. 3: South America

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet to sketch each animal, pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side). Hint: for animals go with larger squares, at least 4-5 inches.

When: Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 10:30 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE >> https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcu6orT8oGNIZum-J8EM3GfyPhUNrdRBv

Recorded: Yes, I’ll record and post here: You can find all recorded sessions for past “Around the World” workshops here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/academy#aroundworldseries

Winter Captures

The last few weeks I have been live-capturing snowflakes using my Perspex Palette and black paper (hint: if you try it, make sure to pre-freeze the paper and plastic!). I used the macro-zoom on my iPhone 15 Pro to then do a video survey of these frozen wonders. I decided to start a snowflake guide in my journal—I’ll be adding new shapes as I capture them at different temperatures and humidities, which creates different morphologies. If it gets super cold (minus 20F or more) I hope to capture some cones and rods!

Around the World in 80 Animals No. 2 – North America part two [FREE WORKSHOP]

Based on my series Around the World in 80 Trees (in which we spent a year traveling around the globe by region and sketching interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants), this is a new series based on animals—we’ll travel the world and learn as much natural history as we can, plus master the art of quickly sketching birds, mammals, monotremes, and more!

No. 2: North America part 2– Continental US and Mexico

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet to sketch each animal (see the versions I did for the other sessions, links below), pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side). Hint: for animals go with larger squares, at least 4-5 inches.

When: Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 10:30 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE <.

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NEW - Field Arts Bootcamp at Ghost Ranch in NM

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Casa del Sol, our private lodge in the backcountry of the famous Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keeffe did much of her work.

Join us October 20-23, 2024 in New Mexico’s legendary Georgia O’Keefe country, at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu for four days and three nights of pure immersion in field arts: nature journaling, field sketching and watercolor, animal tracking, birdwatching, reading the weather, using field optics, found pigments and inks, and much more.

Imagine the luxury of doing nothing but exploring wild nature and journaling in a cohort of like-minded fellow journalers . . . and with customized one-on-one feedback and skills-specific tutoring throughout the whole experience.

The Field Arts Boot Camp is suitable for beginners to advanced journalers, as your Boot Camp experience is tailored to your appropriate level. Nurturing, inquisitive, and expansive.

No excuses. Just pure nature journaling growth and mindset.

What’s included:

  • One-on-one attention in areas in which you would like to improve;

  • Skills-specific mini-tutorials in field arts such as sketching, watercolor, nature writing, animal tracking, reading the weather, and using optics;

  • Accommodations in at the legendary Ghost Ranch in the remote and private Casa del Sol lodge, with four different pricing options;

  • Shuttle from Albuquerque, NM, to and from the ranch, departing at 8:00 am October 20 (Sunday) and returning late October 23 (Wednesday)—we will have suggested lodging options in Albuquerque near the airport;

  • Wine, beer, and other beverages and snacks happy hour each evening;

  • All meals from lunch on Sunday through lunch on Wednesday;

  • Use of Swarovski Optics binoculars throughout the Bootcamp.

Pricing from $895 per person for camping option.



Holiday preview—some very special offerings soon

I’m so excited about these special holiday offerings that I wanted to give you a heads-up so you can plan your gift navigation (for yourself and your field arts buddies!). These are all in the works and on the way (including from Italy), in stock by around the 10th of December. Limited numbers of all, and they are worth it!

Italian Rosewood Palette with Travel Brushes and Paints

I’m thrilled to be stocking a limited number of these gorgeous Tintoretto rosewood palettes directly from Italy, where they are made. Clever design houses nine paint pans and a mixing tray on one side with a hole in which to set a brush upright, and on the flip side, a storage compartment for three travel paintbrushes. I’ll also stock two models of Tintoretto travel brushes, a larger squirrel mop and a small synthetic detail brush.

Priced from $125 for the palettes (without paints), and brushes will start at $30.

 

Century-old Brass Drawing Compasses

Most of you probably know I love vintage art tools, and was so chuffed (an Englishism) to find a stash of these beautifully machined British drawing compasses, many with their original Staedler Noris pencils. Helix invented this clever little tool in 1894 and by the 1920s and well through the 1970s most British school kids had one (friends confirm this).

Priced from $18 (based on age, condition). Only six available. (These are selling on eBay and Etsy for anywhere from $18 to $116!)

 

Creative Skies Kit

A complete field arts set to create beautiful daytime and nighttime skies in your journal. Included is a tin with a spray bottle for refreshing paint in pans; six sky-perfect watercolors in pans and a white gouache in a tiny lidded container (to keep it it moist and ready to go; I found that pan-dried gouache does not cover as well as fresh); a white colored pencil; a white Signo gel pen (the best one out there!); and several pages of black art paper cut in the round so you can make a little night sky round journal. I even will include some black waxed linen thread to sew it up if you like; or, paste single pages in your exiting journal. $52, limited edition.

 

Free Folding Field Arts Knife with Purchase of Any Two Items

BONUS! Pre-Christmas orders only: Buy any two items from our shop and you will receive a beautiful Opinel folding field knife engraved with the Field Arts logo. This classic French knife is perfect for sharpening your pencils, trimming a quill to make a pen, or slicing cheese and charcuterie for a picnic lunch while you work in your field journal.

Around the World in 80 Animals No. 1 – North America part one [FREE WORKSHOP]

Based on my series Around the World in 80 Trees (in which we spent a year traveling around the globe by region and sketching interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants), this is a new series based on animals—we’ll travel the world and learn as much natural history as we can, plus master the art of quickly sketching birds, mammals, monotremes, and more!

No. 1: North America part 1 – Alaska and Canada

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet to sketch each animal (see the versions I did for the other sessions, links below), pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side).

When: Saturday, December 2, 2023 at 9:30 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE <.

Field report from the United Kingdom

We are recently returned from a month-long working tour of the UK—three field arts workshops, a morning exploring the Northumberland countryside by sidecar motorcycle, quality time with friends in Scotland and central and southern England, a visit to two of the most iconic human-built structures in Europe, and ending with a week in London where we presented at the Royal Geographical Society’s 47th annual Explore Symposium.

Every visit, adventure, and workshop was outstanding, but I’ll start with the latter events because they are freshest in my mind and also have some exciting future outcomes for us.

We have been attending Explore since 2017 and always enjoy the weekend of presentations, workshops, and networking for those of us who undertake field expeditions for science, exploration, and conservation. Jonathan and I have presented in our fields of overland vehicle travel, working with conservation organizations, funding projects, and art-science connections.

But this year was markedly different—the dynamic was considerably notched up in terms of diversity of the attendees and presenters, and in the energy that buzzed all around. In our first years at the event the attendees were primarily upper middle class white males, from college age on up. This year fully half if not more of the attendees and presenters were women, and there were many more people of non-white ancestry. And everyone I spoke with had an exciting research or exploration project, all with an aim to make a difference in the world through science, knowledge, and communication. It was incredibly uplifting.

For the first time I also taught a half-day workshop on field sketching and nature journaling as part of the pre-weekend event schedule, and I organized and co-hosted an Art of Exploration panel with esteemed fellow practitioners Alex Boon, Tony Foster, Ali Foxon, and Rob Fraser. We redefined what is exploration (from the broadly geographical and scientific, to the very personal and fractal, such as learning and recording everything you can about your own backyard), discussed the damage digital life can do to our health and the benefits of nature time, and in particular field sketching and journaling. Watch this space as we work on broadening our panel into a larger collective whose mission will be to expand interest in field sketching, journaling, and art in the service of geographical knowledge and human health.

Other highlights are a visit to coastal Scotland, then a quick stop on the North Sea at the mouth of the Tyne River, including a lovely run on the beach at dawn, which I tried to capture in my journal. Outside Hastings along the coast, I taught a free nature journaling mini workshop and met 8-year-old Lily, the most wonderful young explorer, naturalist, and nature journaler. That was a huge highlight.

West to Devon, I joined Alex Boon in co-teaching a Wild Colours workshop at his Nature Journaling Centre at Umborne Bridge Studio, Colyton. We cooked up wild plant inks (weeping willow, horsetail, walnut, blackberry), foraged for red ochre and greensand at Seaton beach, and tested all the colours with different additives. It was a fun, full day with great people, and now I'm fully obsessed with making inks from plants, thanks to Alex. I had done a little, but after seeing his journals with how he uses them, I am definitely doing more!

A bonus was that one of our attendees brought samples of North Devon's famous Bideford black pigment—it's a form of coal, and has been used as a colorant for paint, tires, boats, rubber tarps, and even mascara!

Other fun highlights included visits to Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. Within 20 minutes of each other geographically and thousands of years temporally, these are two of the world’s most moving examples of human capacity to imagine and engineer symbolic works. What struck me particularly is that they are actually separated by a relatively short span of years (Stonehenge was built in the late Neolithic period, about 2500 BC, and Salisbury Cathedral was built between 1220 to 1320).

We also had drinks at the famous Cafe Royal, once the haunt of the Zerzura Club, a collection deep desert experts who wanted to find the lost city of Zerzura. Now renovated and no longer a restaurant, but a lovely little bar still providing the perfect spot for some North Africa expedition planning with friend Graham Jackson.

And finally we had a blast bombing around the Northumberland countryside on a Ural sidecar motorcycle rig courtesy Matt and Reece, the Sidecar Guys at their Sidecar Experience Center. Urals are a blast to drive, definitely nothing refined about it (my arms ached for several days from wrestling the rig in the muddy ruts), and a bit crazy when going over 30 mph on tarmac, but we are hooked now!

Field Arts Bootcamp – Sonoran Desert – April 12–15, 2024 - Registration open

Southern Arizona in spring is magical—and southern Arizona in spring at a private ranch alongside a perennial river and a mythical wilderness is the best ever—and a rare opportunity not to be missed.

This Bootcamp, one of our most popular, will be four days of pure immersion in field arts: nature journaling, field sketching and watercolor, animal tracking, birdwatching, reading the weather, using field optics, found pigments and inks, and much more.

The setting is a private ranch along Aravaipa Creek about 90 minutes north of Tucson, Arizona. These are ancestral lands of the Apache people, who used the fertile riverside valley for seasonal crops.

Your accommodations are comfortable but not high luxury—think 1970s big ranch house set in a grassy meadow, with a burbling creek running alongside; meals will be included.

A camping option is available if you have your own vehicle and camp setup; there is a modern bathroom for campers.

We’ll be able to host up to 21 participants because of the camping option, and there will be two instructors—Roseann & Jonathan Hanson, and another naturalist (TBD).

Four-wheel-drive is not needed to get into the site (the main road in is graded dirt), but there is a river crossing that is usually fine. We can’t accommodate Class-A motorhomes, but possibly smaller Class-B, and definitely vans and trucks pulling small trailers. Please contact us first if you have a vehicle larger than these described.

Imagine the luxury of doing nothing but exploring wild nature and journaling in a cohort of like-minded fellow journalers . . . and with customized one-on-one feedback and skills-specific tutoring throughout the whole experience.

The Field Arts Boot Camp is suitable for beginners to advanced journalers, as your Boot Camp experience is tailored to your appropriate level. Nurturing, inquisitive, and expansive.

No excuses. Just pure nature journaling growth and mindset.

For a recap with photos and journal images of the 2023 Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamps, see HERE.

Priced per person from $695 – April 12–15, 2024 —

New Art of Exploration Series — Writing Workshop – Feb 26–29, 2024 – Registration open

Our new Art of Exploration Series of workshops is for adventurers, overlanders, and travelers who love to explore the world—near and far—and record their experiences and observations through words, photographs, and / or art.

February 26 – 29, 2024 join Jonathan and Roseann Hanson for our Writing Workshop in the beautiful Sonoran Desert north of Tucson, Arizona.

This unique workshop is for anyone who wants to improve their writing—non-fiction travel and adventure, long or short-form fiction, journaling, technical, or scientific—with two award-winning authors and editors with over 40 years of experience in those fields.

The workshop will include:

  • Daily instruction in specific writing skills as well as hints and tips for the business of writing for those who want to go freelance;

  • Daily writing assignments focused on building skills and creating fluency in new forms of writing—even if you are a science writer you will benefit from pushing your “artistic” writing, or if you are a creative writer you will likewise benefit from stretching your science or technical skills;

  • Daily feedback from the instructors;

  • Sharing work with others.

  • Accommodation (ranch house or camping) and meals from lunch on the 26th through lunch on the 29th)

Southern Arizona in spring is magical—and southern Arizona in spring at a private ranch alongside a perennial river and a mythical wilderness is the best ever—and a rare opportunity not to be missed.

We hope you can join us, space is limited and will fill quickly! Priced from $695 per person; February 26–29, 2024 —