Capture the beauty, wonder, and diversity of nature in your sketchbook. Madeline Island offers a perfect setting to explore and sketch the island’s birds and wildlife, gardens, fields, Northern forests, and waterways. This workshop focuses on multiple approaches to sketching and painting nature-related subjects with an eye toward deepening your understanding, appreciation, and connection to the places you live or visit.

Working primarily in ink and watercolor – the most portable and versatile mediums for field sketching – this workshop will help you build your artistic skills, while experimenting with different layouts, ideas for adding text, and techniques for capturing a variety of subjects in your nature journal. We’ll focus on four main approaches:

• Explorer’s Sketch – Learn to capture a sense of discovery with multiple subjects connected by a theme. This technique is ideal for nature sketching while walking along a trail, or roadside, or at the beach, sketchbook in hand.
• Field Notes – Take a deeper dive to learn the natural history of plants and wildlife with simple sketches and watercolor washes, along with notes, research, and questions.
• Poetry of Nature Sketch – A nature journal is not just about nature – it’s also about you. It’s about what you see, what fascinates you, and what you want to express. We’ll practice conveying the essence of your subject paired with a quote, poem, or short personal reflection.
• Sense of Place Sketch – Learn to use a flexible grid format to capture key elements of a particular place. This technique is especially useful when traveling or anytime you want to convey a sense of place with multiple small sketches, such as landscapes, maps, plants, wildlife, or simple color swatches and words. 

Our group will work together in a supportive environment and people at all levels of experience are welcome. Jean will work with you to expand and refine your skills and leave you feeling inspired.