Stone and Sea (and sketches for sale)

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This past winter, aka summer in the southern hemisphere, I returned to New Zealand (five years after my seabird adventures there) for a four-month project called Toka Tāiko.

Sandy Bay Dunes, 6x6" Watercolor

Toka means “rock” or “boulder” in te reo Māori, and this refers to one purpose of my trip: teaching sketching to a roving band of geology students from Carleton College. Tāiko is a word for seabird. Another purpose of the trip was to help seabird scientists with seabird research on seabird islands, picking up the threads from my project five years ago.

Between these two enterprises I covered a decent amount of ground (and water) from the Tongariro Alpine Crossing to the Southern Alps to the Mercury Islands, and was fortunate to steer clear of Cyclone Gabrielle along the way. Meanwhile, I did a whole lot of sketching. Which brings me to this news:

Original artwork for sale

I’m making a bunch of the original sketches from this trip available for sale. Check out available artwork here and use the “Inquire” button alongside any piece to ask questions or let me know of your interest. (For prints, visit here.)

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Talk talk talk

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It was an alarmingly verbose week, with (a) an interview and (b) a sketching workshop during National Geographic Storytellers Summit, not to mention (c) an unrelated lecture for NYC Audubon. The interview is below.

And here’s the sketching session. For some reason the stream skipped right over the most important sketching tip (BE MESSY). Also, I feel obliged to clarify that tubenose seabirds like albatrosses, shearwaters, and storm-petrels are not all in the same taxonomic family; they are in the same order (PROCELLARIIFORMES).

Now, back to my customary limit of 10 words per day.

Ghost gallery

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Wikified

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