We hosted Alison Watt aboard one of our Desolation Sound Cruising Tours and luxuriated in five relaxing, unhurried days of illustrating, painting, and journaling.
We were pleased to have Alison Watt, author and illustrator of “The Last Island,” join us for 2011. Her focus for this painting tour was “Keeping An Illustrated Journal.”
An illustrated journal was a wonderful way to keep a record of day-to-day life as well as travel. A quick illustration could capture a memory in a unique way. During the five days aboard Columbia III, we reviewed materials (journals, watercolours, pencil crayons, pens) and techniques (basic watercolour and pen and ink). We learned how to simplify a scene to make a quick sketch, using some basic rules of composition, and reviewed specific techniques of landscape painting. There was an emphasis on deciding what to leave out/put into quick and satisfying field drawings for your journals and how to use these sketches to create larger paintings. Using demonstrations and exercises, we went over our fieldwork and discussed the special challenges of coastal landscape: greens, water, sky and clouds, rock, and forest. Finally, we explored creative ideas to get you started on your own illustrated journal. Paper, pencil crayons, and pens were provided. Each student also received a custom-bound journal. A materials list was provided on registration.
Desolation Sound, with its dramatic mountain landscape and serene, calm anchorages was the perfect coastal setting for a tour devoted to painting and journaling. Weather permitting – and June was usually excellent – we visited Mitlenatch Island, a stunning jewel in the Strait of Georgia. Each day also included painting or sketching outdoors, shore excursions, savory wholesome meals, and camaraderie around the galley table over a glass of wine. With its small group of seven participants, the Columbia III traveled each day to a new location within this spectacular area. The one-to-one guidance made those five days a unique and valuable experience for those wishing to expand their artistic horizons. The trip was open to beginners and experienced painters alike.
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About the Artist:
Alison Watt: Artist, Poet, Author, Naturalist, Teacher
Alison Watt is a naturalist, artist, and writer who lives with her husband Kim on Protection Island near Nanaimo B.C., where they have raised two children, Lindsay and Sophie.
Alison grew up in Victoria B.C., studied biology at Simon Fraser University and botany at the University of British Columbia. She has worked as Education Coordinator at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, a tour leader in Central and South America, and a naturalist aboard west coast vessels, traveling among B.C.’s Gulf Islands, Haida Gwaii, the Great Bear Rainforest, and Alaska.
Alison’s background informs both her painting and writing. Watercolours and acrylics draw on images from nature. Her non-fiction book, set on a remote seabird colony, is a moving memoir about life and death in the human and natural world. In her poems, scenes of ordinary life unfold in a backdrop of light cycles, tides, and weather, and attempt to capture the lyricism of the processes of nature. Some are set in an Amazon Research station and explore taxonomy and diversity. In others, she moves past nature as a backdrop to delve more deeply into its inner, often invisible workings (photosynthesis, pollination…) to release them from the language of science.
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A Naturalist’s Sojourn on Triangle Island
by Alison Watt
Filled with adventures and revelations and illustrated with delightful watercolour paintings, The Last Island is a beautifully written testament to the environment, friendship, and the endurance of the human spirit.
At twenty-three, Alison Watt left the comfort of a relationship and urban life to spend four months studying tufted puffins on Triangle Island, a remote bird sanctuary far off the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
She spent her summer in the company of Anne Vallée, a serious young biologist whose dedication to her field made her a formidable and inspiring mentor. Now, in the sixteen years since Watt last visited the island, Anne has died, and from the moment Watt arrives to do more research, she is flooded with memories of the summer they spent together.
Told in a gripping diary form, The Last Island blends native legends, evolutionary theory, scientific knowledge and an appreciation for the delicate balance required for creatures as small as krill and as large as fin whales to survive. Watt brings the island to life, recreating through sensual detail the sounds, smells, sights, tastes and textures of this desolate bird haven. Perhaps even more importantly, she recreates the jagged inner landscape of a young woman worn and warmed by months of seclusion.
