Alison Watt Artist Cruising Tour Kayak with killer whales dates

Art workshop with Alison Watt, Artist and Naturalist

Cruise the Desolation Sound and hone your water-colour skills.

As a continuation of our very successful artist tour last year, we are pleased to have Alison Watt, author and illustrator of "The Last Island" joining us this year. With Alison’s talent for capturing in detail the flora and fauna of the B.C. coast, we will paint, learn, explore and relax.

Arbutus Berries Desolation Sound, with its shimmering inlets, quiet bays, and dramatic mountain backdrops, is the perfect terrain for a trip devoted to painting.

We will start our days on the Columbia III with a morning watercolour class. We will review the basic materials and palette we will be using during the week, then move on to the elements of composition. There will be an emphasis on how to make decisions on what to leave out of /put into quick and satisfying field drawings for travel journals or sketch books as well as how to use these sketches to create larger paintings. We will go over the work we do in the field and, using demonstrations and exercises, discuss the special challenges of coastal landscape: greens, water, sky and clouds, rock and forest.

Each day will include as much time as possible painting outdoors, to allow us to capture some of B.C.’s most beautiful coastline. In addition to painting, there will be time for shore walks, good food and camaraderie around the galley table over a glass of wine.

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.

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.

We offer directions to Campbell River, our point of departure.

2008 Artist Tour with Alison Watt
June 3 - 8 Desolation Sound	5 nights	$1,625.00 CDN	Approx. $1,700.00 U.S.

Trip size limited to 8 - 10 participants. Our trips are all inclusive from the point of departure. Trip prices are in Canadian dollars. U.S. prices are approximate and will be based on current exchange rate at the time of booking. Rates do not include the Canadian 5% G.S.T.

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