Natural History Art & Science Illustration
One thing I have written a few times in my list of goals is “work larger” or on a bigger scale.
This fall, I returned to something I tried back in 2012, working with acrylic paint on wood panels. I also tried to scale things up a bit. I created two larger paintings this fall: Nizina River Habitat, (which was then purchased by the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank) and K’esugi Ridge (which I just finished and is available).
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My last post doubted the presence of winter. A week later it has gotten colder. We still just have a light dusting of snow, so you can't ski or really travel much by snowmachine (or at least I wouldn't), but it feels and looks like winter outside. So in contrast I wanted to share some photos from the shortest day of the year and the beauty that it holds. Happy solstice to all and happy winter solstice to those living in the northern hemisphere.
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Home sweet home surrounded by a ring of ice
A spread from Lara's Perpetual Journal
Lara Gastinger is a botanical artist and illustrator in Virginia who keeps the most inspiring sketchbook. I found her work on instagram (@laragastinger), where each week she usually posts from her “perpetual journal”, a weekly journal and sketchbook (now two books) that she’s been keeping for over a decade, since 2000. Her artwork is gorgeous in its own right, but the collection she’s put together and shares in her perpetual journal is really inspiring.
Read moreI share from Robin Kimmerer's book, Braiding Sweetgrass. I enjoy listening to audiobooks and podcasts while I work in the studio, and listened to this book last winter. It’s beautifully written, but also gave me quite a bit to reflect upon with regards to my own work...
Read moreI know that some people are looking for gift ideas for the holidays and I wanted to highlight two of my recent projects and suggest some other ideas.
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The finished mural and details. Photos by McKinney Makes Media
This summer I worked on a fun and different (for me) project. The McCarthy Area Council (MAC) is a local nonprofit that serves as a kind of town government for McCarthy. Last year they expanded the mail shack building, and decided they wanted a mural painted on one of the walls with the local kids. I volunteered to organize this project.
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The Adventures of Apun the Arctic Fox book cover
About two years ago, I started to work on an illustration project, which became the children’s pop-up book, The Adventures of Apun the Arctic Fox. The book is coming out next week, so I’m excited to share more about my adventures with Apun.
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Pen drawing of a robin's nest
I talk about the process of drawing things out multiple times and the meditation involved in doing so.
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Signs of fall on the McCarthy Homestead!
I don't usually share my newsletter on this blog, but I wanted to this once, just to let you know that it exists. Every month or so I'll send an update to your inbox, letting you know what's going on here. My newsletter is the first to hear about new work and upcoming events. September's newsletter is below, and from that link you may subscribe or read past issues:
September Newsletter from Kristin Illustration
Thanks for your support!
Read moreIn the last year or so I’ve been changing up how I work. I’ve been taking more photographs when I travel, and spending more time working in my studio, working from photographs and specimens. Nevertheless field sketching has always been an important part of my practice, and remains so now.
I travelled a lot this summer so I mostly used my sketchbook to slow down and have a moment of reflection in a new place as well as to document the landscapes, plants, and other things I found. I thought it would be fun just to peek into the disorganized pages of my sketchbooks.
Read moreLast week my solo show, Portraits of Nature, opened at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks. I promised to share some of the work here so that people who can’t make it to Fairbanks can get a glimpse of the show. It’s always best to see work in person. Also Colleen Firmin Thomas, who has a show next to me in the same gallery, has beautiful mixed media paintings that are well worth seeing!
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My solo show at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks opens this week. I will be adding a blog post about show soon, so that if you can't make it to Fairbanks to see the work in person, you can get an idea of what I've put together. In the meantime, if you are in Fairbanks I'd be honored for you to join me for the following events:
Desert Flowers and Plants from Joshua Tree National Park. Each page is 11 x 8.5" gouache, pen, and colored pencil (c) Kristin Link 2017.
It is the start of the busy summer season in Alaska. Lupines are blooming, swallows are sitting on eggs, and goslings are teetering about eating grass in Potter Marsh. Before it all gets too crazy I wanted to share some of the things I'll be doing this summer.
Read moreSince last fall I’ve been making cyanotypes from my drawings, which I’ve written about here a few times over the past year. It’s a work in progress, which I am continuing to develop, but I wanted to share some of what I have finished so far, and some of my thoughts behind it. This collection of images, Encounters with the Spirit World, is a series of cyanotype prints of animals and plants that are spiritually significant to me. In creating the drawings that I print from, and the handling of the printing process, I try to connect with the soul and essence of my subjects.
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"Spring Ski" Acrylic on canvas, 9 x 12", (c) Kristin Link, 2017
How it is that I haven’t posted on this blog since mid-February? Sometimes time just slips away, or flies away. So I decided to write a quick update to fill you in on the happenings at Kristin Illustration since then.
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This is the type of weather that feeds me vitamin D and is making my work possible
Like the engineers of the pre-digital age, I was also looking for a low-cost and relatively simple way to reproduce my drawings. I like the idea of blueprints because they still feel handmade and I can use the outside environment (sun and water) to make them. I’ve written several posts about how I started experimenting with cyanotypes during an artist residency with Joshua Tree National Park. In this post I wanted to focus more on the process I’ve been using.
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Installation of my undergraduate thesis in Studio Art
I completed a double major in studio art and environmental studies with a focus in conservation biology in 2008, and decided to do my thesis in art. We could choose if we wanted to do a thesis or not and I was really looking forward to having my own studio and basically getting to do whatever I wanted with artwork for an entire year. That seemed like a lot of fun, and sure it was, but I think it was also one of my hardest classes ever.
Read moreLast year I wrote an end of year post summarizing many of the projects that I worked on, I want to do something similar again because I haven’t been diligent about documenting my work online. In 2016 I got to try some new things (like illustrating a coloring book and teaching in Savoonga) and I’m excited to share that with you. I also have some ideas for this year that I’m excited to talk about.
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December sun above the Nizina River
I want to wish you a happy winter solstice. This is an important day when you live at northern (or southern) latitudes. Some people tell me that I’m weird, but I absolutely love December in Alaska. I especially love Decembers on the Nizina River, where I live in a little off-the-grid cabin, in the middle of the Wrangell-St. Elias. There are limitations that come with this lifestyle and this time of year, but as a creative person, I think limitations can be healthy.
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