Course Description
Course Description: In this immersive nature journaling class, acclaimed naturalist, artist, and educator Clare Walker Leslie invites you to slow down, open your eyes, and deepen your connection with the natural world by learning to observe, record, and reflect through words and sketches in your own journal. This course combines mindful outdoor observation with simple drawing and writing techniques. We’ll practice drawing birds, animals, trees, and landscapes in the context of nature journaling, so that even naturalists with little to no art experience can feel more confident drawing in their journals. We’ll also explore how journaling is an important device for keeping record of citizen science and phenology, seasonal shifts, and climate change.
During this weekend of guided explorations of flora, fauna, and seasonal rhythms, we’ll practice noticing intricate details of our surroundings, integrating science and creativity, and together cultivating a richer, more meaningful relationship with nature and place.
Audience: Naturalists and Educators with a Bachelor’s Degree
Session Information
Instructors
Sean Beckett, M.S.
he/him
Sean Beckett, M.S.
Years ago in Costa Rica, a teenage Sean was awoken by his NBNC trip leader and shuffled into a humming jungle to experience his first dawn chorus of tropical songbirds. He went on to study Biology and Environmental Studies at Vassar College, and received his M.S. from UVM’s Field Naturalist and Ecological Planning Program. Sean has worked extensively as a wildlife ecologist, researching Atlantic Puffins in Maine, Saw-whet Owls in New York, raptors in Idaho, Pygmy-Owls in Mexico, and Clark’s Nutcrackers in Wyoming. Sean joined the NBNC staff in 2017 after years of leading world-class wildlife safaris across North America, taking inquisitive travelers to the threshold of wolf dens, toe-to-toe with polar bears, and to the heart of Utah’s Canyonlands and deserts.