Why in the world would you want to take your skills to Greenland and sit nearly motionless in below-freezing temperatures while sketching and painting?
“I like to suffer a little,” said Maria Coryell-Martin.
If you’re an expedition artist, having a sense of humor helps. Coryell-Martin’s approach is in the tradition of artists who worked with naturalists and others exploring the world, such as Edward Wilson in Antarctica, Emily Carr in British Columbia, and Thomas Moran in the American West.
The artist sees parallels between art and science, interpretation and creativity, inspiration and information. The link is that art cultivates active observation and that leads to scientific inquiry,” she said.
Since 2005, Coryell-Martin has focused painting on polar and glaciated regions where she’s often collaborated with scientific teams. Sketches in ink and watercolor and multimedia recordings “build my palette of place.”
She joined University of Washington scientist Kristin Laidre in West Greenland in 2013, complementing narwhale and polar bear research with field sketches and paintings. Out of that work came the joint project called “Imaging the Arctic.”
The team was based in Niaqornat (fewer than 60 humans) and Kullorsuaq (population under 500). It’s the home of beluga whales, polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic hares and foxes, bearded seals, halibut and cod, and narwhales. These animals are highly adapted to environmental extremes.
In March and April, an artist must cope, too, with below-freezing temperatures. There were always concerns about keeping the helicopter, which took them out looking for narwhales, warm.
The team might spend two hours on the ice during which she would sketch as much as possible. At other times, she would work around the settlements. Some days she could only work 15 minutes on the ice; other days three or four hours with breaks in the settlements, wearing sealskin-over-line gloves. She did a 360-degree painting that took three days in the field.
Water for the paint would freeze so Coryell-Martin used a vodka-water mix (perhaps Everett’s vodka distillery might want to join the project).
The artists paintings are literal and emotive, well-composed, detail thumbnail sketches and what she calls “gesture drawings” that capture the big ideas.
To see her work, go to www.expeditionaryart.com. To see the Imaging the Arctic exhibit, open through Feb. 22, go to the Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th Seattle; 206-789-5707; www.nordicmuseum.org; 10-4 Tuesday-Saturday, 12-4 Sunday.
On the Arctic topic, check out Polar Science Weekend at the Pacific Science Center: hands-on activities including exploring an Arctic Ice Camp and meeting scientists who works at the poles. It runs 10-5 Feb. 27-March 1.
Exhibit included with PSC admission; the Into the Arctic documentary at the IMAX Theater is at 1 and 2:15 p.m. for an additional $4.
Yummy. Support your birds and Pilchuck Audubon Society by buying bird seed at reasonable prices. The spring seed sale is on March 7, just in time for the spring migration. For information, go to pilchuckaudubon.org.
Good and sad. First the good: 250 volunteers removed more than six tons of garbage from Pacific Coast beaches last month. The sad: six tons of garbage that need to be removed. The GrassRoots Garbage Gang organized volunteers who reported an inordinate amount of shotgun shells among the eclectic objects.
The next cleanup, the group’s 40th, coincides with Washington’s coast-wide cleanup on April 25. The GGG has run 35 cleanups and collected nearly 250 tons. For more information, go to ourbeach.org.
From the bookshelf. Brian Doyle’s “Children &Other Wild Animals” (Oregon State University Press) is a delightful collection of essays that remind us that if we channeled our oft-forgotten Inner Child, we again could share the pure delight of seeing a newt, or feeling the wind, or watching a never-ending sturgeon slide by.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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