Original work from my time at Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center
July-August 2025
Recently I had the honor of participating in a 10-day Artist in Residency program sponsored by the Gunflint Trail Historical Society. I stayed at a private cabin overlooking a bay in Saganaga Lake, near the very end of the Gunflint Trail, 57 miles from Grand Marais, Minnesota.
I was treated with such kindness and generosity by this beautiful community. There is a pride of place here accompanied by a sense of responsibility to share and preserve the ecology and history of this area.
In this post I am sharing my first series of paintings that came from my artist in residency experience. There are more images in the works currently living inside my head. As it’s the end of August now, in two days I will be diving back into my 31st year as a teacher. How lucky I have been to indulge in creative pursuits for an entire summer.
As time allows, I intend to share updated versions of each painting accompanied by the story behind it.
Many of these paintings are in what I would call earlier stages. The primary lesson I learned from this experience was, that in order to make the most of the time granted to me, I needed to work quickly and produce (start) as much work as possible, without indulging in the fussiness that has been my norm in the studio at home. More starting, less finishing. In the weeks since I’ve been home, that has carried over into creating newer works. For example “the engineers” was started after I returned home, a composite from parts of photos as well as a bit of creative license.
And without further preamble…here are the images!
blueberry hill came about from a very quickly painted plein air work at the top of the hiking trail by the same name on the Chik-Wauk land. The painting above was done in my studio at home, using my little (5×7″) plein air painting as a reference. The photos I took from that hike were not adequate as references. Nothing but the eyes (through a bug net) could process all the layers of hills through the smoky haze.
