Features Overview
February 2023
Imagine.
A visit from a brightly colored Monarch butterfly flitting in thin air.
A furry Pika peeking out from a mountain rock. Eep! Eep!
A motionless Great Blue Heron, stoically, patiently hunting from a log in the water.
A Northern Pygmy-Owl peering from a tree, curious about your every move.
Magical, am I right? How do you hang on to that magic?
That is where Field Sketching comes in!
The benefits received are numerous, for health as well as intellectual. This practice informs everything I do professionally.
I write about this in an article for Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, an organization based in Montana accomplishing important work in the areas of conservation, research, and education.
That’s not magic, though. That’s hard work.
YOU, however, can tap into some of the magic that nature observation provides.
Hit the LEARN MORE button below and read on.
May 2022
I was so delighted to be interviewed by Marley Peifer on his Youtube program “The Nature Journal Show”!
We chatted mostly about travel sketching, something I plan to do a lot more of in the coming years.
We also talked about how/why I am using my sketchbook for a project exploring the flora and fauna in Alaska.
Marley is a skillful interviewer. His line of questioning put me at ease, and transitioned smoothly from professional topics to fun and unexpected.
An updated chance to know me a bit, click through and have a listen.
September 2022
What do you do when a really well-known colleague, I mean REALLY well known, reaches out with an invitation to co-host a workshop?
You say YES, of course!
Inspired by my Brown Bear adventure, John Muir Laws did just that.
On September 8 I was a guest instructor on Jack's Thursday morning workshop, sharing my experience and the technique I used to draw Brown Bears on that trip.
It was incredible, so much fun! Nearly 60 people attended the workshop from all over the country.
YOU can view the recorded version by clicking the button below. The fun starts there.
Thank you, Jack, for the opportunity to share my work with your audience. I'll always say YES, so ask again!
Fall 2013
One of my first attempts at writing professionally was an article for the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators’ Member Spotlight segment.
I titled it “Evolution of an Artist”. It tells my backstory, describing the journey I took to becoming a professional artist.
Of course, when I wrote it I was still evolving. I am a different artist today than I was even then, half-way through a long and meandering career.
So my journey continues, but every bit of it is rooted in that article. Many of the professional yearnings I had back then, ideas and things I wanted to do with my professional skills and curiosity, had to lie still and wait for time to meet them.
To really know me, click through and read the article.
August 2022
This month I had a chat with Bethan Burton, founder of International Nature Journaling Week, artist/educator, and host of the “Journaling with Nature” podcast.
You know the adage… surround yourself with people you admire and you become a better person.
I’ve been following that proverb since I was a young 20-something.
One of the areas I’ve been working diligently towards this year is exactly that, connecting with colleagues beyond my local area; to be part of a larger community professionally.
This experience was another joyful result of that effort.
We talk about bushwhacking a path to a professional career, what "purposeful play" means to my work, my new virtual year-long course in field sketching, and my art & literary projects as I continue my journey to know Alaska through my sketchbook.
Some of it might resonate with your own story.
Click the button below to access the recording.
February 2011
EXETER, N.H. (CBS) - Seacoast artists like Sandy McDermott have to wait up to a year for the honor of displaying and selling their work at Exeter Hospital. The facility lets local artisans showcase their pieces for a month at a time. Patients, visitors, and staff are able to buy them.
McDermott's turn was this month and she chose 21 drawings and watercolors to share.
Then, Tuesday, security called.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports.