“We have misfiled the significance of drawing because we see it as a professional skill instead of a personal capacity . . . This essential confusion has stunted our understanding of drawing and kept it from being seen as a tool for learning above all else.” (author and artist D.B. Dowd)

Drawing greatly enhances our enjoyment of and learning about the natural world—and it’s a skill that anyone can acquire with instruction and practice.

Join me and the Tumamoc Art & Science team this spring for our Drawing Skills for Field Notebooks, an 8-week course.

Take all 8 for a discount, or “a la carte” to take one or several for just $80 each. Sessions run from 9 am to noon every Saturday from March 7 through April 25.

During the course you will go behind the scenes of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill and learn techniques for observing, drawing, and keeping a field notebook with artists Paul Mirocha, Bill Singleton, Barbara Terkanian.

Tumamoc classes are a unique blend of art plus science: sessions will include not only art instruction but also lectures and interactions with research ecologists and naturalists. There is a high student-to-instructor ratio.

The course is suitable for all ability levels: non-artists, artists, scientists, naturalists, and curious lay people—we tailor each class to help everyone learn both drawing skills and the ecology of Tumamoc's denizens and landscape.

$80 per session, or all 8 at a discount—$550. Register now:

Desertlaboratory.eventbrite.com

For more details on each session, visit the Tumamoc website:

Tumamoc.arizona.edu/art-and-science/course