A specially-bound travel journal for drawing, painting, and note keeping, guiding users towards a more mindful engagement with the world around them, and making every day an adventure. Includes info about the region’s history and the artists who have traveled there before you along with basics on plein air painting, examples of finished scenes you’ll encounter, and space to draw or paint.

Keeping visual journals has been popular for centuries, among artist-travelers like Albrecht Durer, J. M. W. Turner, Katsushika Hokusai, and David Hockney. Explorers like Jacques le Moyne, Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, and Marianne North also recorded their journeys in sketchbooks and diaries. Topographical drawing was essential. Knowing what destinations looked like helped travelers know they had arrived.

Carrying this concept to the next level,Sketchbook Travelerexpands plein air painting beyond the range of easels and backpacks, providing educators with instructional concepts, and giving professional artists new (and old) ways to hone mobile sketching skills.

Inviting readers to explore their surroundings through drawing and writing, Sketchbook Traveleris a field guide to mindful engagement with personal experience in ways that make every day an adventure. Pages of high-quality art paper provide open space for creating your own journal practice.By James Lancel McElhinneyJames Lancel McElhinney is a visual artist, author, and essayist, best known for travel journals and other works exploring American rivers and Civil War landscapes. Exhibited widely, his works are represented in numerous public and private collections.With a Yale MFA, Tyler School of Art BFA, and study at Skowhegan, McElhinney has received grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in New York with his wife, cultural historian Katherine Manthorne.28 color drawingsHudson Valley28 color drawings