About Robin
Robin Lee Carlson is a natural science illustrator and the author of The Cold Canyon Fire Journals. She builds careful observations of the natural world into deeper commentary on ecology and climate change, and her work centers on field sketching ecoreportage, living documentation of the ever-accelerating transformation of ecosystems by human activity. Her work has also appeared in The Common, the literary journal of Amherst College, and in Arnoldia, the magazine of the Harvard University Arboretum. She teaches online and in-person workshops that combine drawing, painting, and natural history.
Robin is one of the 2024 recipients of the Fireline Fellowship, part of the Long-Term Ecological Reflections Program in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.
https://robinleecarlson.com/
https://www.instagram.com/anthropocenesketchbook/
Ancient Pollinators
A Field Journal Sketching Experience with Robin Carlson
Part 1: Beetles and Flies – Monday, June 30, 2025 – 7 to 8:30pm (Eastern)
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: $30 per session
The daVinci Pursuit is pleased to welcome illustrator and author Robin Carlson to our third series of online workshops. In this series of two workshops, we will combine drawing, painting, and natural science. The classes will weave scientific knowledge into accessible and engaging instruction, where students actively create stories in their own artwork.
Ancient Pollinators: Beetles and Flies
Robin Lee Carlson
Bees have developed a particularly close relationship with flowers, but they were not the first pollinators. Often less showy than bees, but no less fascinating, the earliest pollinators were beetles and flies.
In this workshop, we will start with an overview of ancient pollinators, and then focus on one beetle and one fly pollinator, to explore how flowers attract these insects and how pollinators and flowers interact. We’ll draw western skunk cabbage and its rove beetle pollinators, and California pipevine with its tiny gnat pollinators. We will work in ink, watercolor, and colored pencil. At the end of each session, there will be time to ask questions and share your work and insights.
Registrants will be able to attend live online and will also have access to a recording of the workshop.
Made possible through the generous support of the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitiable Foundation
