This Monday I'm wondering about contemporary expedition artists. I was reading about Paul Porter, a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. From January 10th until May 9th 2009 He will travel by bicycle through ten African countries starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. He's keeping a blog about his travels and I look forward to following him on his journey.
I wonder what it would be like to go on an expedition like this as a painter?
Kenneth Haltman wrote a book about an expedition painter Titian Ramsey Peale called Looking Close and Seeing Far: Samuel Seymour, Titian Ramsay Peale, and the Art of the Long Expedition, 1818-1823. Who are some other good expedition painters? Audobon? Hiroshige and Hokusai made prints that were meant to be souvenirs but I think it would be hard to make a woodcut on a bike.
