At Art Toolkit, we believe that art can be not only a tool for self-expression, but for communication, exploration, and scientific inquiry. Our purpose is to empower and inspire our customers to create art every day by providing well-designed tools and materials.

In 2004, upon graduating from Carleton College, artist Maria Coryell-Martin embarked on a year-long Watson Fellowship to explore remote landscapes through art. This experience inspired a resolve to continue working as an expeditionary artist with a focus on polar and glacier science, and to inspire environmental awareness in audiences of all ages.

Maria’s travels have brought her face-to-face with polar bears, leopard seals, emperor penguins, and narwhals. She was inspired to create a more compact sketching and painting kit after a memorable experience juggling clumsy sketching tools while crawling in the sand for hours to monitor walruses on a small island in eastern Greenland.

Many prototypes, field-tests, and customer reviews later, the Art Toolkit and Pocket Palette have evolved into a versatile sketching and painting system for artists of all ages and skill-levels.

In 2019, Maria’s sweetheart and collaborator Darin joined the business full-time, and we moved Art Toolkit out of a back room of our house and into a beautiful studio space in Port Townsend, a seaside arts and boat-building community in Washington State.

Looking ahead, we are excited to continue to innovate and refine our stable of field painting and sketching supplies.

You can read more about Maria’s adventures on the Expeditionary Art blog.