The Wandering Painter - One-Time Box Purchase

In April 2026, subscribers encountered the Wandering Painter.

Because the streams are swelling, the Trees must be waking.

The Wandering Painter notes these changes in her journal. Now it is time to shed the trappings of civilized life, including both her heavy coat and her stays. If the new warm breeze fails her, she can always build a small warming fire. And the wilder creatures are unimpressed by hair combs and corsets.

All winter long she moves between the households that offer her work.  When in the larger cities, she occasionally teaches classes in rooms full of makeshift easels.  Or, sometimes she stays an extra week or two at a farm, tutoring its daughters and growing plump on the kitchen’s supplies of cheese and ale.

She has been buckled up in wool, cautious with her words, prim. Now, at last, she can sleep out again. She will rewild herself and return to her nature studies.

The Wandering Painter Box includes an abundance of beautiful objects; hints and additions to expand the story; a mysterious document; and a lore card.

Some items are available for individual purchase.

• Mysterious Document
• An instructional document is augmented with marginalia which will help you interpret clues. It is available only in the Wandering Painter.

• Lore Card
• The Wandering Painter is introduced in a full-color collectible 4x6 inch lore card. The artwork for this month's lore card was created by Joanna Rzepecka, a Warsaw, Poland-based illustrator. She says, "My work is inspired by biodiversity, mainly animals. Through my work, I'm trying to capture moments where nature is untouched by humans. Peaceful scenery, colors, and rough textures are some things that I enjoy the most."

• Painting of the City of Canals
• During the colder months, the Painter travels from the farms to the villages to the cities. She receives room, board, and a few coins in exchange for commissions: portraits of mothers; sketches of fast-moving children; detailed street scenes and vedute.  Her works, mounted in gilded frames, are displayed in parlors and town halls across Birdmoss. Only now has she finished her last commission of the season. She was originally approached to create a map of Pont Lacuna, the City of Canals, but it proved unmappable, so she painted its waterways instead.

• Tools of a Wandering Painter
• Now, at last, she readies herself for wilder places. She rents a cupboard to store her bulkier, more technical tools, like her camera obscura and perspectographs. Out in nature, she’ll draw free-handed. She packs a rucksack with only the essentials, such as a folding wooden palette and a minimal selection of paints to mix. In the cities, she often works in oils, but they are slow-drying, expensive, and occasionally stodgy. The solvents are too heavy to carry. So, in the warmer months, she works in fluid watercolors, layering their tints. The Painter gives you a tiny palette of your own for the adventure, along with a few paints and a brush. When not painting, you can also fill your wooden palette with beads or medicinal tablets.

• Pause at the Riverbank
• The Painter has been anticipating her first stop for months. The two of you hitch a ride in a rattling wagon, heading into the deep part of the Forest, then walk for several hours more. Here, the air is moist with fog, and the moss flourishes. She makes camp on a riverbank and prepares to wait for a glimpse of the pale-colored Spirit Bear who is rumored to pace these rocks. In the meantime, she paints quick studies of the fish in the water. You notice that she uses an unusual brush rest, a porcelain fish she painted in similar colors during the gray months.

• A Book of Two Journeys
• She has stashed canvases and boards at many of her summer haunts, but also carries a notebook for sketching and painting on the fly. She gives you one of your own. Accordion-pleated, it offers many creative possibilities: write or paint two different stories, one on each side of the paper; unfurl the folds to expand your art to two or three or four panels; stand it up and open it with the covers back-to-back so that it resembles a star. You can use it for sketching, journaling, and collaging in addition to painting.

• Ripples and Fireworks
• As a final gift, the Wandering Painter offers you a small tin of salt to quicken your art. It can create effects similar to rippling water, fireworks, or a starry sky. Speak your artistic intentions while sprinkling this salt on a wet wash of paint while it is still cool to the touch and a bit shiny. It will create a blooming or starburst effect where the salt attracts the moisture. Allow the paint to dry before brushing off the salt. If the paper is too wet, the salt will simply dissolve; but if it’s not wet enough, the salt won’t react.

Photo props are not included.