A Sad Good Bye

To the greatest road trip artist ever

I was so stunned and shocked to learn last month that the world has lost Chandler O’Leary to sudden pneumonia. She was only 41 years old and had produced such a monumental body of work, it was almost unbelievable.

I have been a huge fan for many years of Chandler’s website, spending hours and hours on virtual road trips with her. She noticed everything and sketched everything with watercolor, filling sketchbook after sketchbook with beautifully illustrated adventure. You can share that experience too at this link:

https://drawntheroadagain.com/

You will also find a notice there of a public memorial that will be live streamed today on YouTube from her beloved home in Tacoma, WA

Over the past couple years, Chandler wrote and illustrated two huge and wonderful books on exploring and sketching the West Coast of the US and the islands of the Vancouver area. They are incredible accomplishments and the best textbooks I have ever found on how you record a trip in a journal (though they were not meant as textbooks at all). They are so big and full of information that she called them Travel Atlases.

Island Time had just been released and you can read all about Chandler’s excitement about her book tour adventures on her Instagram account.

She was in vibrant and energetic health until she caught a flu. She leaves behind a husband and four year old son who she zealously protected from the public eye.

I have never figured out what to say about tragic loss, but I will always treasure Chandler’s impact on my art life.