Sharon Stillwater and Wayne Brock: The Road Work of Art

Sharon illustrates the people, architecture, and landscapes she discovers while exploring the southwestern US and Mexico in a Hallmark K2 / Guanella. ... ...













Travel has always been a source of artistic inspiration.  For many of us, the creative impulse is satisfied with simple snapshots.  For the more passionate artists among us, the impulse has us reaching for a tripod and SLR, a notebook and pencil, or an easel, canvas, and brush.  Whatever your creative tools may be, the urge to capture the moments of travel and adventure is something we all seem to share.  In a way, traveling makes artists of us all.

Following in this great human tradition of travel and art is Sharon Stillwater.  Traveling with her husband, Wayne, in their Hallmark K2 / Guanella, she chances upon her painting subjects throughout the southwestern United States and among the Tarahumara people of Copper Canyon, Mexico.

Before she launched her professional painting career, Sharon was a Clinical Psychologist and she attributes much of the depth of her observations to her experiences in that field.  Among other distinctions, Sharon’s oil paintings have been featured in Kennedy Publishing’s Best of America Oil Artists for 2009 and in New Mexico Magazine’s June, 2009 Artscapes section.

To learn more about these two adventurers and their artistic pursuits, we talked to Sharon and Wayne.  Perhaps their story will inspire your next road work of art.

Sharon at Basasiachi Falls, Mexico

Wayne at Valle Vidal, Carson National Forest, New Mexico

Hallmark Cuchara, also known as Little Bear, in Death Valley

TCM: In your emails to us you described owning many RVs during your life.  How did you come to discover truck campers?

Wayne: About three or four years ago we traveled to the Copper Canyon in Mexico with the Turtle Expedition.  Our good friends who had a pop-top truck camper were with us.  At the time, we had a Sportsmobile.  The Sportsmobile was good for off-road traveling, but our friends’ pop-up truck camper was a lot more livable.  That’s when we started looking at pop-up truck campers.

TCM: What is it about a truck camper that you prefer?  

Sharon: We chose a pop-up truck camper because we like to do off-road travel and camping.  There aren’t a lot of RV options for that.  We initially tried a Chinook Baja but found it was not strong enough for off-roading.  Then we went to a Sportsmobile, which was good for off-roading but did not have the comforts of a truck camper.  Other than missing the comforts, we loved the Sportsmobile.

Additionally, pop-up campers get reasonably good fuel mileage and, when you get there, you have a very comfortable and easy place to live in.  

To go with our camper, we purchased a GMC Sierra Classic which fits certain truck camper models better because of the lower walls on the truck bed.  Our truck was the last model with the engines that don’t require low sulfur diesel.  It was a mid-year change and you need the older diesel engines if you travel to Mexico like we do.  You can’t get low sulfur diesel in Mexico.

Hallmark Cuchara, Little Bear, at Gila National Forest, Pueblo Park campground, New Mexico

Hallmark Cuchara, Little Bear, Fresno Vista Campsite, Big Bend Ranch State Park

Hallmark Cuchara, Little Bear, Fresno Vista Campsite, Big Bend Ranch State Park

TCM: How did you decide on a Hallmark truck camper?

Wayne: When looking to change from the Sportsmobile, we looked at all of the truck camper brands and models on the market.  Hallmark had the finish and detail that we wanted.  And we found the whole crew at Hallmark very pleasant to work with.

Sharon: Hallmark was willing to make changes to fit our requirements.  We took advantage of that.  I also really like the personal touch at Hallmark.  You don’t often find that level of personal connection with a manufacturer or dealer.

A good example of their customer service was when we were in Hovenweep National Monument.  Our batteries were boiling over, so we called Jody Bolin at Hallmark and he talked us through the problems.  Jody knows everything that you could possibly need to know about pop-up truck campers.  Plus, we have never once called Jody when he couldn’t get away from his work to help us.

Wayne: Most problems I can resolve with the help of Jody.  The factory is only five hours from our house.  We can go to a close by RV dealership for any appliance related issue because they’re under separate warranties.

TCM: You’ve already had two Hallmark pop-up campers.  Tell us about finding your first Hallmark.

Sharon: When we first went to Hallmark, we thought we wanted something to fit in the eight-foot box of our truck.  We looked the Hallmark Ute, which can fit on a short or long bed and would have fit completely within the eight-foot box.  Then we looked at the Cuchara, a nine and a half foot model, and it seemed so spacious.  Both had a shower and a marine toilet.  

At the time, Hallmark was not putting cassette toilets in campers like they have in the K2  that Matt Ward built.  They were only putting in marine toilets.  We wanted a toilet, although we really wanted a cassette toilet.  The Cuchara felt really spacious in comparison to our Sportsmobile.  The Cuchara is beautiful inside, plus it had a shower and a furnace.  It seemed so luxurious.  So, we got the Cuchara.

Wayne: That would have been okay if we didn’t take it to the backcountry.  That’s why we came back and downsized to the K2 and Guanella combination camper that we have now.  Since the Cuchara was nine and a half feet, it had an overhang in the back that could bottom out on backcountry roads.  So, we stopped by the factory about a year ago and saw the K2.  It is eight feet long and fit in box.  It also had a cassette toilet, so we decided right then that we should get it.

Sharon: In the meantime, we had realized that we did not need the shower because we had only used the one we had three times and we also realized that we didn’t use the water heater.  We wanted a more simple camper.

Wayne: Yeah, we also never used the air conditioning.  And, for the little twelve volt power that we used, we upgraded to the AGM batteries and didn’t worry about the solar.  We go out for a week or so at a time and we are fine without it.  Plus, Hallmark campers feature all LED lighting, so we don’t draw that much power.

Sharon: I also like that we can take the camper off and have a truck to use.  We can use our truck in the winter when we’re not traveling.

Hallmark K2/Guanella, Baby Bear, Stone Cellar campground, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado

Hallmark K2/Guanella, Baby Bear, Cimarron campground, Colorado

Hallmark K2/Guanella, Baby Bear, Iron Gate CG, Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico

TCM: In your emails to us, you refer to your camper as Baby Bear.  How did you come up with that name for your camper?

Sharon: Where our names come from I have no idea.  We like bears and have a lot of them in the mountains where we live.  All of our RVs have had names.  We wait awhile to get to know the campers.  Our first Hallmark Cuchara was named Little Bear and the camper we have now looks like Little Bear, except it’s smaller.

Wayne: We also have some of Sharon's small oil paintings of bears in the camper.

TCM: Oil paintings in your camper?  That’s funny.  And your Cuchara truck and camper rig seriously fit in your garage?  

Sharon: The Cuchara had an inch or two extra and the new camper we have has three to four inches extra.

Wayne: With our Cuchara, we had to take the air conditioner off to make it fit into the garage.  The new camper has lower profile vent covers.  Also, the length is shorter with the K2/Guanella, so the new camper goes in easily.  It stays on the truck and in the garage.

Sharon: One thing we didn’t tell you is that our garage has 8’3” of clearance.  It was originally built for the Sportsmobile, so our garage is a little higher than most.

TCM: Why did you request certain amenities?  It sounds like you went more basic than your first Hallmark camper.

Sharon: We design campers in our head and personalize them.  It’s an offshoot of our interest in home and architectural design.  We are constantly looking at the design of RVs.  We even go into hotel rooms and think about new designs.

TCM: You don’t have a shower in your camper.  So how long do you stay out camping?

Wayne: We use solar shower bags and wash up.  We only go out for ten days or so before getting back to a place we can have a real shower.

Sharon: Our solar shower is a commercially available unit made up of big plastic bags.  They are clear on one side and black on the other and hold one or two or more gallons or so of water.  They work well.  The bags sit out in the sun and heat up.  They actually get very hot; too hot sometimes.

Wayne: For grey water we have a five gallon cube that we keep in the back of the truck.  It has a tube that goes down into the cube so the grey water can flow out.  Our cassette toilet has it’s own reservoir, so we don’t have to worry about that.  When we’re using the grey water cube, we use biodegradable soap, so we can dump it in the wild.

TCM: How do you like your cassette toilet?

Sharon: We love our cassette toilet.  It’s like a Porta-Potti, but it’s easier to deal with.  If you have a holding tank, you need a dump station.  With the cassette, all you have to find is a pit toilet or dig a hole out in the woods.  It’s really no different than backpackers who go out hiking.  

TCM: How do you like your catalytic heater?  

Wayne: Our catalytic heater does not have a thermostat.  You turn on the propane and use the striker to light it.  It uses a lot less propane, it’s silent, and it uses up less space.

Sharon: We don’t leave it on while we sleep and we keep a window cracked when we use it.  It heats up the camper fast.

TCM: And you have a King size bed?

Wayne: In our camper there is a Queen size bed that has a fifteen inch or so shelf that pulls out to make a King size bed.  They give you an extra mattress pad to fill in the shelf.  The great thing is that we can sleep longways, north to south, instead of sideways, east to west.  It just takes an extra couple minutes at night and in the morning to set up and take down.

TCM: Tell us about the satellite phone and how that works.

Wayne: We check in two or three times a day with the nursing home and caretaker that looks after our parents.  It’s expensive, but for us, it’s a necessity.  It costs about $1,200 to buy the phone and it’s about $1.50 a minute.  We don’t use it a lot, just to check messages and to use in emergencies.  Without that, we couldn’t go out of cell range, which would limit us to where we can go.

Sharon: It drops coverage a lot, but it’s worth it for us.  I think you can rent them.

Tarahumara Women in Copper Canyon, Mexico

Tarahumara Children in Copper Canyon, Mexico

Tarahumara Man in Copper Canyon, Mexico

TCM: Sharon, how does truck camper help you with your art work?

Sharon: Having the camper is a little bit for fun and a little bit for my art.  The actual painting that I do on the road tends to be personal watercolor sketches or pencil sketches for our own use.  I don’t sell them generally.  We go into an area where there are opportunities like Copper Canyon with the Tarahumara people.  I’ll sketch, paint watercolor drawings, and take photographs.  Then, I’ll take them home and translate them into oil paintings.

I have also found good opportunities when we go to breakfast along the road.  We like to travel and find little restaurants for breakfast.  I’ve taken a number of photos and done sketches of the locals in restaurants.  That’s a newer project than the Tarahumara people.

I haven’t yet translated my landscape work into paintings yet, though I may in the future.  I always take photographs and do sketches.

Divisidero Market, Chihuahua, Mexico

Tarahumara Child at Divisidero Overlook, Mexico

Heading Home travel sketch

Wayne: Sharon’s keeps or gives her travel watercolors to friends and family as presents.  They are all really small.

Sharon: I’ve tried to use acrylics, but it doesn’t satisfy me like the oils do.  Oils out in the field are a bigger mess than I want, plus you have to have special drying boxes for oils.

Upper Scorpion campground, Gila National Forest, New Mexico

Tarahumara Heading Home, Mexico

Fruita campground, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Below is a series of photos which were used as reference photos for a final oil painting which was titled "The Plaza at Guapalayna".  There is also a set of sketches that Sharon cut apart and colored with marker to do a color notion.  Sharon chose to share this one as it shows the whole progression of the painting.

TCM: How did you get into art?

Sharon: I love art.  I have always been able to draw since I was a little girl.  Design is my first love.  My profession for twenty years was in clinical psychology.  I have my PhD and practiced for many years.  When I retired, I took courses in architectural design at the University of New Mexico.   I also took a couple of classes at the local art school and discovered oil painting.  

I found that I love oils.  I also love doing figurative paintings, which are paintings of people.  That’s somewhat unusual as figurative is a sub-speciality.  I have never been able to figure out if it’s related to being a psychotherapist.

When I start to paint a person, I’m copying a photograph.  The more I paint them, the more I feel like I know them and who they are underneath.  I guess it’s related to my love of figurative art as well as my career as a psychotherapist.

I have two galleries here in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and one in Albuquerque.  That’s mainly where I sell my art.  My website, www.sharonstillwater.com, is mainly there for information although I do and have sold through my website.  I also do a studio tour once a year with a group of local artists.

TCM: Will you continue the canyon and restaurant series or move to something new?

Sharon: I might possibly start landscapes, but I’m still very interested in architecture, in the Copper Canyon’s Tarahumara people, and in figurative work.  There are several Copper Canyon photos that were architectural that were turned into paintings as well.  We also like to go Hovenweep and look at the old architectural ruins.  I have thought to turn that into a series as well.  If I decide I’m going to do a series, it focuses me as I’m traveling to get the kind of information that I need to document when we’re out.

TCM: How long does it take you to paint one of your paintings?

Sharon: That is the hardest question.  People ask all the time.  It takes about a week to paint after I have it on the canvas, the sketch is ready, and it’s on the easel.  But if you’re talking about what goes into deciding what to do and putting it together, that could be another week or two weeks.  It’s very hard to say.  I paint fast once it’s in place.  The process leading up to it is a lot longer than putting the oil on the canvas.

TCM: It sounds like you’ve been camping to a lot of places in your life.  Where has your favorite place been?  Why?

Wayne: We love southern Utah and try to go there once a year.  On average we travel about 20,000 miles a year.  We also love Copper Canyon in Mexico.

Sharon: We love the really high country in New Mexico and Colorado.  One specific place we go to is Valle Vidal in the Carson National Forest, New Mexico.  There are fishing and hiking opportunities there.  It’s at an elevation in between 9,500 and 10,000 feet.  We also like the Rio Grande National Forest in southern Colorado.  We go to the Saguache Park area there.  There are several campgrounds and plenty of dispersed back country camping there.  It’s among the most beautiful high country I have ever seen.

TCM: Thank you for your interview, and for sharing your art with us.

Sharon and Wayne: You’re welcome.