James Lancel McElhinney is a visual artist, author, and essayist, best known for travel journals and other works exploring American rivers and Civil War landscapes. Exhibited widely, his works are represented in numerous public and private collections.With a Yale MFA, Tyler School of Art BFA, and study at Skowhegan, McElhinney has received grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in New York with his wife, cultural historian Katherine Manthorne.

"Part artistic history of the Hudson River Valley, part travel guide, and part how-to-manual on how to be a sketchbook traveler McElhinney's volume is as absorbing as it is beautiful. McHlhinney is that rare contemporary artist who at once seems to live in our 21st century moment of environmental consciousness and at the same time follow in the footsteps of 18th century topographic explorers and 19th century picturesque artists. His knowledge is voracious, and his writing style witty and gregarious. Above all his sketches are transportive, and inspire the reader to travel along in his footsteps, and above all be not afraid to venture out on their own path, to turn looking into seeing, and to record their own journeys." -- Anna O. Marley, Ph.D. Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art