A long voyage is the perfect time to take up a new hobby or hone a skill such as drawing, writing, painting, bridge playing, knitting or crocheting – and the list
goes on.
Karolyn Rohr, a Cruise Specialists client, uses her extensive travels to enhance her painting talent and share her art via handmade postcards she sends to family and friends. Twenty years ago, this would not have been the case.
In the year 2000, Karolyn was in a catastrophic equestrian accident and was paralyzed from the neck down. Through months and years of physical therapy and determination, she regained many of her physical abilities, including walking.
Always having been a traveler, as her body recovered, she and her husband began to resume their cruise journeys.
“Quite honestly, we had never thought of a World Cruise until my accident. But there were so many places we wanted to see, and we had this a-ha moment. Mary worked with us on our first World Cruise to ensure a suite that would be a good match and location for my physical abilities, including walking with a cane,” said Karolyn. They decided upon the 2007 Regent Seven Seas Cruises® World Cruise.
While aboard that World Cruise, Karolyn took an art class. “The thought of doing an art class was hysterical,” said Karolyn. “I was never an artist – I couldn’t draw anything past a stick figure. But off I went.”
The class was a success, and both her husband and the cruise ship art instructor encouraged her to keep painting when she returned home.
As her newfound art skills blossomed, Karolyn began creating vibrant watercolor or acrylic postcards for people back home, sending them with local postage stamps.
She’s painted koalas, elephants, leopards, fish, llamas, and more – with horses and African safari animals being her specialty. On a recent Silversea voyage, the Rohrs cruised around South America and Karolyn was able to focus on penguins from the Falklands.
Why Cruising is the Perfect Studio
“Cruising gets us to places we wouldn’t be able to otherwise,” says Karolyn – who has now taken eight World Cruises plus several other major voyages. “We avoid ridiculously long flights. And I don’t like being told no. Guides have been incredibly accommodating in hard-to-reach places such as Petra, Angkor Wat and Iguazu Falls.”
Karolyn usually sets up her painting work station in one of the ship’s lounges where fellow guests stop to observe and chat, making for even more interesting experiences.
“Between the travels themselves, and the people we meet, and the artwork I create to remember it, these are the experiences that really stick with you,” says Karolyn.
Ready to set your own inner creative skills free?
