In selecting a thesis project, my interest and experience with fibre-tip pen drawings suggested that further investigations would be profitable. Fibre-tip pens provide a fast and convenient means to draw under outdoor conditions. The pens make dense black and consistent lines at whatever speed they are moved. The ink supply is automatic; not requiring a separate container for dipping and not requiring cleaning. Fibre-tip pens designed to make lines of different widths are commercially available at low cost.

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of a series of paintings and drawings confined to the subject of trains and the derailings of trains. This creative project includes a descriptive study which documents the development as it occurs in the series. The written material is utilized with regard to its relevance in uncovering pertinent conditions and events that contributed to the drawing and painting processes during the execution of the series.

The topographical landscapes of Miss Schell represent diversity in subject matter and media that includes oil, watercolor, and lithograph pencil scenes of Canada, New England, and Pennsylvania. Documentation used in the research included interviews and correspondence with her friends and students; photographs and slides of her paintings and drawings; exhibition lists of her works; and writings of her art ideals. This data formed five chapters of the thesis. The Introduction is a research overview; the second is her biography; the third analyzes three landscapes; the fourth compares her landscapes with eight contemporaries; and, the fifth states a conclusion of her importance as an art educator who transmitted Robert Henri's philosophies. A catalogue also is included,