Rox Corbett graduated from Concordia University, Montreal, with a BFA in graphic design and illustration. After leaving college, she chose a different course and spent the next twenty years at sea as a field biologist studying marine mammals. Her artist’s eye and powers of observation served her well in this field. She still supplements her income illustrating numerous books, posters and brochures depicting marine mammals, and also paints animal portraits in watercolor.

In the early nineties, Rox was an artist-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation in north-central Wyoming, and she began using charcoal to do large drawings of the interiors of old-fashioned diners.

“Charcoal has a richness that I have not found in other black and white media. Working from white paper into dark shadows, I can create a wide range of tones between black and white, but because of the warmth of charcoal, it is like working in color.”

While at Ucross, Rox got to know the local ranchers in the area and was invited along to help gather and brand cattle. She worked for the Ucross Land and Cattle Company for two lambing seasons, and became more involved in ranching activities. Rox traded the ocean for the high plains, and moved to Wyoming full-time in 1993. This is when she started making charcoal drawings of brandings.