Scenes from the desert

It’s break time for me — in between one Madeline Island School workshop group leaving and one arriving tomorrow — so I thought I’d take some time and post a few of my favourite sketches from the week. The image quality is not great because these are photographed sketches instead of scanned ones, but you’ll get the idea.

Overall it was a fantastic week. We had some chilly weather and high winds which made sketching outside a bit challenging, but the group was fun and very talented and I think a good time was had by all.

One of my first sketches, before I started teaching, was the view from my room. I’m always amazed by the shapes and patterns of the desert vegetation, and ocotillo is one of my favourite plants. I’m told that it does turn green in the spring but right now, it’s just a bunch of prickly sticks, standing straight up in clumps. Not that colourful to draw but I love the shadows it casts on the ground.

When I’m here, I always spend some time drawing the horses at Tanque Verde Ranch. One of the best places to draw them is to go up to the pancake breakfast at the old homestead. The horses are parked there waiting for their riders, so it’s the perfect place to sketch them.

One of the colours I always bring with me when I sketch in Arizona is Cerulean Blue Hue from Da Vinci. It’s a pigment that has some Phthalo Blue in it, and it’s perfect for the bright Tucson skies. I wet the sky with clear water first and then swirled some blue into it to convey the wind that was whipping up the sand around us.

The panoramic views of the Rincon mountains were quite spectacular this week, and my favourite time of day to sketch the saguaros are in the morning when they are backlit and they have a white halo around them.

And of course, no week is complete without a sketch of the old chuckwagon! If you want to come along to draw with me next year, I’ll be back from January 19-23, 2026. It sure is a great escape from the grey skies of winter.