The old homestead

I’ve spent the afternoon scanning sketches from my recent teaching trip in Tucson with Madeline Island School of the Arts. It was a jam-packed two weeks of sketching both on the Tanque Verde Ranch property and at various locations nearby.

Sketching at the old homestead is always a highlight for me, and I hope for my students too. The stone building is perched atop a hill, surrounded by the Rincon and Catalina mountains and bordered by Saguaro National Park and Coronado National Forest. If you’re lucky, the javelinas might drop by while you are sketching, and you will definitely see (or hear) a Gila woodpecker or two.

I’ve sketched the homestead many times from a shaded spot down the hill just next to the campfire. The logs are where the wranglers sit during the Thursday pancake breakfast, but we were there on Wednesday, so no wranglers, no pancakes and no campfire for us. The elements that I always try to include to give this a sense of place are: a big blue Arizona sky, distant purple mountains, tall saguaro, the black elbows of mesquite trees, a campfire pit surrounded by stumps, and a rocky foreground with some horse droppings. If I can get that all in, I am a happy girl.

With my second group of students, we found a different spot to sit (this time in the shade of the chuckwagon) and sketched with a limited palette of Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Rose and Hansa Yellow. I love the gentle range of neutrals you can mix with this transparent triad. Perfect for the muted colours of the desert! I didn’t get to include the campfire from this angle, but I loved exaggerating the curves of the hilltop setting.

If you’re interested in joining me for a very fun week of sketching the saguaros, the ranch, the desert, the weathered carts and the wranglers, I’ll be back there next January. Tanque Verde Ranch is a very special place and MISA does a wonderful job of taking care of all of us. Here’s the info.