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.

The mess on my desk

There’s a mess in my studio this week. The remnants of planning and filming a new online course. In this case it’s a colourful mess because the new course is about colour.

It always takes tons of time to figure out what I’m going to paint during filming, and then of course I practice it a bunch of times so there are no disasters during production. The reject pile of practices that don’t work out is there too, and eventually that makes it to the recycling bin, although sometimes I save the failures so I can cut them up and make them into cards.

The new course — Expressive Triads: Limited Palettes, Unlimited Possibilities — is about something I never get tired of playing with: triads of colour. I could tell you more about the course but it’s easier to just send you over to my website so you can check it out. And while you are there, all my individual courses are 30% off this month as well. Have a look!

New paper for a new year

Our postal strike is finally over in Canada, and the backlog of mail is trickling in. A few days ago I received Etchr Lab’s new 9″ x 12″ 100% cotton watercolour paper block. As always, when I am testing out new products, I paint something easy, like the paint tubes on my table.

If you use Etchr sketchbooks, you’ll recognize the feel of this block. It’s the same paper as in their Perfect sketchbooks, just a little thicker. I’ve filled many of these sketchbooks, so I know it’s a paper I like to use for both ink and pencil drawings, and it takes the colour really well. Like the book, the block has a cold pressed surface so it stays wet for while, allowing me to deepen washes like I did in the cast shadows of this sketch.

So why use a block instead of a book? I don’t know about you, but I don’t cut pages out of my sketchbooks. But sometimes I want to create a sketch with the intention of giving it as a gift. Or I want to put it in a frame for a small format exhibition. That’s when a block comes in handy. It’s easy to transport, doesn’t need taping to a board, and stays pretty much flat as you work. And it’s a definite plus if you are familiar with AND like the properties of the paper.

Happy holidays!

The days are short but there’s still a lot of beauty in my woods. This year I’ve been enjoying the different types of plants and wildflowers that grow around the perimeter of the quarry. I’ve photographed them in all seasons but of course they are most beautiful in winter when the dry seedpods are covered in snow.

I painted this quarter sheet wet-in-wet watercolour using lots of Lunar Blue from Daniel Smith. It’s a colour I haven’t experimented with much but wow, it’s amazing. I need to do further experimentation but with the holidays here, I didn’t really have time to create swatches to explore its full potential. From my first few washes, I can see that it’s very granulating but also sometimes blue and sometimes grey when diluted. I also used some Naples Yellow, Umber and Indanthrone Blue for the darks in this.

I hope you have some time to rest, enjoy family time and of course be creative during the holiday season and the coming year. As always, it truly wonderful connect with all of you online and in person. Happy New Year and all the best from snowy Montreal.