Sketching in the southwestern states of the USA - what happened next....

Three road trips across SW States and a stay in Southern California

Top row: (left) San Clemente (right) Sand Bank Mountains

Bottom row: (left) Point Lobos (right) Ventura

It's raining here in southern California on the last day of my trip so I thought I might try and do something really sensible(!) and pull together a list of the blog posts that I need to start creating when I get home to London (end of this week) and back to my computer/scanner/software/etc.

As has been correctly surmised already, trying to post on the road has proved to be well nigh impossible. On the couple of days I've actually had access to a computer I've also had lots of other practical trip related matters to sort out.

So - by way of a tempter - here's a summary of my trip to the south western states of the USA. I'll insert all the blog post links to this summary as I post the entry for each day.

The preliminary indications of some blog post titles are given below - along with some brief descriptions of the journey and some indications of images to come! As you can see there are quite a few sketches and I've very nearly filled my new Moleskine.

[1 October 2006: This blog entry has now been updated to include the final titles and posts relating to this trip and associated hyperlinks - plus a sample of images from the trip.]

A short stay and a pastels workshop in Southern California

I visited my friend Louise - she and her husband showed me the sights and then Louise and I took a weekend pastels workshop in San Clemente

• Tuesday 11th July: travelling / Wednesday 12th July: recovering from the journey and adjusting to new time zone - see "Hello from Southern California"
• Thursday 13th July: "250 miles 'riding bitch' in the desert" - travels on a Harley Davidson through the desert and what happened when it hit 115 degreesF in the shade - and we weren't in the shade!!! (no sketches or photos!)
• Friday 14th July "The Grand Tour of San Diego - Friday 14th July" - fast one day version / lots of photos
• Saturday 15th July: two posts about:
• my first American pastel workshop "Dianna Ponting Pastel Workshop Weekend - 15h-16th July" (2 pastels plus photos) and 
• a highly recommended art supplies store "Service with a smile - San Clemente Art Supply" (photos)
• Sunday 16th July: "The Big Cheese on the Pond - eating and sketching in San Clemente" sketches done during breakfast and dinner in San Clemente before and after the workshop
• Monday 17th July "Dick Blick in San Diego" - a visit to an excellent art supplies store

Road Trip #1 - Santee, Southern California to Albuquerque, New Mexico via Tombstone, Arizona

This trip started because my friends and I decided to go to the Annual Exhibition of the Coloured Pencil Society of America.  The trip to get there from Southern California took two long days.

• Tuesday 18th July "Breakfast in Yuma" and "Gordon drives Dome Valley with the boss" - Day 1 of the San Diego-Albuquerque Road Trip - starting from Santee to Tombstone, Arizona via Breakfast in Yuma, lots of desert and cacti, the Mission San Xavier del Bac and a major rain storm outside Tucson plus how to sketch on the move! (3 sketches plus photos)  Note: The latter updates the original which had coding problems when I tried to update it and hence could not be amended.
• Tuesday 18th July "A Tombstone Epitaph" (photos) an account of an evening with the cowboys in Tombstone
• Wednesday 19th July "Chillis and a big elephant butt" - Day 1 of the San Diego-Albuquerque Road Trip - involved Tombstone to Albuquerque via Hatch (home of the hot chilli), Truth and Consequences and Elephant Butte. (3 sketches)
• Thursday 20th July - Plein air sketching in "Old Town Albuquerque"; CPSA slide show of all entries for the annual exhibition (2 sketches plus photos)
• Friday 21st July - "Plein Air Sketching and a Banquet" Plein air sketching, champagne and the CPSA Banquet (2 sketches)
• Friday 21st July (out of order): "Plein Air Sketching the Sandia Mountains" - a follow on from the previous process with a detailed explanation of the process re developing a diptych sketch
• Saturday 22nd July - "Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe" visiting Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in blissful weather.  
• Saturday 22nd July - "The CPSA Artists' Reception" - for the Annual Exhibition of the Coloured Pencil Society of America (2 sketches and photos)

Road Trip #2 - Albuquerque, New Mexico to Santee, California via Prescott, Arizona

The main challenge for the drive back was that in the summer of 2006 the USA had a major heatwave . It had started on 15th July and got hotter as July progressed.  There were extremely high temperatures in the deserts making planning for the route for the trip back rather critical.  The aim was to avoid major inclines for a fully loaded car with four people.

• Sunday 23rd July - "Back in time to Route 66 and a bit more...." and "Big Clouds, Big holes and big rocks" Day 1 of the Return Road Trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Santee in Southern California - starting from Albuquerque to Prescott, Arizona via Route 66, Acoma Pueblo, Grants, Gallup, Walnut Canyon, Sedona and Jerome. (5 sketches)
• Monday 24th July - "2,000 miles later - Louise drives the desert with style"  Day 2 of the Return Road Trip - from Prescott, Arizona to Santee SoCal - involves "how to cross deserts in a heatwave" - crossing the Sonoran, Mohave and Anza-Burrego deserts - and how temperatures in the 90s can start to feel cool! (3 sketches)

Road Trip #3 - Pacific Coast Highway Trip from San Francisco to San Diego

On this trip I found out that the marine inversions on the coast tend to accompany very high temperatures inland!

• Tuesday 25th July - "a rest day" ie unpacking / washing / drying / repacking plus last minute bookings for Road Trip #2 - the Pacific Coast Highway Trip from San Francisco to San Diego!
• Wednesday 26th July - "Driving Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway" Road Trip #2 from San Francisco to San Diego involves flying from San Diego to San Francisco; then oicking up a car and driving down to Monterey armed with Ed Terpening's guide to plein air painting spots ("The best spots painting tour") and dinner in Pacific Grove (3 sketches)
• Thursday 27th July - "Carmel by the Sea - and a marine inversion" (4 sketches) with a description of what it feels like when it's more than 50 degrees cooler than the weather experienced on Monday!
• Friday 28th July - "The greatest meeting of land and water in the world" Point Lobos State Reserve (sketch and photos)
• Friday 28th July - "Driving down big Sur - at last" the drive along the Pacific Coast Highway down Big Sur (1 sketches plus photo)
• Saturday 29th July - "The best breakfast of the trip - at the Big Sky cafe!" San Luis Obispo to Ventura (2 sketches plus photos)
• Sunday 30th July - "The end of my drive down Highway 1 and the start of concretefreewayville" - Back to Louise in Santee via Brunch in Malibu and crossing LA by freeway (2 sketches)
• Tuesday 1st August - "Flying home and some reflections" on artwork produced and travelling in the USA - after trying to work out on Monday what went home and what went on to New England.

As well as sketching details, my posts also include details of

• routes I travelled
• places I stayed and/or visited
• descriptions of places where I ate meals (which often became the subjects for sketches) 
• PLUS places to buy art supplies .