South West USA Sketchbook (2006)

My USA Sketchbook comprises two trips in 2006.
As well as sketching details, posts will also include details of places to buy art supplies plus descriptions of places where I ate meals (which often became the subjects for sketches) and places I stayed.

 This page is about.......

Travels with a Sketchbook in the southwestern states of the USA (July 2006)


This three week visit comprises

  • a stay in San Diego and one workshop - in San Clemente, California
  • three gigantic road trips:
    • From San Diego, California to Albuquerque in New Mexico via Tombstone in Arizona - to attend the CPSA Annual Convention 
    • From Albuquerque to San Diego via Highway 66 and Prescott
    • From San Francisco to San Diego. This last one was just me - on my own - driving all the way down Highway One!  (So that's one "do before you die" crossed off!)

These are the posts which record the days
  • 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!)
  • Tuesday 18th July "Gordon drives Dome Valley with the boss" Santee to Tombstone, Arizona via Breakfast in Yuma, lots of desert and cacti, the Mission San Xavier del Bac and a major rain storm in Tucson plus how to sketch on the move! (3 sketches)
  • Wednesday 19th July "Chillis and a big elephant butt" Tombstone to Albuquerque via Hatch (home of the hot chilli), Truth and Consequences and Elephant Butte. (3 sketches)
  • Wednesday 19th July
  • Thursday 20th July - Plein air sketching in "Old Town Albuquerque"; CPSA slide show of all entries for the annual exhibition (2 sketches plus photos)
  • Saturday 22nd July - "Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe" visiting Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in blissful weather; the Artists' Reception for the CPSA Annual Exhibition (2 sketches and photos)
  • 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.
Here's the links to the sketchbook galleries on my website

Travels with a Sketchbook in New England (September 2006)

(From top left, clockwise: sketches from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont)

The main purpose of my my trip to New England in September 2006 was to take a 5 day Pastel Workshop with Sally Strand on "The Colour of Light" (see Making A Mark - The best ever workshop - pastel painting with Sally Strand). This meant that my first week (11-15 September) was spent on Cape Cod - based in Chatham.

As I was in New England, I decided that this was the most wonderful opportunity to see as much of New England as I could within the usual constraints of time, budget and the different locations of people I knew. It makes such a difference when you travel to the home areas of people you know. I always get a much better understanding of a place when I do.

My main base was the Massachusetts countryside, northwest of Boston, with my cousin and her husband. As it turned out it couldn't have been better positioned for my different trips. Consequently I was able to see a bit of Massachusetts on the first and second weekends either side of the workshop. 

Then in the second week I travelled to see Nicole Caulfield in New Hampshire and Bert Dodson in  Vermont before travelling on the Wednesday across to Maine where I spent the next five days visiting with Kathy Ellis and her husband, before returning via Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This trip seems to be completely swamped by animals from start to finish. It's got four moggies and a miniature poodle in Massachusetts, two Labradors in Vermont and three more Labradors in Maine. I even acted as the midwife at the birth of a new blog about Labs!

The itinerary went something like this:
The last sketch - at Logan Airport (note the wifi laptops!)
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleksine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'd like to offer a big thank you to all the people who offered me hospitality - and most especially my cousin who had her washing machine and dryer on overtime for me on two weekends on the trot and my mother who got up very early two mornings to ferry me to and from the airport and provided a mother-substitute services for my two cats!


Besides the links to posts for individual days, you can now also see galleries of my sketches done while on my travels in New England on my website

MassachusettsNew Hampshire and VermontMaine





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