Our five-day Urban sketching workshop began at the Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza. Some students were staying right here with us, while others commuted from nearby places each day (With parking passes included for all students).
The hotel provided breakfast and lunch buffets, and I was grateful to see plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables - something I don't always find at buffets. I should have taken photos of the spread, but you can see me snacking on some fruit during our morning sessions below.
Based on previous feedback from my students, everyone was eager to learn more about Perspective and Urban Sketching. We structured each day simply: mornings for diving deep into perspective theory in our reserved room (called the"Chapel"), and afternoons for putting that theory into practice by sketching on-location all around beautiful downtown Santa Fe. (Map of downtown)
The morning part of the workshop drew from a six-week perspective class I had recently taught at my local community college in Charlotte. That experience taught me so much about what clicks with students and what they find challenging. The big challenge here was condensing six weeks of material into five days - but everyone seemed ready for it!
Day 1 focused on the essential foundations of how Western perspective works (as opposed to Eastern Perspective). These concepts would carry us through the entire week with each day getting deeper and more complex in theory.
*Note: Perspective is a deep fabulous topic to talk about. I’ll cover more in future newsletter postings so for now I’ll keep it brief.
After lunch, we went to the San Miguel Church, known as the oldest church in the U.S. The adobe construction felt so characteristic of Santa Fe and seemed like a perfect subject to sketch to start our week. The morning had been cloudy and a bit chilly for this time of year, but we could see patches of blue sky trying to break through.
While I was doing my demonstration sketch, the church door opened and a woman approached us. My heart sank a little - I've been asked to leave properties before when sketching. Instead, she warmly invited us inside for a music ceremony that was about to begin. We chose to stay outside and continue sketching, but we could hear the most beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace" played on trumpet. Moments like these make location drawing truly memorable.
Then the weather shifted quickly for the worse. Wind picked up and rain began falling. We found shelter next to the church at first, but it became too wet and too cold to continue sketching comfortably. We safely made our way back to the hotel to finish our drawings there. While it was disappointing not to complete everything on location, sometimes that's just part of outdoor sketching.
One of the gifts of meeting five days in a row is the chance to revisit yesterday's work with fresh eyes. We started with a "Throw Down" - a common urban sketching practice where everyone shares their drawings from the previous session. Despite the challenging weather, I was so pleased to see how everyone had completed their church sketches!
We then jumped right into our Perspective course, moving from one-point to two-point perspective, focusing on really understanding the fundamentals that bring drawings together.
Down the hall at the hotel were two other art workshops happening the different conference rooms - one on color with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably, and another on quilting with Sue Spargo. Every time I passed by, participants were deeply focused on their work. Both classes were taught by internationally acclaimed artists and had many returning students, which spoke highly to the quality of their work!
Our afternoon location was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, right in the heart of downtown Santa Fe. What a stunning building.
We found the perfect spot across the street under the covered area of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. The roof provided shade from the strong sun, and the street corner in front of us was closed to cars - ideal conditions. I wished we had discovered this sheltered spot the day before!
For this session, we tried the "Color First, Ink Later" approach - laying down broad washes of color first, then adding ink details later once everything dried. We had practiced this initial part of the technique in the classroom that morning, which helped everyone jump right in on location with confidence.
The loose, colorful foundation helps you start quickly without getting caught up in details from the beginning.
I was smiling the entire time since this day was such a huge difference from the day before, sketching in the rain and the cold weather.
As our afternoon session ended, I suggested an optional drink and draw evening for anyone that might be interested. I expected many people would just want to rest after a full day of intense sketching, but nearly everyone joined us at Herve, a lovely wine bar with high ceilings and a beautiful atmosphere.
We had a nice drink, nice appetizers, and lots of chatting and getting to know each other more. It turned out to be such a gentle way to end the beautiful day together.
Continued to Part 3...
And if you really like this newsletter, you can always buy me Iced Coffee too 😻
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