Pastel Sketch, Sketches, Photos

In between vacation things I have been sketching and painting. Scavenger Hunt 185 is on. Like Jeanne Grant said, we never thought we would last for 100 Hunts and here we are. Participants drift in and out of the group but a few of us hang on there somehow.

I sketched at Orlando's in Taos yesterday while we waited for them to open at 5:00 p.m. This is the window. It sits in an red-orange wall. The turquoise with pink flower background is painted on and the fake shutters are old wood with turquoise painted on hearts. Very colorful. I may have to paint this to go with my window series. You can see a little of the kitchen inside and reflections of the trees outside. This sketch and the next one are in my small 4 x 6 inch "réflexions" sketchbook with a ball point pen (Pilot).

The geraniums in tin cans are on the corner near the doorway. This is about one-half page so not large. I didn't have my list for the Hunt and was hoping that one of these would fit, but no such luck.


This morning I sketched out on the porch. It was cool at about 60 degrees. This is number 2, denim. This is my purse sketched with pastels and also fits the challenge of using color only and no pencil or ink. It is on a piece of Daler-Rowney pastel paper, 9 x 12 inches. The tablet has thin paper like tracing paper in between the sheets, so you can keep your sketches or paintings there and they don't smear. It is nice paper, too.

As I mentioned we went to Taos yesterday with a stop at Valle Escondido for a little golf. It is a walking course in a neighborhood, but open to the public. It has so many prairie dog holes that you have to be careful walking. Amazing that we haven't lost a ball in one -- yet! We played there several times last year as well. We are not used to the altitude yet and the walk up the last hole is hard, about a 20% grade it seems. Whew! We just walked and pulled our carts, didn't hit the ball on that hole.

At hole number four I think, reference material of the wheel and old truck. You can see more photos of a similar day from last year here as well as more New Mexico photos on Picasa.

This is another reference photo as we were leaving Taos. I love adobe buildings and pottery.


This condo has many kokopelli decorations. Angel Fire is a ski area and the last kokopelli skier is pretty clever, don't you think?

And here is Gene coming back from his bike ride. I should have gone down the road and sketched or painted somewhere, but I stayed on the porch/deck and worked on the trees across the way. More about that next post.