Category Archives: Albuquerque Urban Sketchers

ABQ Urban Sketchers Morning at the ABQ Biopark/Botanic Gardens

July 30, 2024

On July 30th, six of us Albuquerque (ABQ) Urban Sketchers gathered for an impromptu morning of exploring and sketching at the ABQ Biopark/Botanic Gardens. It’s always so much fun seeing what’s blooming any time of the year, even during the heat of summer. Despite the morning’s toasty hot temperatures, the plentiful shade and water features provided many “cool” locations for sketching and exploring.

Since the Japanese Gardens section of the park was new to me, I decided to make my way there to sketch, while enjoying summer flowers and many interesting seed pods from what must’ve been an outrageous, overly abundant Spring bloom. After a slow 15 minute stroll, I had arrived at the 4-acre Japanese Gardens, complete with a waterfall, koi pond, pagodas, wooden bridges, many stone statues, and many many ducks.

Walking bridge over the koi pond

My first sketch was of a pretty pagoda that served as a shady spot for one of the ABQ Plein Air members to paint the scene behind me.

Then, wandering deeper into the garden, past the waterfall, I found the koi pond with a few interesting features ….. a walking bridge bisecting the pond where parents brought their children to feed the ducks. Adjacent to the walking bridge was a weathered wooden bridge which crossed the inlet to the pond. As I sketched and painted while sitting on a large flat rock a foot back from the pond’s edge, many large dragonflies hovered nearby, several koi rolled in the water, mallards paddled about, and a bullfrog sounded his loud and low stuttering ru-ru-ruuuuummmmmmm. A few park visitors even stopped behind me to watch my sketches develop!

Small weathered, wooden bridge and rolling koi

It was so calming and peaceful sketching in the gardens, and before I knew it the morning had flown by. Quickly I packed up my supplies and scurried back towards the entrance to the Biopark where I met up with my small group for our “throw down” and photos.

Such a great morning!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen fineliner 0.3 (black) was used first to create quick sketches; Derwent watercolor pencils and Pentel waterbrush were used for the color

Urban Sketching … Out and About In and Around Albuquerque

Late February to mid-April

Fascinated by the work that so many urban sketchers turn out, and further inspired by a few Sketchbook Revival 2023 sessions, it’s no wonder I wanted to try my hand at Urban Sketching. Joining the Albuquerque Urban Sketchers, my first outing was to a very iconic New Mexico shop called Jackalope. In some ways, this was a great place for lots of newbies (we didn’t have to brave the still freezing February temps), but then again it was very challenging. So many things to choose from! Here’s a few of my sketches. Because there were so many interesting trinkets, I decided to spend no more than 15 minutes on each, including some quick watercoloring.

This one was sketched from a life sized sculpture of a roadrunner. Meep! Meep!
This was sketched from a very typical Santa Fe-style painted wood cabinet. To me this style always looks like the furniture was hooked up to the hitch of a pick-up truck and drug down a dirt road at breakneck speeds! Luckily the very large rooster clay pot wasn’t hurt in the process.
Someone captured a photo of me working on my frog trivet sketch. You can see my dilemma deciding what to sketch! Stacks of trivets, all different, to choose from!
This was one of my attempts to urban sketch “solo.” I found a bit of early spring buds while waiting for Roy to finish up a doctor appointment.

All of that was really fun, but not as easy as some urban sketchers make it seem. So I began practicing and searching on-line for a bit of sage advice.

On Saturday (April 15th) the Urban Sketchers met again, this time at Old Town Farm, downtown Albuquerque. With the chance of sketching some rusted farm equipment and broken down barns, I wanted in on this event. And besides, the breezy day was supposed to be warm … ideal for a bit of plein air sketching! Well, on a Saturday, this place was buzzing with visitors, ranging from bikers and hikers; people sitting and enjoying a morning coffee and carrot cake; several teams playing something like bochi ball; venders; puppies for adoption. This definitely broke my fear of public sketching while giving me an opportunity to improve on my people sketching skills. Here’s what I found to draw in a few hours.

This was a pretty cool old barn, and still in fine shape. Looks like I could use lots of practice sketching old buildings! But I did meet several delightful women also trying their hand at barn sketching!
When I realized my barn sketch was going wonky, all I had to do was turn around and find this action scene! There were 2 teams of bowlers playing Pétanque (like bocci ball) in the dirt behind the barn, Here’s my quick sketch trying to capture their action and conversation. This was very fun. Afterwards I walked over to show them what I had done. The team leader was very excited about the sketch and asked if he could take a photo to use it as the team banner on their Facebook page! Of course I said, “Absolutely!”
Hard to resist drawing an old truck. Although not a rusty heap, this beautifully restored 1939 Ford V8 was just begging to be sketched. I had a little fun with the character of this truck, and never intended to make it a perfect replica. But this really suits my style. Have I found my happy style?

Hope you enjoyed my urban sketching efforts! Look for more posts in the future.