New Mexico Sketchbook

Took a spur-of-the-moment trip to New Mexico when our London trip plans fell through due to the Icelandic volcano. It was fabulous, though a bit colder than we had anticipated. It took a while to get adjusted to the weather and the high altitude, so I didn't end up taking my sketchbook out in Albuquerque. By the time we got to Santa Fe it had started to warm up a bit. I actually brought dip and bamboo pens and Higgins India ink along with me, so I used those to do a quick sketch of the plaza in Old Town, and used Caran d'Ache Neocolor water-soluble crayons for color:



From the same plaza area, I sketched a corner of the La Fonda hotel -- by this time I was getting a bit cold and the wind had started to pick up, so I wasn't getting the lines quite the way I wanted! I did like the new ink I'd bought, though, Noodler's Golden Brown, since it matched the color of the adobe-style architecture quite well.



Before I headed back to our inn, I stopped on a corner looking down Water Street and did another quick sketch of the buildings with the Sangre de Cristo mountains beyond.



We went on to Taos the next day, and stopped for lunch at Graham's Grille:



Dinner that night was at Joseph's Table, with its dreamy ambience and antiques-festooned interior. Reminded me a bit of ABC Carpet & Home.