Forgotten San Miguel de Allende sketches

Now back from our holidays, I was going through my sketch book and thought I would post sketches that I did on the holiday but did not put on my blog. As I make a book at the end of the year of my blog posts, I wanted to add these.

Above - Guanajuato
Flower and butterfly - drawn during flight

Above - Nov 11 - Remembrance Day

San Miguel de Allende - parting gift

Something I started years ago, was to leave a painting or card for my hosts that I painted while I was visiting or renting. I sat on the curb down and across from our rental house on San Rafael Norte and painted this water colour. The sidewalks are so narrow, I had to turn my feet sideways to make room to let the cars pass. I was certainly getting interesting looks as it seemed everyone was driving home from work! We packed a mat and metal frame from home but the glass broke in our travels, hopefully the owners can get another one cut.

"San Rafael Norte 6"
Water colour, ink, matted and framed
#20112216

Cycle In Style

This painting was really fun to do. Both my husband and I enjoy cycling and the outfits we see are very interesting - from spandex, work clothes to "out for the night". These lovely ladies are in the "out for the night" category and having fun. I decided to put the bike rental sign in Swedish as that is one of the places we would like to visit and cycle. This painting is quite textured but the camera flattens it out.

"Cycle In Style"

12" x 16" Acrylic on canvas

#20112216

Prairie Home 2

"Prairie Home 2"

12" x 9" Oil on board

#20110216

This painting was done from a photo taken by Doug Swinton. I loved the side way view of the house and felt the yellows and blues gave it a warm, well lived in feel.

Red Marsh

 Time to hurry and post some paintings I did before our holiday as I am hoping our son will make me another book of my year of painting from my blog postings (as a Christmas present).

"Red Marsh"

12" x 9" Oil on board

#20109216

The painting on the top is the finished painting. The photo below is the painting (almost finished) with the photo reference on my easel. I liked the feel of the photo so worked on it in a class I am taking with Doug Swinton. I found this painting very challenging, but am happy with the finished painting.

Sketching on flight #2 home - part 2

I had brought my sketch book, ink pens, water colour paint and pencils to challenge myself to try to do 30 sketches during this holiday to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I surpassed my goal and drew 44 sketches in part by joining up with the Urban Sketchers San Miguel de Allende and sketching with the group weekly. It inspired me to sketch just about every day and on some days, multiple sketches. I will finish this sketch book then move on to a couple I made in Mexico with water colour paper (thanks for showing me how and where Judy!).

This sketch was challenging in that it was done in one continuous line in ink. We were on our last flight home (Houston to Calgary) after a holiday to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I was sitting in a middle seat so my physical space was limited. I decided to draw from a photo on my phone of a market place booth. Drawing with the planes vibration was already shaky so it did not matter.

This sketch is of another cute napkin I was given. My views were very limited therefore so was my subject matter. With the lack of elbow room, I did not attempt to colour either of these in.

Sketching on flight #2 home, part 1

Houston, USA to Calgary was our second flight. I found sketching while in a middle seat difficult as I had to keep my elbows in (both people on either side had the arm rest) but I had a lot of time to kill. I sketched the contents on my tray table but wasn't able to colour it due to the lack of elbow room.

The second thing to catch my eye was the cute napkin under my cup. I pulled out one water colour pencil for this one but did not use water. United does have great napkins.

Sketching on flight #1 home

The following sketches were done on our first leg of flying home from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. We were picked up by at shuttle at 6 a.m. for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Leon, Mexico airport. We flew from Leon to Houston, roughly a 3 hour flight. The first sketch I tried to colour in with water colour pencils but was not happy with the way in worked on the 60 lb sketch paper. I had packed my brush in my checked suitcase so tried to activate them with water on my finger or the pencils.

The second sketch was done after looking out the window and singing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", the clouds were all different shapes. I had started it on the first leg and finished it on the second flight.

San Antonio Church and Plaza sketches

Our our last day in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, I was lucky enough to be able to join the Urban Sketchers San Miguel de Allende on their weekly outing. This time we met in the San Antonio Church and plaza. Children were also off school so the plaza was very busy and active. The children were especially interested in what we were doing and a few posed for one of the sketchers.

I decided to be brave and try some of the people. I thought these 3 men were interested and the two "bookends" were sketchers. The middle person was waiting for his child to play for awhile and then decided to leave when he felt me looking at him. Sketching "sketchers" works so much better as you know they will be fairly still for awhile.

Sketching another roof terrace view

This is another sketch done from our roof top terrace of San Miguel de Allende. There is such a fabulous view and the architecture is so varied that I could probably draw a different point of view daily. We haven't been able to spend as much time as we would like due to the unseasonably cool and windy weather this month. I wish our holiday was longer!