Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Adobe Wall and Beyond

Adobe Wall Tucson Morning

I was last in Tucson sixteen years ago. I've been yearning to return. I was excited to draw saguaro cactuses and to cast my eyes on a landscape so different from the Midwest.

We stayed for a week in an adobe house. An adobe wall encircled the house and its cactus garden. I loved how that wall defined an intimate space within, while framing the vast desert landscape beyond. It became a new twist on my Inside/Outside exploration. I did this watercolor from the bedroom window, looking north across the Tucson Foothills neighborhood.

The adobe wall was interrupted, as it circled the house, by four blue wooden gates. Below, a mixed media, predominately Neocolor II water soluble wax pastel, in my pocket-size Moleskine. From the front screened porch looking to the side yard and the large mesquite tree outside the gate.  It was late afternoon; I loved how the wall and the dirt of the garden "floor" received the sprawling shadows.

Blue Gate to Mesquite








       Blue Gate to Mesquite in process



Looking over the wall on the other side of the house, two totem pole cactuses, within the wall, frame a neighboring house:

Cactuses Inside Adobe Wall, Saguaro Outside

 The same grouping of saguaro cactus pictured in the upper right above is drawn again below, showing its long-dead, nurse tree. To do this one, I sat on my folding stool, outside the wall, my back to the adobe. (I can't keep my hands out of the crayon box.)
Saguaro Family and Nurse Tree
Saguaro Family and Nurse Tree


One last one including the adobe wall: an octopus agave with its towering bloom:

Agave Blooming

To see more of my sketches while in Tucson. Go to my Flickr Photostream Tucson, Arizona set.  

7 comments:

  1. These are wonderful, Marcia! Very different, very appealing.

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    1. Of course, I always enjoy your appreciation. I'm curious what you mean by different.

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    2. Different locale, different color intensity, even (mostly) watercolor instead of water-soluble crayons. You're obviously good at whatever medium you choose! I love the soft, serene colors in the top two...I want to BE there!

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    3. Thanks for exchanging more of your thoughts=--much appreciated, Kate. You would have had a heyday here. There was so much to appreciate and draw right at this property, there was hardly any reason to leave it, except to return to the airport. After the Watercolor Artist article, I thought I better keep on exercising my watercolor muscles, too. (It's hard for me to keep my hands out of the crayon box, though.

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    4. Well, you handle watercolor beautifully! It looks like a wonderful place to spend time...

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  2. Hi Marcia,

    These pieces are just beautiful. You have really captured Casa Encantada. Each piece captures what we love about our desert and why we enjoy sharing it with folks like you who appreciate the love we've put into it, both inside and out. Thank you for your expression of our beautiful desert. Gary

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    1. Thanks so much, Gary, for your kind words. Your home, with the loving, personal care you're imbued it with, and the drawings I've taken away make me feel that I now have a home in the desert, too. Now I just have to figure out how and when I can get back to draw the drawings of your place that are still in my minds eye (like looking out the window of your purple-walled kitchen).

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