Sketching Arizona

November 2025 to May 2026

 

I’ve been a member of Urban Sketchers for a while now, and have attended their meet ups in several different cities and states.  For those who don’t know about Urban Sketchers, it’s an international organization that encourages people to sketch wherever they are, and post their sketches online.  The sketches are not finished pieces of art to sell, rather they are quick drawings or painting to show the beauty and diversity of our world.  And we meet up in a specific location however often the group decides; each person works independently; at the end, we have a “throw down” where everyone puts their sketchbooks or papers together, and someone takes a photo to post.  (Most of us post on our own art websites as well.)

 

So, I attended several Tucson Urban Sketchers meet ups, and then decided to draw and paint our back yard and some of the cactus in bloom.  It’s been an interesting project, and I think it needs its own blog post.  Besides, since I was so busy sketching, I didn’t have time to take photographs of the scenery!

 

Our first meet up was at Danny Lopez Park on the east side of Tucson.  There’s actually a lake there!  It was a small group, and I never did find where everyone else was working.  As I drove in, I saw a wonderful view of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and there was a covered area with picnic tables.  So I sat there, and worked on a large overview sketch.  I tend to work on more close up and detailed images, so this was fun.

 

The following month, we met up in Barrio Viejo, literally the “old neighborhood” of Tucson, dating back to the mid 1800s.  You can see what I mean about sketching small detailed images – this was the metal work above a door and the grate over the window of a small house.  As I was finishing up, the owner of the house came home, and I told him I really liked his window grate.  He said he and his wife picked up the flowers and hummingbirds at a crafts market, and he took them to an ironwork specialist to have them incorporated into the whole window.  Just gorgeous!  (And a great way to meet people!

 

In December, we did our Caribbean cruise, and I sketched/painted at many of the ports.  Those images are included in that series of blogs.

 

The January meet up was at the San Xavier del Bac Mission, the old Spanish mission church in south Tucson.  The original mission was founded on this site by the Jesuits in 1692, but the current church was built from 1783 to 1797 – making it the oldest European building in Arizona!  The actual labor was accomplished by the O’odham Nation, and the building and square stand on Tohono O’odham land.  Every Sunday, there’s a market with stalls selling food.  The arts and crafts market is held at the huge market building across the street.  (One of these years I’ll make it there.)

When we sketched at San Xavier last year, I drew and painted the usual scene of the church itself.  This year, I decided to draw the church as the backdrop to the market in the square, with all the people coming and going.  Since it was a quick overview sketch of a large scene, I worked in fine point marker and didn’t add color.

In the center of the square is a stone maze, a tradition among the O’odham people (and other indigenous people of the Southwest).  Called “The Man in the Maze,” this labyrinth represents the journey of life with all its complexities, options, decisions, and challenges.

 

Next up, we went to Avenida del Convento, sort of in central Tucson in the Mercado (market) district, with very Spanish architecture and large plazas.  It isn’t an old part of the city, but it’s built to look like an upscale version of it – bigger houses than in the Barrio Viejo, but similar architecture.

Most of the group gathered on a different street, but I parked and noticed the ornate oval windows of these attached buildings.  So I ended up sitting on the stoop on some building, and painting the scene across the street.

 

Our next sketching adventure was at the Mission Gardens.  Yes, for a while we were meeting up nearly every Sunday!  The Mission Gardens is a non-profit funded by a grant from the National Park Service, and they are growing plants (including crops) that the indigenous people of this region were using some 4000 or so years ago. Really fascinating! The had several kinds of citrus fruits, the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash planted together), and even fig trees! It's located on land sacred to the Tohono O'odham people, the Native Americans in this region of Arizona. A canal runs through the property - apparently digging a canal from a nearby river was pretty common for the indigenous people here.

I seem to be the only one without a chair, so I wandered looking for a nice place to sketch that included a rock or ledge or something else for sitting. I found a gorgeous trellis covered in ivy, with a couple of kinds of prickly pear cactus around the base, an agave, and a couple of flowering plants.

So that was my spot for the morning.  But the funny part was the road runner who came wandering through. He was my second-ever road runner, so I talked to him, and he bobbed his head and tail at me. He also sort of raised and lowered the crest on his head, so I guess that was part of his conversation. He actually came within less than a yard of me!  I told the young ladies at the shop about him, they said oh yes, he decided he lives here, his name is Kevin. I said he really didn't look like a Kevin to me, they laughed and agreed. I'm not sure if road runners qualify as remarkably bright, but we definitely communicated with each other.

It was a really nice morning, and the perfect spot outside the city for drawing and painting! It does make me think of using a bigger watercolor set for these outings, though - I have to mix my own greens, and given that I only have lemon yellow and ultramarine blue, my greens all look very much the same.

My scene had so many different greens, I opted to draw first in marker, and then paint.  With only about 90 minutes to work, it’s an easier way to differentiate between the various plants.  Sort of a quick and dirty way of making a fast but clear image of the scene.

Kevin agreed.

 

We gathered in a part of Tucson called the Lost Barrio.  It’s not really lost nor hidden, it’s actually the old warehouse district that is now turned into trendy little shops and boutiques.  I found a lovely little white shop with bright cobalt blue trim, posts, and railings, surrounded by greenery and pink flowering bougainvillea.  Just a lovely little vignette.  Plus I could perch on a planter across the street from it, and set up my water cup on the edge of the planter.  (We the chairless get creative.)

I’m not sure what the mosaic in the center front of the building was, some saint or something.  Possibly Our Lady of Guadeloupe.  I’m also not sure if the basin below the mosaic was a fountain, or more of a birdbath kind of thing.  But it was pretty, and fun to paint.

 

The following week, we met by an old building that is or was the Art and Music Palace, or school, or center, or something along those lines.  I hate to say I don’t remember, because I ended up not staying there.  (Are we sensing a theme here?  Yes, I tend to pick places to sketch where there are fewer people gathering.)

But mostly, it’s because when I drove to the location, I passed a statue of a bright orange griffin.  Really!  It was gorgeous, and I do love a good mythical creature!  How can you go wrong with a half eagle, half lion friend?

I parked, met the group, and told them I was walking back down a few blocks to draw the griffin.  I wandered on down to the griffin (maybe four blocks or so?), found a flower pot with enough edge to sit on and use as a table for my supplies, and that was my sketching spot. I had a great time and he was a very good subject, didn't move a muscle!

Actually, a tour guide with a small group came by, and he told the people about the sculpture.  The griffin is named Toby, and he was created by a group of artists in 2010.  There are even footprints cast in the sidewalk, randomly spaced eagle talon and lion foot prints!  Very whimsical!  (I do enjoy whimsy!)

Just as I was finishing up, a man from Cornwall, UK, came by and asked if he could take a photo of my sketch.  (I think I made Toby's torso too long, but I'm embracing the wonkiness.)  Anyway, he enjoyed my painting, and I had fun.

 

I started my backyard sketching with a lovely blue-green agave plant growing under what I think may be a mesquite tree.  There was some sort of succulent that had deep red flowers in early spring, and a spray of these blossoms created a gorgeous slash of contrasting color across the agave.  Great composition with just two plants in complementary colors.  (A bit of quick online research indicates that this is probably a blue agave, which is the kind used for making tequila!  And the red flower is most likely a coral bean flower, or Bidwell’s coral bean, which seems to be a true red and not a red-orange color.  Botanical Name: Erythrina bidwilii.)

 

Our last Urban Sketchers meet up was at the Juan Santa Cruz picnic area, overlooking the valley that is the Saguaro National Park West, with the Tucson Mountains in the distance.  (The eastern part of the park is obviously on the eastern side of Tucson.)  The area isn’t far from Old Tucson, originally built as a movie and television set, and now something like a theme park.

I wanted a view that included both the mountain range, and those friendly saguaros.  I picked the largest picnic shelter because I could sit on the side of the half-wall, and had a great view of the distant mountains, valley, and two hills covered in saguaros.  With several chollas in the foreground.  I was in the shade, and had a lovely breeze.  Ended up with a group of twelve hikers who came to cool off and have a break, and then the rest of the sketchers came to cool off as well.  Really was a perfect spot!  Well, 18 miles west of our house, so it took about 40 minutes to get there, but it was still a great place for sketching.  (Several people painted to ocotillas in full flower!)

Oh, and I was also visited by several cactus wrens, the ones that poke holes in the saguaros to build their nests. And a jack rabbit went hopping by - looks like an average rabbit but longer ears, and a leaner build than our plump bunnies of the north.

So, all in all a good day.  As with most of these Urban Sketcher works, I quickly draw in aquarelle pencil, and then paint with my mini six-color watercolor set.

 

Our Urban Sketcher leader headed back north (to Bellingham, of all places – where we summer!), so I went back to sketching our garden.  I tried to organize an event so other sketchers could come by, but Facebook seems to have banned me or something, so I couldn’t communicate with the group.  Oh well, I had fun anyway.

Under the same maybe mesquite tree was a lovely little vignette – another blue agave, and two other aloe-like succulents, both with clusters of flowers on long stems.  Actually, now that I’m trying to find out what kind of plant they might be, it turns out that aloe does indeed flower, and they look very much like the yellow and orange flowers in my painting!  Who knew?

The ground is normal Tucson desert dirt and gravel – I had a fun time splatter painting to create the gravel effect!  And I rather like the faded hint of greenery as the background, so that you get a sense that this is just a small scene in a larger garden.

 

Next I tackled the flowering prickly pear cactus.  It turns out there are a LOT of different kinds of prickly pears, and this is the black spine prickly pear.  Loooong black spines with white tips, and gorgeous yellow flowers with red splotches on the inner part of the petals.  And the cactus itself is green, but purple around the edges!  I know, it sounds like an odd combination, but it really works well.

The base of the flower turns into the prickly pear fruit, which can be eaten raw, or cooked into jellies, or rendered down into syrups.  And the green “paddles” of the cactus can also be cooked and eaten, although they aren’t sweet like the fruit.  (People also keep bees who produce honey from prickly pear cacti, another specialty.)

This sketch is mostly aquarelle pencil, rather than paint.  It was late afternoon, there were insect, and I wanted to work quickly.

 

We had two large cacti in the same shady area under that mesquite tree, very bright green and shaped like a big prickly pear, but with soft curly little protrusions, and no spines.  These turned out to be spineless prickly pear cacti!  They have pretty yellow flowers, and these also turn into the deep red-purple fruit.  I don’t know if the fruit from the different kinds of prickly pears taste different, though.  Or if the paddles taste different.  (Now I’m wondering how one removed the spines before cooking the paddles.)

Again, sketched in aquarelle, and painted with my mini watercolor set.  Though to make the pale center, I did need to use the white aquarelle pencils to get that very light color.  Also, this was done on a single page, not the open sketchbook, so the image proportions are very different.

 

Okay, the final Tucson botanical sketch.  This wonderful saguaro isn’t even in our rental’s yard, it belongs to the neighbor.  But it’s such a gorgeous cactus, I wanted to sketch him.  Her?  Some plants come in male and female.  Turns out cacti are both, so that the flowers of a single cactus can cross pollinate itself!

Anyway, this is an OLD saguaro.  They don’t begin developing “arms” until they’re roughly 75 years old, and this one has branches on branches! 

According to the National Park Service, saguaros have arms, not branches.  Here’s more information about saguaros – how tall they are at various ages, when they begin to develop the arms, all that:  https://www.nps.gov/sagu/learn/nature/saguaro-growth.htm

My guess is that this particular saguaro was about 20 to 25 feet tall, comparing it to the house.  And it was in full bloom, with those lovely white flowers with yellow centers.  (Yes, these flower stalks also develop into fruit.  The indigenous people created a tool from dead saguaro inner spines, to pick the fruit and cook it into jellies and syrups.)

This saguaro is to our west, so I waited until just before sunset began to sketch the neighbor's saguaro.  It's too hot and too bright mid-day, and I’m not a morning person.  I found an angle I liked, and started sketching.  Then one of the people who lives there drove up - and parked on the gravelly area what would normally be a sidewalk, because we're not supposed to park on the street. I moved, then he opened his window and said "can I help you?"  I explained I lived next door, and was just sketching their saguaro, that I had been doing a series of sketches of our backyard but we don't have a gorgeous saguaro the way they do.  We chatted briefly, he asked if his vehicle was in my way, I said no, I just moved so I wasn't in his way.  (He said with my book, he thought I'd be asking him to vote for something!)

Anyway - so I have a nice sketch of the saguaro, full of holes that cactus birds made so they can nest inside.  It's a really old saguaro with lots of arms as well as arms capped with lots of flowers, buds, and maybe fruit.  I came inside, used my skinniest marker to outline everything and make the lines that are really more like pleats in the saguaro skin.  Then used my watercolors to color and shade it all. (And a vague splash for the background.)

Last note, before I end because I know this is loooong – those accordion folds or “pleats” in the saguaro are an adaptation so that saguaro can drink up lots of water into the core during rainy season, and the saguaro actually expands with water and the pleats flatten out!  Major survival evolution!!!