The San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe is often referred to as the oldest church in the United States. First built around 1610, it’s been rebuilt a few times since, but retains its general form. Unlike some of the newer buildings in Santa Fe, which have a coating of adobe over a more modern structure, this one is all adobe; you can see it in the thickness of the walls.
I sketched it on one of my first days in the city.
And then again for a demo with the workshop group. I don’t enjoy drawing things the same way if I draw them more than once, so version 2 started with a wet page and a generous quantity of Apache Sunset ink running all over it to form the base of the adobe structure.
With a forecast of heavy downpours, so we did our only indoor sketching of the workshop inside the mission. David Blackman of Preserve San Miguel so generously let us settle down and draw and paint inside at a time that the space was closed to visitors.
Spending time in the chapel really let us look at details we would’ve breezed past on another day. We collaged vignettes together in our sketchbooks and discussed the storytelling aspect of urban sketching,
I assembled a page of bits that peaked my interest: the bell that has the date 1356 on it (but was actually cast in 1856), the milagros surrounding it, and the delicately colored altar screens.
Then I added in a quick sketch of the exterior and one of David Blackman when he came outside to speak to us and look at all our sketches.
More from Santa Fe later this week, If you missed the earlier posts in this series, they’re here:
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 
I just LOVE your drawing style! The way you see colors, your loose mark making – everything. Thank you for sharing.
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