Travel Sketching

My husband, artist Kurt Isgreen, and I just returned from a three week road trip to the Texas hill country and Gulf coast.  After acquiring a small Hawk popup camper for our pickup truck last winter and taking several short trips last year, we decided we were ready for a more ambitious trip.  After three days of traveling and figuring out the logistics of camping, grocery shopping, and navigating, we were ready to begin recording our travels in sketches.

Along the San Antonio Riverwalk, 2/14/16

For this trip I took a 6″ square multimedia sketchbook.  The size was a bit of a challenge; being quite small, I had to determine what to include and what needed to be simplified.  The square format was also somewhat of a challenge, as city scenes lend themselves better in landscape layout.  The plus side: the size was ideal for walking and hopping buses; the paper weight allowed for a variety of media, including markers and watercolor.

San Antonio:

First evening, too late to explore the Alamo, but good light for drawing

Day 2 San Antonio- our plan was to see the many historic homes in the King William neighborhood, San Antonio

Day 3 San Antonio- took the bus to the Museum of Fine Arts- one of the best art museums I have visited.  Very impressive for a small city.  Then down the Riverwalk to the Pearl neighborhood.

Final day in San Antonio, then on to Goliad, TX

Visited 4 missions, explored all 4 missions and sketched 2.

Espirtu Santo Mission is right on the grounds of Goliad State Park, where we camped

The town of Goliad is a short walk from the park along a well-kept trail/bridge system

After leaving the Hill Country, we traveled to the Gulf Coast.  We camped at Mustang Island the first night, visited Padre Island National Seashore, then on to Rockport, Fulton, Goose Island State Park, and Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Rockport-Fulton had the best seafood I have ever eaten.  I ordered the shrimp pasta, which were absolutely HUGE and fresh off the boat!

Leaving the Coast, we camped a Blanco State Park.  We explored the smaller towns of the Hill Country, including Luckenbach, Texas and Fredericksburg.  Both Rockport and Fredericksburg are art colonies.  The final night at Blanco, a hard rain fell which made national news.  I was quite worried about flooding and tornados, but we came through it safely.