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Private Room Details
Private Room – room layout varies - includes 3 daily meals – convenient parking – Check-in Sunday, Check out Friday.
All rooms include the following amenities:
- Daily maid service
- Individually Controlled HVAC
- Wi-Fi
- Internet Radio
- Mini fridge
- Coffee maker
- Hair Dryer
- Iron & ironing board
- Convenient Parking
Shared Room (with another student) Details
Two queen beds – shared with another student - room layout varies - includes 3 daily meals – convenient parking – Check-in Sunday, Check out Friday.
All rooms include the following amenities:
- Daily maid service
- Individually Controlled HVAC
- Wi-Fi
- Internet Radio
- Mini fridge
- Coffee maker
- Hair Dryer
- Iron & ironing board
- Convenient Parking
Day Student Details
Includes daily lunch, onsite parking, studio access, and MISA staff.
*Day Student is only available for certain workshops at MISA's Tucson Campus*
Meal Plan Details
Three exquisite meals are prepared daily by a master chef and served in the stately Ranch dining room with sweeping views of the Rincon Mountains. In the morning you can indulge in fruit and yogurt, crisp bacon with eggs, or the Ranch’s signature pancakes.
The gourmet buffet lunch with salads, seasonal vegetables and a daily variety of entrees will keep you energized for the rest of your workshop day.
In the evening, the southwest dinner cuisine will delight you and the Ranch barbeque at their Cottonwood Grove is always a highlight for the week.
During the week, several indoor and outdoor specialty dining events are held. These special events include the Cottonwood Grove Ranch Barbeque with live entertainment.
Genre: Urban Sketching
Cowboys, Cactus, & Covered Wagons: Paint the Wild West at Tanque Verde Ranch
Availability: Spaces Available
Instructor:
Workshop Description:
Step into the Old West for five days of watercolor, wide-open skies, and sun-washed desert scenes at Tanque Verde Ranch. Join me in capturing the rhythm of ranch life and the iconic sights of the Sonoran Desert in ink and watercolor on the pages of our sketchbooks.
Each day will offer a balanced blend of instruction, demonstrations, and plenty of relaxed painting time—both outdoors and in the studio. You’ll learn how to capture scenes with lively lines and fresh watercolor washes, letting go of perfection and embracing the joy of sketching on location.
My teaching will emphasize taking a thoughtful approach to sketching, where a few minutes of creative SketchDesigning at the start of a session can free you up to paint quickly and confidently. By brainstorming ideas for subject matter, page design, and text before you start sketching, you’ll open up a world of possibilities and infuse your sketchbook pages with your own unique style.
Throughout the week, you’ll enjoy plenty of one-on-one guidance, encouragement, and support. I get genuinely excited about what my students create during our time together. We learn from and inspire each other – that’s part of the magic of in-person workshops.
The illustrated handbook I’m preparing for the workshop will include page design and lettering ideas to provide a foundation for designing your pages, in addition to watercolor tutorials which will help you to capture the colors and textures of the desert. The possibilities for subject matter at the ranch are unlimited: towering saguaros, mountain vistas, sun-bleached covered wagons, old homesteads, and fun details like cowboy boots and spurs. And we may even pop over to the nearby botanical garden or historic Spanish mission one day to mix things up a bit.
When we’re not painting, we’ll enjoy the simple pleasures of the ranch, great food, amazing desert sunsets, and the camaraderie that comes from creating together. So, pack your saddle bags with your favorite sketching kit and mosey on down the trail to Tanque Verde Ranch for a creative getaway filled with learning, relaxation, and fresh inspiration.
Note: The included workshop handbook will be emailed to participants as a PDF. Printed spiral-bound copies will be available from Leslie for an additional charge.
Workshop Schedule:
Sunday Night: Welcome Reception at 6pm
Monday – Friday: 9am – 4pm
*Subject to change*
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A processing fee will be applied at checkout to cover the administrative and operational costs of running this workshop. Accordingly, the total amount shown in the cart will be higher than the price displayed here. This difference reflects only the applicable processing fee and is not a hidden charge..
