I am a road trip and travel journal junkie, and I have no desire to change that sweet addiction any time soon.
I love to visit natural sights and National Parks, and Scenic Byways. But my favorite of all, is small town America.
It is in these small towns that you get to know your country and the people who live in it.
Over many years, I have searched for and discovered most of America’s “Art Towns”, and visited them again and again - sketchbooking all the way. And these towns are always GREAT towns for sketching.
I haven’t shared any of this much, except with some special friends who have explored with me, and I feel it’s time for some sharing. My long term idea is to publish little sketchbooks about these towns, but meanwhile, I will do some sharing here.
Luckily, I live in one of America’s best art towns, and there will be plenty about Santa Fe to come. But Santa Fe is also surrounded by some even smaller towns with unique personalities that are not as well known.
This post is about a recent day trip to one of them. It lasted less than 4 hours, but there was enough interesting “stuff” to fill 7 small sketchbook spreads - even though I have sketched there many times before! It’s all a treasure hunt and there is always new treasure.
Ready for some visual storytelling? Here goes . . .
Madrid, New Mexico - September 15, 2023
I did not get very far before I knew that my first stop would be unplanned because my Tire light went on. As a road tripper, I am a big Discount Tire fan, and we have two locations, so stopping by was no problem and also a good idea, because there is a bunch of nothing-but-nature in the 25 miles between Santa Fe and Madrid.
There were a LOT of cars in the Air Pressure line, which was extremely unusual. What does a sketcher do while waiting? She sketches. But what to sketch?
If you look around with enough attention, there is always something interesting to sketch. Lots of concrete around, but there was a beautiful sky (common in Santa Fe), and some nice living things in planters both at Discount Tire and the hotel across the street. So I drew all that.
When I reached the air hoses, I learned a few interesting things from the attendant. These cars were all here because our overnight temperature had dropped the night before - only to about 40º - but that was enough to trigger the Tire lights to think there was low pressure. Our altitude plays a role in this too (7000 ft). These instruments are extremely sensitive, and they are calibrated in places different than where they end up. Therefore they can overreact. Who knew?
Finally I was on my way, and my first planned stop was the San Marcos Cafe and Feed Store, located on the Turquoise Trail on the way to Madrid. (See the spread at the top of the post.) The food is great and the decor and ambiance are quintessential New Mexico. Peacocks and Wild Turkeys roam the grounds, AND they have house made Cinnamon Rolls.
Many tourists end up at the San Marcos and I met a very nice Canadian couple who had lots of questions about what to see and do. I tried to be helpful.
Both the interior AND the exterior of the San Marcos Cafe make for great sketching. Wagon wheels, terra cotta pots, and Coyote fencing make great still life.
On to Madrid . . .
The first interesting thing about Madrid, New Mexico is how it is pronounced. NOT like the place in Spain, but rather MAD-rid. This confuses tourists almost as much as the fact that we also have Las Vegas about an hour to the northeast - without a Strip.
Madrid, New Mexico is an old coal mining town which thrived in the late 19th and early 20th century and was famous for its Christmas Lights displays - so much so that commercial planes would detour during the 1930’s to allow the passengers to see them.
Madrid was a true “company town”. The company owned all the land, shops, and houses. Everything in Madrid life was about the mines. Those mines closed in the 1950’s and Madrid was a ghost town until the early ‘70s, when the son of the mine supervisor, who owned all the real estate by then, allowed hippie squatters and artists to rent the abandoned buildings for very reasonable rates.
These creative folks rejuvenated the town and turned it into the thriving tourist attraction it is today - full of eclectic shops and galleries, and with a population of about 350.
A John Travolta movie (Wild Hogs) filmed here in 2007, created such an influx of visitors that locals considered turning “Maggie’s Diner”, a movie set facade, into a real diner. But the infrastructure of the town cannot handle *any* additional load, so that idea, and all the others that would have threatened the authenticity of Madrid, have been scrapped. It is a rare thing when a place can’t be ruined by progress, and Madrid remains its quirky, artsy, rustic self.
At the entrance to town is one of those places where you can stick your head through a hole in a “scene” and have your picture taken as a train engineer, spaceman, guy in a Sombrero, etc. It’s called Connie’s Photo Park. To me, the most interesting thing is the Madrid Wishing Well which is entwined with fake flowers, so that is what I chose to sketch.
There is a coffee shop called Java in the center of town with a courtyard Coyote fence that is a “gallery” of old signs, coffee pots, and what have you. I have sketched a lot of those things on past visits and this time, I chose the Java cup, which is a cut out made of painted plywood. It’s in a lot worse shape than it looks here, but I did a restoration.
The most charming thing about Madrid is color. Everything is covered in layers of brightly colored paint. This side entrance to one of the galleries - which are all in the old houses that line the main street - presented a pretty daunting perspective challenge, but I finally decided to go for it.
There is no postal home delivery in Madrid, so groups of mailboxes can be seen at intervals along the street. It is a local custom to decorate your mailbox. I have been photographing and sketching these mailboxes for many years, but I have yet to find one that stands up straight.
The Range West Gallery has been in business many years in Madrid. Its yard is always full of beautiful rock fountains and bright bells made by artist, Bill Loyd, from recycled compressed air tanks. They have a most unusual sound.
Because photography is as much an art form to me as sketching, and because I take reference photos of everything, I sometimes have a hard time deciding whether a sketch of a scene can do a better job than a photo. In this case, the photos won. They are already perfect, so I can’t make the memory any better by drawing them.
There is one more spread from this trip that is not done yet, because I have not decided whether the photos or sketches of them would be better. Here they are - what would you do?
And that concludes the little sketchbook for the little day trip to Madrid. Did you enjoy the trip?
Would you like to see more of this kind of post?
jessica
Madrid, New Mexico sounds as cool as the original Madrid!
Thank you. I think that you just inspired me to crawl out of my dark cave and focus on and journal, with pencil, pen, and color, on the sparkles of light in my world.