rural location sketching

A montage of houses in the hills on the edge of town.

Having lived, traveled and sketched extensively in large cities, rural sketching is a different challenge. There are very limited public places, most land is privately owned. I see many places where I would like to get a closer look for sketching, but the "keep out" and "private property" postings are serious business.

Although I sometimes take chances with trespassing, it makes me very uncomfortable. (I had a shotgun pointed at me once while sketching in a cattle pasture, that was not good at all. Ranchers have no mercy). In these cases, I sneak in, sketch very quickly and take snapshots. Using a camera is a dilemma in the sense of being a "purist" in the location sketching crowd, but I would be very limited otherwise. Besides, I have always loved photography almost as much as drawing, sketching and painting.