La Romita has had a long, wonderful friendship with Ken O’Connell, a collaboration spanning over 20 years. We consider him to be the godfather of Urban Sketching. Though perhaps he is not as well known in that global community as he should be, he was actively pursuing that approach to art and teaching it years before the community “officially” formed.
Ken O’Connell has worked in his sketchbook/journals since 1961. He has filled over 107 books with images from Japan, Germany, France, Mexico, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, and the USA. Ken was a professor of Art at the University of Oregon for 28 years – 12 years as the Head of its Fine and Applied Art Department. For the next 25 years he taught over 55 Sketchbook Workshops; 2025 marks his 56th.
For decades, people have associated Ken with sketchbooks and Workshops along the Oregon Coast and in Italy. But he was also a painter, photographer, printmaker, animator, potter, and pastel and charcoal artist. He has worked and taught all these art forms.
As of August 2025 he is working on his 108th sketchbook – evidence of and testimony to a life in art. Find out more in this article in Oregon’s largest daily.
Sketching with Ken is an adventure in seeing the world with fresh eyes. You will learn to work portably, quickly, and with an eye towards capturing fragments of wonderful experiences. The sketchbook is your portable studio and your portable history. The spirit of the rough sketch is to see simply and to learn to draw […]
Drawings, sketchbooks, paintings, prints, photography, animation, and ceramic works, dating from 1963-2020 This summer Ken finally responded to a growing chorus of requests to mount a retrospective of his work. It opened with a quite limited public July 3rd at the Karin Clarke Gallery in Eugene Oregon. In order to make his opening available to […]
Sketching with Ken is an adventure in seeing the world with fresh eyes. You will learn to work portably, quickly, and with an eye towards capturing fragments of wonderful experiences. The sketchbook is your portable studio and your portable history. The spirit of the rough sketch is to see simply and to learn to draw […]
"Travel sketching is our plan. Our tools are portable and light." The spirit of the travel sketch is the spirit of beginnings, of fragments you see and want to study more. Slowly you connect with the subject as you draw it. The beauty of the sketchbook is that it is just for you and your […]
"Travel sketching is our plan. Our tools are portable and light." The spirit of the travel sketch is the spirit of beginnings, of fragments you see and want to study more. Slowly you connect with the subject as you draw it. The beauty of the sketchbook is that it is just for you and your […]
As La Romita School caters to multiple levels of instruction and various forms of the arts, prices will vary by session, season, instructor, and offerings.