A Perfectly Santa Fe Day

Today was storybook, perfect, iconic: Santa Fe.

I took an early morning walk to La Fonda for breakfast. It is the most beautiful hotel! A glass atrium with colored, painted panes surrounds the dining room. Everywhere is artwork. 

I passed the art market and took pictures of the Indian Contemporary Museum, which was closed :(

I went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, which is always spectacular. They now have her painting kit on display, I loved seeing her paints, her brushes...

And she cut the bristles on a diagonal to get a fine point, that surprised me!

In the afternoon I made my way again to Canyon Road to visit the rest of the galleries. Saw some spectacular work, juicy bold paintings and fun sculpture. The iris and poppies are so impressive too!

Had a couple good conversations with gallery owners who both asked to see my work.

All around town, I just love the graphic shadows and arched entryways... and the clouds! All the iconic images of Santa Fe thrill me.

Tomorrow I visit a town on the Tourquoise Trail to paint!!! 

Overlook and Underview

My morning painting location was nestled in a residential neighborhood that overlooks the town and has a great view of the mountains. I saw a Roadrunner dart by and a few rabbits zigzag while I painted.

It was early when I was up there, trying to beat the heat (unsuccessfully.) The morning is when the mountains are pretty much all in this beautiful blue shadow, the sun hasn't touched them yet. There was a water tower as well but I decided to take it out ;) 

My OpenBoxM easel aka Pochade was wobbly the past 2 days and so I went in search of a hardware store for a hex wrench to tighten the head on my tripod... Thought I'd seen an Ace Hardware somewhere but sadly couldn't find it and ended up at Walmart. They had a Hex kit for 1.97! Awesome! and I tightened the bit and all is well.

This afternoon I drove back to the lake and to Elephant Rock Island, I found a small road called Dead End Road, seriously, and followed it down to the back side view, an Underview to the Rock I've enjoyed painting so much. 

I loved the boxy houseboats floating around the island and decided to add them in for size comparison... But I'll have to look at this piece again tomorrow, I'm not sure I like the boats after all. Or maybe I need more? 4 isn't a good number anyway...

About halfway through working on this piece my eyes were watering like crazy. That happens to me when I paint around lakes or rivers I've noticed... Happened in France, Ireland and at home too. Wonder what the commonality is?

Went out to dinner with another artist (green chile burgers, yum) and then we each had a soak in the hotsprings, a wonderful way to end a day! Tonight's water was 109* Here's my somewhat sterile room.

Came back to the Residency compound and we joined another artist for a little star gazing. The moon is at half and is so bright with a good orangey penumbra, lots of stars and even some shooting stars. NOW that's a wonderful way to end a very good day.

A Two-fer

Today was a two painting day. 

Started in the am with a short drive just a couple blocks away to a little park that overlooks the Rio Grande and across to Turtle mountain. It was early-ish, about 8:30 and there were some nice shadows on Turtle mountain that wouldn't appear again until about 7:45 tonight. Even though I did a pencil sketch before beginning, making dutiful notes of shadow placements etc... I ended up "chasing shadows" as painters sometimes say which is only to say ARGH! I got some and made up others... Very frustrating. Also, this piece was a slight departure from my usual and started to get juicy and painterly which was throwing me off a bit. I'll go in and soften the mountain in the distance, too many contrasts... Then it might just pull itself together.

Heading back to my row-casita, I looped around town searching for more Airstreams - found some really great ones that just might be on the agenda to paint tomorrow!

Later in the afternoon I braved the wind and painted over at Elephant Butte Lake. 

I had to bungee the pochade to a wood post and keep a hand on the turp jar which was swinging every which way!

This painting feels much more like me. It isn't finished but I'm liking where it's headed.