17 May 2021 - ON MY EASEL TODAY - Works in Progress (Underpaintings) - RIO FERNANDO (New Mexico) 40"x30" and LOS CAMPOS DEL LLANO, 24"x30" Original Oils.
20 June 2021 - 6AM (Llano Quemado, New Mexico) - A month since I've posted. Joyfully returning to some semblance of normalcy. This was a week of firsts. A short field trip north to Cerro and Questa to scout for new material. Yesterday a really wonderful visit to Chimayo Trading Del Norte. Strangeness - a kind of fuzzy excitement. Like waking up on a new planet. No masks. So heartening to see people smiles and happy eyes!! A quiet sense of freedom - renewal.
Went in to sign a large painting and met Rebecca who works at the gallery every weekend. Met a great couple from Colorado who bought a small painting. Picked up my "birthday/Christmas" present - a beautiful Hopi Kachina "The Morning Singer" by Chester Poleyestewa. Owners of Chimayo Trading, Gabe and Alicia Abrums stopped in on their way to Chimayo. Gabe showed me several new and amazing acquisitions. I held a Navajo woman's dress - indigo and cochineal heavy weaving from the 1700's. More great weavings from that time...an unbelievable serape from Mexico, a Navajo child's blanket. Exciting conversation. Art talk - the joy of meeting people who speak my language!! The afternoon was topped off by a most welcome and drenching rainstorm and a nap!
Los Campos de Llano Quemado has been finished since my last post and Rio Fernando will be completed today or tomorrow. These new canvases are colorful and solid - good quality. Two weeks ago Gabe took eight new paintings to the gallery. My studio walls are empty. This is another New Beginning. I will be 82 in September. Have been roaming the back roads of northern New Mexico for 54 years. Deep gratitude. A good life! Earlier this year told Gabe I thought it was time for me to retire. Surprise, surprise - the spark is alive and well. A contract with myself to produce a series of new paintings - first are the two pictured above and earlier this year "Lazy River Dreaming" which has been sold. The working title of the series is The Spirit of Place.
Another adventure - an empty-handed leap into the Great Unknown. Purpose and meaning....
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