Winter Crosses / Black Mesa

Last year, with the pandemic raging and all activity shut down, I found my studio overlooking the empty streets of Santa Fe intolerably depressing. And so I began a series of plein air paintings which took me into the mountains and fresh air, away from people but still into an environment able to feed my spirit. During the warm summer and autumn weather I managed to complete over 20 paintings.

Come winter I was not ready to end this series and so I purchased a small bus and, pulling the seats out, transformed it into a studio on wheels. Through the winter I have continued painting this New Mexico landscape.

While I have always considered the attempt to capture the vast spaces of northern New Mexico in paint a fool’s errand (and still do) I am finding my last 40 years spent as an abstract artist has informed these images making for some unique resolves. To my eye, these representational landscapes have been born from my many years of studio work. After some severe editing I have nearly 20 new winter paintings to show you.

Each painting measure 18″ x 24″ mounted to 24″ x 30″ paper.

Winter Bosque / Road to Lyden

This is a floodplain just north of Espanola and the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, part of the Rio Grande River valley flowing down out of the Taos George. The Sangre de Cristo range is in the distance. These bosque cottonwood stands are of special interests to me. They are ancient spirits by human reckoning.

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Cerro de la Cruz / Snow Storm

This conical hill, visible to your east on the drive into Santa Fe from Albuquerque, has been painted by a number of artists over the years, including a beautiful tempera painting be Peter Hurd in the early 50’s. On a day of blustery winds and snow showers, this painting was finished in a whiteout of blowing snow.

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Long View to Las Barrancas

The tribal police showed up to ask what on earth I was doing on a rough service road leading up to a billboard sign. I was working on this painting of Las Barrancas, a formation of sand cliffs that overlook Pojoague Pueblo. I’m getting to know officers from several of the pueblos round about.

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Abiquiu / View to the White Cliffs

This is up in Abiquiu, some 40 miles north of Santa Fe. In the foreground runs the Chama river. Above the line of cottonwood trees that grow wherever there is a steady supply of water, white gypsum cliffs glow bright in the afternoon winter light. Those cliffs are framed by the much larger foothills of the Jemez Complex, now falling into late afternoon shadow.

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Patriarchs

These “Patriarchs” (or Matriarchs if you prefer) stand alone in a field on the drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. 40 years ago, when I first moved to New Mexico, they stood there. Over the years they became for me (and I’m sure for thousands of commuters) a signpost on the drive too and from. I have always seen them while driving past at 75mph. Finally I have taken the time to stop and show my respect.

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Winter Tree Stand / La Mesilla

La Mesilla (‘The Table’ in Spanish) is a little community just south of Espanola. A row of houses, each with a fenced backyard, sits on the table top. Behind and below this line of backyards the land abruptly drops off 20 feet to the bosque (‘forest’ in Spanish) where pueblo land begins and runs from there to the river. This stand of trees grows in a large drainage arroyo that empties out into the bosque at the northern edge of this community. Over the 5 consecutive days it took for me to paint this tree stand I met several neighbors who stopped by to make sure I wasn’t there to cause trouble. On the fourth day I took a walk into the bosque and fell in love with the wild nature of the thousands of ungroomed cottonwood trees. I’ve not been back. I actually fear that I love this place too much! The trees were a challenge.

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View South to the Sandia Range

The Sandia mountains are 50 miles to the south. I had this view every day driving home when I lived in Julianna Young’s studio out on Nine Mile Road.

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Hills of La Cienega

La Cienega is a working class neighborhood, nestled in beautiful rolling hills, with ponds and 300 year old cottonwood trees getting their nourishment from the Santa Fe River (barely a trickle through much of the year this far south of its source). These hills are visible from the highway south of Santa Fe.

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Clear Day / View to the Ortiz Range

This is the left and right hand panels of a two panel piece, each done on the same day and location. It is another long view east to the Ortiz Mountains and south to the distant Sandia range. The Cerrillos Hills are in the foreground. It was a very, very clear day.

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Clear Day / View to the Sandia Range

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Long View North From Bonanza Ranch

I’ve done several “Long Views” this winter Many of these vistas are from the La Bajada area, a high point in the landscape south of Santa Fe. This view is looking back towards Santa Fe from Bonanza Ranch where many western movies have been filmed. It was a very clear day.

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Long View West

With Tetilla Peak sitting above the valley of South Santa Fe, the Jemez Complex is visible 30 miles away. It was a blustery day.

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Long View East From La Bajada

This view looking east from La Bajada Hill was filled with a big sky, the Ortiz Range in the distance. The Long View South panel completes the panorama.

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Long View South From La Bajada

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Tree Stand / Taos Pueblo

All this talk about these landscapes I’ve been doing being so spare, well, that comes much from the subject. This is New Mexico with its vast spaces and profound distances. I like to believe that my technique is no technique, only a desire to bring to completion in whatever way necessary the scene before me. Evidence proof below in “Tree Stand / Taos Pueblo”, an image in which every technique I dislike using is used, this to make the trees read properly. I will probably return to this place and try the same subject more tightly edited.

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View North to Cerrillos Hills

This is a view of the Cerrillos Hills from just north of Madrid on route 14. Down in the valley, not visible from this viewpoint, lays Cerrillos, an old mining town, almost but not quite forgotten.

These last three paintings were done during a week long period of clear, cloudless skies. Since then spring has become insistent. New Green is everywhere.

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Las Barrancas

Here is the last painting in my winter portfolio of watercolors. It is a closer view of Las Barrancas, a formation overlooking Pojoaque Pueblo. It is now mid April. The cool winter light is changing as the sun moves higher overhead. The trees are budding. I’ll be curious to see what happens to my palette in the coming months.

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Long View West From Golden

This is a long view looking west from a turnoff near the little town of Golden located on Rt 14, the back road from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. A wide expanse which overlooks the Rio Grande river valley. This is one of the worlds largest “Rift” valleys in the world, stretching from a region north of Taos to an area south of Albuquerque. From this long view one can see west to Grant, 60 miles away.

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Sangre Zen

Painted from our friend’s driveway on Tano Road, this triptych will hang above their bed.

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Tetilla Peak From Bonanza Ranch

Looking west from Bonanza Creek Road, the dark lip of La Bajada divides the upper and lower portions of this painting. From the upper Rio Grande Valley (north) La Bajada Hill drops 500 feet to the lower Rio Grande Valley (south).

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Spring Bosque / Road to Lyden

This is a spring version of a winter painting from the same location, done when the ‘new green’ was just emerging from the trees.

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Mesa Montosa / Noon Light

I like this painting’s ‘suggestion’ of superstructure. It is a first attempt at the cliffs of Ghost Ranch. The noon light flattened all this mesa’s layered outthrustings of rock. Its volumes could only be described by the weight of sky and minimal tree line.

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