ROAD TRIPPING TO NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO SITES AND SCENERY

www.carolhopper.com

with Dee Sanchez, Artist and Great Driver

Heading north toward the Sangre de Christo mountains,  the initial bluffs are dry and scrubby.  Clouds are building.

In Chimayo, we loved this gate and religious wall mural on a typical adobe wall

The old Vigil store, now know as El Potrero Trading Post

Sancturario de Chimayo
I wasn't able to go in as mass was being held

In Chimayo, this small town is most famous for Sanctuario de Chimayo.  This shrine, a National Historic Landmark, is famous for the story of its founding and as a contemporary pilgrimage site.

Rancho de Chimayo Restaurant has wonderful Mexican food, great for indoor and outdoor dining.

New Mexico is out of our long lasting drought in this part of the state. It was lush and green.

Cundiyo

Wildflowers, intersting fence posts create angles worthy of paintings

Sunflowers in full bloom, Ponderosa Pines on hillside

Whose house this is I do not know
It is within the village though

We are high...over 7000 feet

Dee's photo of sign at our lunch restaurant in Penasco.
 We had the best green chili cheeseburger of a lifetime, so good both of forgot to take a photo of it. The Green Chili Cheeseburger had a thick crisp slice on bacon on a homemade focaccia roll with crisp warm edges..

The above several photographs were taken rolling through the countryside and villages including Truchas, 
Las Trampas, Cordova and Penasco.  

The gorgeous dark clouds continued to build as we continued north to within 23 miles of Taos.

Las Trampas San Jose de Gracias Church
A Historical Site
Photo courteous of Wikipedia

TRUCHAS

(Following information and photograph from Wikipedia) 

 "Straddling a high ridge, the community began as the Nuestra Señora del Rosario, San Fernando y Santiago del Rio de las Truchas Grant, a Spanish land grant in 1754 and, due to its geography and location, remained a relatively unchanged outpost over the centuries. The land grant is commonly known as the Truchas Land Grant, gaining its name from the river that provides the water for irrigation of the land. Truchas is the Spanish word for trout."

Dee and I talked about our reading and seeing the movie "Milagro Beanfield War" while we were in Truchas.  The novel was written John Nichols.  Robert Redford directed the movie.

Now it is time to paint.
Stay tuned!

Hot July Newsletter covering my four Painting Processes plus Six Bonus Tips

Complete July Newsletter on

www.carolhopper.com

By now you, my Blogger and Google Subscribers, may have noticed it has been a while since I have posted any updates here.  My Fine Art Studio Online website  has so many wonderful features as well as its reach, I regularly post there.  My website always includes new art work as it is finished.  

Many of you get my Newsletter on my website.  For those of you who do not receive it and would like to, click here.

The July newsletter is so full of information I titled it 

an unfinished book in one newsletter.

You will find illustrations and directions for my four painting processes

 as well as six very important tips.

Adobe Charm
20x16
oil on canvas
Framed

ViILLA ACEQUIA GARDEN WALL plein air painting

Villa Acequia Garden Wall

Villa Acequia Garden Wall
6x8 FRAMED oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

Painting outdoors cooperation with the Corrales Garden Tour, this plein air painting shows a newly created garden wall including a doorway, arch and bell....a magical touch for a villa built in the 1860s.  Corrales is a rural quaint farming community on the outskirts of Albuquerque.  

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE III

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE III

    This Little Gem (6x8 oil on black gessoed board) is the third in my series of this house, wall and gate.  I chose to paint this setting from different angles and light.  Here the light is late morning; the wall is still is shadow but not for much longer as the sun has lit the foreground quite a bit.

    Click here to bid or "Buy It Now" on dailypaintworks.com

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE II

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II
6x8 Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted with a black painted edge

         "Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II"

     I guess you know I enjoy painting the walls and buildings of New Mexico.  Each wall is unique as all of them are built by hand.  Adobe bricks are made from a straw and mud mixture and then dried in the sun.  The adobe bricks are used to create freeform structures which are then covered with stucco.

    This particular house, wall and gate located in Corrales is weedy and unkempt.  I doubt that more than a couple of the plants were planned...most of the growth is from blown in seeds.

  Click here to bid or  "Buy it Now" on daily paintworks.com.

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate 

Here is yesterday's post of my first painting of
Corrales Adobe Wall and GateII.  You can see
I painted the same scene from a different angle.
Which one do you like best?  

Tomorrow I will post a third painting of the same location.

Click here to bid or "Buy it Now" on dailypaintworks.com

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

"Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate"

    Just like Santa Fe and the Albuquerque Old Town area, Corrales, New Mexico has quaint old stucco structures.  I am painting a series of this particular gate and house.  For the first in the series, I chose afternoon sun.

    This painting is also featured in the dailypaintworks.com contest.  To bid on this painting, click here.  If you prefer to BUY IT NOW rather than participate in the auction, that option is now available.

    My Little Gems have a black painted edge so they look great in a floater frame or mounted on tabletop easel.  All my paintings are suitable for framing.

Day Twenty-Nine : Santa Fe Adobe VII SOLD

"Santa Fe Adobe VII"
Little Gem 6x6
oil on museum board

This is lovely Santa Fe in spring...trees blossoming in white, lilacs in rich magenta and lavender tones, irises in purple, all with a Santa Fe typical gate and a wall.  The tones in this painting are bright and uplifting.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com

Day Eighteen: "Courtyard Gate with Trumpet Vine" SOLD

Courtyard Gate with Trumpet Vine
Little Gem
8x6 oil on canvas mounted

I love reading everyone else's blogs about the progress they are making in the thirty day challenge.  Do you agree it has improved our painting skills?

Trumpet vines with pods are everywhere most of the summer.  The plant is pretty, it is messy, and it spreads.  Eventually the trunk can be the size of a small tree.  We love the plant in spite of its minuses.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com

Day Seventeen: Hollyhocks and Blue Gate SOLD

Hollyhocks and Blue Gate
Little Gem
6x8 canvas on board mounted

Prowling in my little neighborhood subdivision...riding my bike instead of walking....snapping photographs of people's plants, gates, walls, and doors.  I have found plenty of painting material on my street alone.  As usual there is inventing....this gate was a different color, the stucco was a very light PINK and the hollyhocks were roses.
Well, at least today I didn't move any trees!

I had a struggle with this painting initially because I originally did paint the stucco light pink.  It took me a while to figure out the painting needed to be warmer!

To purchase or bid on this painting, click here.

Santa Fe Adobe V, Day Four of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

Santa Fe Adobe V
6x8 oil on canvas, mounted

SANTA FE ADOBE V, oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite suitable for framing or display on a tabletop easel.  Day Four of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge



Isn't this organic natural wall interesting?  I would have liked to watch it being built.  This type of wall is very prevalent in Santa Fe, but walls are found around property throughout the state.  It may just be the style, but I was told they were built to keep out rattlesnakes.  I have lived in NM for 45 years and have never seen a rattlesnake.

The Russian Olive tree inside the wall is messy and thisrty.  It doesn't belong in the desert and is considered by some to be a nuisance.  Yet it is a very beautiful tree with an incredible fragrance in the spring.

To purchase, click on the click on the photo.

Santa Fe Adobe, Day Three of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

   Santa Fe Adobe II 6x8 oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite
     Day Three of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge


Even though the elevation of Santa Fe is over 7000 feet which makes it somewhat cooler, it can get hot there as well.  It is a desert unless there is irrigation.  This painting is very typical of the architecture of the houses and walls.  On half the wall you can see the adobe blocks exposed...before the stucco fell off.

This was the second painting of this house; the first was done in plein air.  Hot, hot, hot and no shade.

To purchase, click on the link under the photograph.

Santa Fe Adobe II
6x8, oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard