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| Santa Fe Chile Peppers! |
The weather has continued windy this week in Santa Fe, and for two days, we even had snow flurries. I'm hoping the weather pattern will become calmer for our upcoming week in Taos, which got two inches of snow. But spring in New Mexico is, after all, typically windy. The weather hasn't affected my painting, though. For this week only, I've chosen just to take pictures. I'll get back to painting once I'm in Taos.
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| Snow squalls coming in |
Yesterday while on our way downtown, I suddenly remembered I needed a tube of white (Gamblin) for the Taos retreat. We made a quick detour to
Artisan Santa Fe. A painter shouldn't visit Santa Fe without stopping by. It's the most well-stocked and friendliest local art shop I've ever been in. But it's like a candy store, and it's easy to break the bank. Besides the white, I wanted an extra tube of
Torrit Grey. If you buy $25 or more of Gamblin products, you get it for free. My 150ml tube of white wasn't quite that, so I very happily added a tube of manganese violet to my cart to go well over the minimum purchase.
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| Opening up shop at the Palace of Governors |
This morning, we decided to go down to the Plaza and pay a final visit to Canyon Road. It was cold – in the low 20s – so we first stopped for coffee. After that, we wandered down to the
Palace of Governors. The Indians were setting up their little "shops" in the shade. Jewelry, miniature katsinas and other crafts were placed out on blankets. If I were them, I would have wrapped the blankets around myself, it was so cold! At one gallery, the outdoor water fountains were all frozen. (I overheard one tourist ask the gallery director, "Are these frozen just naturally?" As if the fountains had some sort of refrigeration unit attached.)
As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm no fan of most decorator wall art. I most enjoy traditional representational art that shows a high level of craft and artistic sensibility. The area around the Plaza has more than its share of tourist shops (think turquoise chokers, tee shirts and sand paintings) and, like Canyon Road, a good number of "contemporary art" galleries. But it does have galleries with the kind of art I like, too. Some of our favorites today include
Hueys Fine Art,
Mountain Trails and
Wadle Galleries. I was pleased to find a large selection of work by my friends
Howard Carr and
Betty Carr in Mountain Trails. At Wadle, we saw a couple of pieces by
Irby Brown that really spoke to us. We almost bought one.
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| Wouldn't it be nice to cruise town with this? |
We've been looking at property to buy this week, too. Santa Fe is one of the top three art markets, along with Los Angeles and New York. A
beautiful gallery building, complete with courtyard and residence, is up for sale. Its $2.5 million price tag sounds like a lot, but considering the location and what you get, it's not. (Contact me if you're interested in partnering. Seriously.)
Tomorrow morning early, we are off to Taos. I hope to have some nice paintings to show you next week.
