Adobe No. II - Canyon Road - Santa Fe New Mexico

Many of the adobes on Canyon Road are OLD - I'm taking very,very,very old.  Some of them so old that the exterior is mud-clay-with hay mixed in.  These ones require constant maintenance year round.  Others are newer and consists of a stucco material.

Some of the older adobes have 1 - 2 foot thick walls and the interior walls are stucco finished with a diamond finish which is as smooth and shinny as a new baby's butt!

18 x 24 - heavy linen paper - Chroma Interactive acrylics - alla prima - wet into wet - brush & palette knife.

I start this painting out with a quick sketch using a brush and some watery paint.  This allows me to be loose.

I throw in a sky and some sky color down onto the ground and the adobe - why?? Because the color of the sky actually does reflect down onto the ground!!!  Trust me - it's true!!!

I throw in some additional color to start developing lights and darks and shadows

Adding more color and ground clutter and foliage around the top of the adobe.

At this point I'm not liking the windows on the right side and the roof line is getting a bit confusing so I need to make some changes.

Sooooooo - I change the roof line and I add a chimney and I enlarge the small windows on the right and I apply a heavy paint texture on the exterior using a palette knife - I also add a "soldier" course of bricks at the roof line - a lot of the older adobes have this as part of the construction 

Finished

Rustic Old Adobe

18 x 24 

Adobe No. I -Canyon Road Santa Fe NM

Being out in Santa Fe a few weeks ago getting our storage unit ready for delivery to Florida I have to say that the New Mexico landscape bug bit me again.  We lived in Santa Fe for 5 years and many hundreds of paintings.

Canyon Road is the art district of Santa Fe - Canyon Road has many-many-many galleries both on Canyon Road and on the side streets off Canyon Road.  Many of these galleries are in old adobes. Additionally there are adobes in which residents live.

18 x 24 - heavy linen paper - alla prima - wet into wet - brush & palette knife.

I sketched in the scene with a brush and some watery paint.  This allows me to be loose, using loose swinging arm motions with a brush rather than tight controlled motions with a pencil.

I add more color

I add more color and shadows and depth

The finished painting

Mind over Matter

Since returning from Santa Fe NM a few weeks ago my mind has been clogged with southwest painting ideas.  There is so much beauty in the Southwest - I favor Arizona but New Mexico has its fair share of landscape beauty.  I've painted many SW landscapes and just have not had time to put them up onto this blog.  Our house is new but it still takes time out of my day - hope to see the light soon - a kitchen backsplash tile job this weekend and if the afternoon rains would let up the grass MIGHT stop growing!!!  :>(

I feel like I have a full time job cutting grass!!!!

Stay tuned for some posting of recent paintings.

A while back I posted a sketch of a painting that I planned to do. I did it today.

Music plays a big part in my artistic ventures especially for my Southwest and Native American paintings. The following painting was painted to Native American flute music - "Canyon Trilogy" by R. Carlos Nakai & "Migration" by R. Carlos Nakai & Peter Kater. After living in the Southwest for 14 years, I have an extensive collection of Native American flute music.

History tells us about the Native Americans having to travel to winter and summer camps. They would journey up into the mountains during the hot summers in order to get coolness and just the opposite in the winter - they would travel down to canyon floors to try and get some warmth. The journey would be long and difficult - up mountains - down mountains and each journey brought about the loss of some elders and even children for not all would make it to the end of the journey.

"The Journey" - 18 x 24 on heavy linen paper - Chroma Interactive acrylics - alla prima wet into wet with spontaneity and a tremendous level of emotion which I feel for the Native American Nation.

First I did a rough sketch = I use a flat carpenters pencil for sketching - it allows me to be loose,

I throw in a sky - using a big brush and I paint in a distant mesa.  I also throw some of the sky color down onto the desert floor as the sky should always give off some reflections to the ground.

I throw in other mesa formations 

I continue to work on the land mass painting around the figures

I add in some more figures and some final touches

The Journey

18 x 24

Some details