A Day Trip through New Mexio, from dusty desert to cool pines

Nedra Metteucci Gallery in Santa Fe

Recently my husband and I decided to take a day trip out of town to decompress and have some fun.  I did have business in Taos to attend to, so we decided a scenic drive was in order.  We left early in the morning and headed up towards Santa Fe and beyond, one of our goals was to eat lunch at Rancho de Chimayo before arriving at our destination.  After a yummy New Mexican meal we headed back towards Espanola and on northward along the Rio Grande.  Taos was beautiful, as usual, and deserves a whole other post of its own someday.  We walked around Taos for a while, ate ice cream on the plaza and it was already time to go!  We returned through Los Alamos and had a beautiful drive through the Jemez mountains as the sun was getting low and casting it's magic golden spell on everything it touched.  It had just rained and the forest was light filled and misty, with rain drop sparkles catching the eye.  It was a fabulous day that renewed our spirits and made us glad in our hearts. 

 Driving through Nambe Pueblo    

Sacred Heart Church

 

lonely desert on the way to Chimayo

 Santuario de Chimayo

 

 San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in upon arriving in Taos

 ~Returning Home~

 Black Mesa

 Santa Clara Pueblo

 Overlook on the road to Los Alamos

 Jemez Mountains

 Los Conchas after the fire

One week before the fire that started in June, 2011,

the largest NM wildfire in state history at that time.

We were camping/hiking in the area before it started.

 (hazey at the time from forest fires in Arizona blowing smoke/ash over NM)

 End of Day

Warbler and Grapes

oil/panel   8"x10"

Birds In the Garden....

 Orange crowned Warbler

~More Warblers in the garden!~

 

Nashville Warbler

 Virginia Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Georgia O'Keeffe Country

This past weekend the family drove to Abiquiu, NM for lunch and to see the breathtaking scenery.  We drove through the heart of O'Keeffe country and it was like stepping into one of her paintings.  I have always been a huge Georgia O'Keeffe fan because she is the first famous artist I took an interest in when I was young, her work just spoke to me.  Her paintings are not hard to miss in New Mexico since images and prints plaster many businesses here.  Even in my wedding photos I am standing in front of a wall of various O'Keeffe prints with my husband.  She's everywhere!  The first artwork I ever owned were a couple landscape prints of hers, that was before I ever knew I would become an artist myself.  Today I am a fan of her life, how she came to New Mexico and lived in solitude in the middle of nowhere to produce her artwork.  How she drove out to the desert in her truck to paint the mesas and hills from life, and her deep love of the country here.

 

     

  ~O'Keeffe's beloved Pedernal~

 

I thought I'd share a few of Georgia's landscapes along with some photos of the colorful hills and cliffs of Abiquiu.  Portrait of an Artist, the biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, by Laura Lisle is the biography I read and really enjoyed.  And if you'd like to see gorgeous photos of her house in Abiquiu please see the photos from July 1981 Architectural Digest Here.   

 

 

         



above photo by Annie Leibovitz, hills behind Georgia O'Keeffe's home