Because I was not on the same computer and somehow my password was not enough, I have been locked away from blogging for many weeks. My sweet time in Taos ended last week for now, and I have been struggling to put away the hundred things I took with me.
A good many paintings came home, 12 finished, two in progress, two left in a small show in Taos, and many in my mind yet to put on canvas.
I have photographs from the trip on my FB page if you care to look. A few I will share here also.
Taos was almost an overload of sensations, such incredible beauty at every turn, with the great golden trees 120 feet tall arching over the little streets in town to almost meet overhead on Liebert and Burch and Montoya and Los Pandos and more. Purple astors and yellow tipped chamisa grow wild, and over it all is that mystical mountain. I am surprised to find how passionately I miss the mountain. One is conscious of Taos mountain, in the parking lot at Walmart, stopping at a traffic light, coming out of the grocery store, it is ever present and for me, impossible not to feel. Taos Mountain changes color in the incredible light of that place, sometimes in just a minute or two, confounding those who would photograph it or capture it in paint. It is green with dark shadows, or with splashes of gold on the sides where the trees have taken color, or it is deep Copen blue with a sprinkling of snow on the top, or it is purple with swaths of apricot light from the evening's last sunlight in the opposite sky. It is opalescent in the full Harvest Moon's light.
Painting with a fine group three mornings a week the entire time I was there enriched my experience past telling. The East Studio Art League is led by artist Richard Alan Nichols in the historic studio of Ernest Blumenschein, one of the more prominent artists to work in Taos. Rich Nichols' work can be seen in Parson's Gallery on the web. Of course I enjoyed it first hand while there. I soon felt at home and wrapped in the love of this group of caring people sharing meaningful time and experiences. Outside of my painting group, I met other warm and wonderful people also. Taos has been a haven for alternate lifestyle advocates (Does anyone still say hippies?) since the 60's, so I felt at home in that regard too. There is music on various corners, much of it at Farmer's market on the Plaza Saturday morning. People dance where and when they feel like it. Wonderful big dogs go everywhere with their significant people. Art is everywhere in dozens of galleries and open studios. I pray that I can go again, and am grateful I could make the trip this time. e
