New Mexico Chimesa

 

5x7 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2016

Private Collection

In 2012 we moved to Utah and made a journey to New Mexico to visit a relative. They were very gracious and took us around to see the sights. It was fall, and the Chimesa (Rabbit Grass) was in bloom. They were very striking to my eye. I didn't recall ever having seen them before, but I returned to Utah and they were all over in my neighborhood. It's funny that you can take for granted something close and have to make a trip to find that what you have next door is as beautiful as the same thing that you found in a far off place—the trip and its setting allowed you to have the sensitivity to see what is next door.

Rio Grande Gorge

24x36 acrylic on canvas © 2014

Collection of the Artist

My wife and I road tripped to New Mexico to visit her brother in White Rock. They were the most gracious of hosts and escorted us around to the sites that they had become accustomed to in the years of living in the area. Taos, Santa Fe, and Chaco Canyon were among those that we saw. We stopped for a vista of the Rio Grande Gorge that had been cut into the floor of the desert. It was fall, and the Chemesa were blooming. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful vista, and paint cannot not do it justice.