Category Archives: adobe

Alley off of Canyon Road

Canyon Road in Santa Fe, the “City Different”,  is a quaint 250year old street which is now home to many beautiful art galleries.  This is an alley which opens up to Canyon Road, and shows the gorgeous old adobe buildings so typical of the area.  On the far right you can see the exposed handmade bricks of a wall from which the adobe mud has eroded.  
This is such an organic and eco-friendly building style, I often wonder why it isn’t adopted on a larger scale.

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Mission Bell

Ahhh, the blue skies and ancient adobe walls of New Mexico are calling me, and the closer we get to winter, the more that bell rings in my head!  I notice a lot of restless Canadians these days….pacing and gazing southward.  I imagine there are a lot of similarities between our behavior and that of our migratory bird friends.  

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Corner of Canyon & Delgado

A few years ago, I was blessed enough to be given an Artist’s Residency in a lovely old adobe compound on Canyon Road in Santa Fe.  It truly was a magical experience in a mystical town. Just up the street from my studio was the corner of Delgado Street, with the most intriguing and delightful adobe home ever.  I always wondered about the history of the place, (of that entire area of town actually) and wished I’d lived there 100, or even 200 years ago.

f you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Carl’s Chuckwagon

So here we have the finished chuckwagon.  I left the background white…I think it’s ok to do that.  This is really more of an illistration for a book than it is a bonafied painting, and it was busy enough without adding the coulees in the photo or even a sky.  I’m the artist so I get to decide! SOLD

10 X 14″ on 140 lb  Lanquarelle

Ranchos Christmas

Ranchos de Taos Church, again.  This is the third time I’ve painted this landmark for my blog.  Soon the most photgraphed church in N. America will also be the most painted.  There’s nothing like the brilliant clear light of Northern New Mexico on ancient adobe walls. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Old Adobe Walls

The old adobe wall and it’s turquoise gate as so typical of northern New Mexico as to be almost iconic.  When you’re raised where I have been, this seems so exotic, but once I read up on it a bit, I realize that it’s been used for millennia, all over the world. The sun dried adobe bricks are hand made with mud, gravel or sand, combined with straw and water. All the materials needed are found right where the building stands. In my painting, the top of the wall shows the weather worn old bricks, while the bottom part is plastered over with slip of the same mud material. Organic, environmentally sound and exquisitely beautiful, this is without a doubt my favourite style of construction. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Rainy Day in Santa Fe

It’s a rare day in Santa Fe to have cloudy skies, let alone rain, but that was the story this day! Our native plants are so beautiful, and one of the nicest things about the American SW is that they cultivate their native plants, such as the various cacti and the beautiful Chamisa in my painting.  Also known as Rabbit Bush, it’s Latin name is Crysothamnus Nauseosus, and it grows 5 to 6 feet high and carries beautiful yellow flowers in the fall.  Don’t you love how it looks against these old adobe walls?

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Acequia Madre

One of my favourite places in Santa Fe is a very old household compound surrounded by ancient adobe walls, with an arched gate and heavy old handcarved doors depicting kachina dancers.  I lived close by and walked by there at every opportunity….the street is deliciously named “Acequia Madre” which, in Spanish means “Mother of all Ditches”. As if all of that isn’t enough, the adobe walls include these slate shelves with an alcove, and exquisitely beautiful old Indian jars full of geraniums.  It’s almost too much to bear…all these delights in one place. 
Only in Santa Fe. 

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Taos Pueblo

 One of the most haunting and beautiful places I’ve ever been is the Taos Pueblo. Located in Northern New Mexico, it was discovered by the Spaniards in 1540. Looking much as it does today, it was by then probably 1000 years old, and archaeologists believe there have been people living in the Taos Valley since 3000 B.C. The pueblo is actually many separate homes, built side by side and in layers. The conical structures in front are the earthen ovens used for baking. Today about 1900 Taos Indians live on pueblo lands and call this ancient village “home”. If you ever  find yourself in N. New Mexico, don’t miss the chance to visit.

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.

Georgia’s Gate

When I visited Ghost Ranch a few years ago, I saw the house where Georgia O’Keeffe lived and painted…this is the gate to the courtyard of that spare, modest adobe home. She was an extraordinary woman for her time…they say she’s the most important woman painter in history.  Whoever “they” are maybe don’t know our own Emily Carr, but either way, both women were trail blazers, who refused to conform to the norm, and who gave themselves permission to be artists. Really, if one wants to be an artist, we have to begin by giving ourselves permission….no-one else can do that for us..   

If you’d like to own this original watercolour, email Gena with your bid today! gena03@telusplanet.net Minimum bid $100 (plus gst and shipping). First bid, or highest bid wins the painting.