Category Archives: Santa Fe

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.

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.

Embudo Station Skull

 Today’s painting is from one of my favourite haunts in New Mexico,”The Classical Gas Museum”, which is located along side the Rio Grande River, between Santa Fe and Taos.  I’ve painted the gas pump collection there many times…several are included in this blog.  

So when my friend Courtney was through there in August, I urged her to check it out.  She liked it as much as I do, and her photos are stunning.  You can see them on her blog….listed below in ” blogs that I follow”, or go to www.courtneytoddphotography.com.   

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.

Pumps @ Embudo Station

One of the most interesting places to stop in at when you find yourself in New Mexico, is “The Classical Gas Museum”. It’s located north of Santa Fe, halfway to Taos on the main highway. The fellow who owns the place has a fondness for old gas station memorabilia…..which I happen to share!  Check out this row of  pumps standing in the New Mexico sunshine, lookng for all the world like a row of people waiting for a parade! 

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.

Indian Market Blues

Here I was this morning, so boo-hooing about missing Indian Market in Santa Fe on the w/e.  I was sitting in my “drawing chair” in my living room and looked up to “notice” this little found still life on my glass-top table!  There’s my little drum from  the Taos Pueblo, and a sweet Kachina I bought one night in the diner on the plaza in Santa Fe, when John Farnsworth and I were out for dinner. As well, there’s a bronze buffalo skull, decidedly Canadian, by our own Mack Mackenzie, and a little Zapotec rug I’ve had for years.  So this is my homage to Indian Market.  And yes Thea, next year I think I must be there.  

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.

Santuario de Chimayo-Steeples

Here are the steeples of a wonky little chapel out in the Sangre de Christo mountains north of Santa Fe.

Built in about 1813, because of stories of supernatural events, it now enjoys a  long history as a place of healing and peace.  Over 300,000 people a year visit, so there must be something to it.  I spent one blissful afternoon here a few years ago, and painted a large painting of the whole church.  Today, all you get is the steeples and the story.  

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.