Long TIme, No Post

First things first, let's start out with the 3rd movement of the Grand Canyon Suite to set the stage:



This last month the hubby and I were nomads for 3 weeks. We went to Albuquerque, where he promptly left for a geology conference in Pittsburgh for 3 days, and I headed north to Taos to plein air paint.

I brought along my three-legged camp chair and sat out in the sage brush and bugs alongside the Rio Grande Gorge.

Painting storm clouds is all fine and dandy until they come close and you think "Gee, I'm the tallest thing on a metal chair in a big flat place. Maybe the husband won't want to hear how his wife was found burnt crispy with a paintbrush in her hand..." (That's why the one above isn't finished.)

Gen-u-ine proof of me R.G. Gorge sketching (bugs not visible).

A bit of late sunset in Taos from a surprisingly nice vista at the Applebee's parking lot.

The hotel I stayed in was right next to the Fechin House. I can now say I've slept in NIcholais Fechin's backyard.

A Fechin drawing and portrait to give examples for those unfamiliar with him. To quote the museum site:

"The museum is housed in the studio and home that artist Nicolai Fechin built for his family between 1927 and 1933. Fechin, born in Kazan, Russia in 1881, carved and molded the adobe buildings into a fascinating, harmonic marriage of Russian, Native American, and Spanish motifs." 

Fechin's cardboard mock-up design for his house.

Upstairs sun room. I could definitely live here.

All of the woodwork, and there's a lot of it, was hand-carved by Fechin.

Studio with big north-facing windows.

There were only a few paintings by Fechin, I was hoping for more, but overall, it's worth the visit.

After Taos and Albuquerque, we headed to Lake Powell. Below is a brave attempt at a butte on the southeast corner of Gunsight Bay.

The last week of our nomadic trip, we were in Southern Utah at Green River which happens to be my husband's geology research field site. While he hiked up to find good shale outcrops, I drew and painted wildflowers.

It occurs to me that I haven't seen one of our nice Pyrex kitchen bowls since it's impromptu use to collect oil and water from a natural oil seep for a University of Texas microbiologist along the Green River... So it goes being married to a geologist.