Two Vanguard Artists At Work

As your Blog Mistress, I have encouraged those of you who left the desert for the summer to contribute your experiences to the blog. I have been remiss in this respect, myself, in that I have not submitted anything about my own summer vacation. My husband and I have spent a month in Chama, NM. In fact, we have over a week left of our month long stop here. It is a beautiful, clean and green part of the planet. Plus, it is cool!

One of the highlights of our stay here was a five-day visit with our great friends, Barbara and Charlie Lang. They stayed at a nearby lodge in Chama and got to enjoy the scenery and photo opportunities that abound here. And, did I mention it is cool here? With Barb and I both being artists, one of the requirements of the visit was a painting session. Since the mosquitoes were busy down by the river, we decided to have a plein aire session under the awning of our motorhome, instead, using photos of the park's hollyhocks and the river that I had taken earlier and printed for our use. We had a great day and enjoyed our time painting together.

Another day, the four of us took a trip down to the Rio Chama for photo opportunities. This included the area of the Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. This is the area that Georgia O'Keefe painted for so many of her later years. Barb and I can see why! The Rio Chama is surrounded by red rock cliffs and lots of greens...we both identified colors by watercolor paint names!