Northern New Mexican Autumn

This is the beginning of a Northern New Mexico Autumn. The top photo is along the Columbine Trail and the bottom photo is from the highway between Red RIver and Questa, New Mexico.

Old Truck sent out to pasture.

This was taken in a lot in Questa, NM. With the permission of the owners,my Dad and I went onto this lot to photograph this old Truck. The horses on the property saw us and came over to investigate. In one image you will see two of the horses behind the truck.

Two Views of the Ranchos De Taos Church

Gouache Color study

Ranchos De Taos Church

Here are a few more images of the Ranchos De Taos Church taken on Kodachrome during the Summer of 1976 and scanned in on the last day of Sept 2010, About 34 years later.

Back View
Bell Tower

Ranchos De Taos Church - Window View

I discovered a box with some of my early slides. This image is from a 1978 Kodachrome slide taken of a Window View of the Ranchos de Taos Church. I did a watercolor of this image that still hangs in my parents Fredericksburg, TX home.

New Mexico Revisted: Rio Grande Gorge, A slice out of the desert

This past early July, when I visited Northern New Mexico with my Parents, We stopped a few times along the road 8 miles south of Taos to view the Rio Grande Gorge. My first impression was that that is some slice out of the desert. While it is not near the width of the Grand Canyon, it is most impressive in how you have a flat desert plain and then a deep gorge that has divided the desert. Can you imagine how the pioneers riding west must have felt when after traveling hours across this flat plain and then suddenly encountered this deep uncrossable chasm.
Eight or so miles south of where We saw the Rio Grande Gorge, the highway descending nearly to river level. Along a five mile section of the Rio Grande south of the Visitor Center at Pilar we saw some river rafters enjoying the rapids.
We had seen where they had put their rafts in, so drove further down the highway for a good vantage point to see them come around the corner and down the river below us.

New Mexico Vacation - Day 3

My parents home in the Red River Upper Valley is one of the few stucco homes in the Red River area. The morning of July 5, I took this photo showing the contrast of the tan stucco with the blue sky and the reflected sky in the windows. I also took the photo below of the southern ridge and the sky with clouds.







This is the day we were to go to Taos. I had been reading some of the books on the cabin bookshelf about the area and was learned about some of the early Taos Pioneers of Arts and Literature that were known throughout the modern world. Three names that show up in this history are Mabel Dodge Luhan, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence. Mabel Dodge Luhan was the a cultural leader in the area and invited many well known writers and artists to her home and ranch in the Taos area, including Georgia O'Keefe and D.H. Lawrence, who lived in the area before moving on to their respected lives in other areas. D.H. Lawrence returned to Europe only to come back to the Taos area in an urn ultimately to have his ashes poured into the cement of his own memorial. Georgia O'Keefe returned to New York, ultimately to come back to Northern NM to paint 20 or so years later and remained the rest of her life.
Road to Mabel Dodge Luhan's Lorenzo Ranch, where she entertained many visual and literary artists. Additional photos including those of the D.H. Lawrence Memorial and Dororthy Brett Cabin may be seen in this Gallery.
Mabel Dodge Luhan's home in Taos New Mexico. This home is now a retreat and Hotel on the east side of Taos. An interesting note is that this home was briefly owned by Dennis Hopper when he was directing movies in the area. Easy Rider was filmed in the Taos area in the mid 60's as the Hippie invasion shook the Taos area. Additional images of this home are also in the gallery link above.