Painting in Deming

Outside Deming, N. M. Oil on stretched canvas, 8x24
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There was a moment yesterday when I came around a curve in a road in Texas, and suddenly, I was in the southwest.

I know, I'd been in the southwest for hours and hours - but suddenly, the soil was red, and rocky buttes rose near and far from the plains. It seemed that I'd left the broken-down, dilapidated, abandoned settlements behind. I was still in Texas, but I was in a different Texas.

In the afternoon, the road rose out of El Paso and into a clear, yellow afternoon. The buttes grew into mountains, and yellow-gold grass drew my eye across the prairie. I decided to stop and paint, even though it meant delaying my arrival for a day. But Dad was fine with the delay.

I set up to paint in a gale-force wind on a frontage road east of Deming, New Mexico, where I was staying. I've found that the van works as a great wind break and shelter! As I was beginning my painting, three people came along in a bright yellow VW bug. Turns out they own the land I was painting. They own many, many acres, and raise 125 beef cattle on their land. They were friendly, welcoming, engaged - and they gave me a card with their contact information on it which I have apparently lost. I hope they haven't lost the cards I gave them...

I made one painting of their land and then, down the road a ways, made another. I have some work to do on this second one - it's a challenge to paint all this distance, all this land, and show its size and breadth.

Thanks for reading!