Mt. Humphreys

Mt. Humphreys / Oil on black canvas / 12x36

Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com if you'd like to own this painting

ON THE WAY TO TUBAC, Carol and I decided to visit the Grand Canyon. It was out of our way, but not by much. Though we had been there a couple years ago, when Carol came out to do a show in Albuquerque with me, well, it is the Grand Canyon, so we decided to go again. 

We chose a scenic route, a road I've traveled before, that winds along 8,000-foot-high mountains and overlooks ones that are even higher, including Mount Humphreys, the tallest one in the painting. 

It was a cool morning when we pulled off the road by a yellow field to paint. The sun was shining, the air was thin and clear, and it was so quiet that I could hear a raven's wings flapping as he flew past me. 

I loved making this painting, and feel that it captures the beauty and serenity of the spot, and somehow, the enormity of it as well. 

When I finished, we headed on to the Grand Canyon, only to turn back, as there was a two-hour wait to get in. The Indian reservations are closed because of the covid, and the terrible toll it is taking on the Native American population. Because of that, one of the two wintertime gates into the park was closed, and all the visitors - and there were lots of them! - were funneled into one gate. 

So we left, and headed to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, and though it wasn't the Grand Canyon, it was a magical spot of color and wonder and incredible beauty. 

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Dog of the Day

I'VE SEEN THIS lovely, porky gal around town on nearly all my morning walks. She is a sweetie, and is usually off leash, so she trots her full-bellied trot up to me and greets me every day. 

***

Thought for the Road

It Is Enough to Enter

the templar 

halls of museums, for 

example, or

the chamber of churches,

and admire
no more than the beauty

there, or
remember the graveness

of stone, or
whatever. You don't

have to do any
better. You don't have to 

understand
the liturgy or know history

to feel holy
in a gallery or presbytery. 

It is enough
to have come just so far. 

You need
not be opened any more

than does
a door, standing ajar. 

- Todd Boss