Moriarty, NM

 Moriarty, NM / Oil on black canvas / 8x10  / $120 including shipping

sold! 

THE FIRST PAINTING of a trip always frightens me. I haven't painted for the days of driving, and usually also for many days before the trip, while I was getting ready. 

Painting came to me out of the blue, and so I often wonder if, one day, it will go away, as fully and as mysteriously as it appeared. The run-up to the first painting of a trip is inevitably filled with these unhelpful thoughts. 

On this trip, I didn't plan this first painting. I didn't promise myself anything, I didn't expect anything. We pulled off in a rest stop in Moriarty, NM, and I looked across the highway at the landscape and decided this would be it. I got my stuff together and I started the painting before I had time to worry myself out of it. 

I painted fast, and without thought, and I was grateful. My best paintings are the fastest ones, and the ones I dither over the least. I love the way this one came out. It is bright, and simple, but has a lot in it, too. 

And for me, the best part was that it was done! The first painting was out of the way. YAY! 

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Dog of the Day

Nice gig if you can get it. Saw this cutie in Walmart in Sahuarita, Arizona. 

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Coda

 

"Some cowboys have too much tumbleweed in their blood to settle down." 

- Ken Alstad