A Gallery of Photos: The Canyon Road Art Scene

"Outlook" by Jim Rennert.   (McLarry Modern)

Whenever I come to Santa Fe, I visit Canyon Road, said to be a mile long with a hundred art galleries.  It's a narrow road, mostly one-way, all in the town's pueblo-style architecture and featuring Native American pottery and silver, contemporary, abstract, figurative, and Western art, plus a goodly amount of indoor and outdoor sculpture. There are beautiful old cottonwood trees and tamarisk.  Ravens ... or are they crows? Shops selling clothing and textiles.  The Historic Santa Fe Foundation with a lovely garden in the summer.  A few casual eateries plus a couple of totally top-notch restaurants.

So it's always my pleasure to walk along Canyon Road during my visits and see what's new both inside and out.  Here are some photos of a few outdoor pieces.  (Gallery names are in parentheses.)

"Crowcado" by John Knox.  (McLarry Fine Art)

"September Song" by J. G. Moore.  (McLarry Fine Art)

Not identified.  (La Mesa of Santa Fe)

"Poppies of Oz" by Craig Mitchell Smith.  (Canyon Road Contemporary)

"Making a Wish" by Craig Mitchell Smith.  (Canyon Road Contemporary)

Not identified.  (Pippin Contemporary)

Not identified.  (Pippin Contemporary)

Not identified.  (Selby Fleetwood Gallery)

Not identified.  (New Concept Gallery)

By Allan Houser.  (Courtesy of the Houser Estate and Zaplin Lampert Gallery)

A Gallery of Photos: Santa Fe in February

So, yes, I'm spending the month of February in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the temperatures are decent, the skies generally clear, and the air fresh.  But as much as my part of the country--New England--is experiencing a heavy winter, the folks here speak of having had no winter at all.  Barely any precipitation.  Practically no snow, no skiing.   A reduced tourist population.

But otherwise, much seems as usual.  Several stores are gone.  With new ones (mostly) taking their place.  Cashmere shawls are in the three figures. A gallery featuring silver jewelry is closing.  A Danish string quartet is performing a concert featuring Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms.  A favorite local author, Natalie Goldberg, is doing a reading.  Chile powder is being sold at the farmers' market in hot, medium, and mild strengths. Local Native American artisans still sit out under the portal at the 17th century Palace of the Governors just off the Plaza and sell their pottery, turquoise, and silver as they have for decades.  Restaurants feature plates of enchiladas, sopapillas, posole, tacos, with a choice of green or red chile. Plus margaritas, my favorite being on-the-rocks with salt around the rim.

A sign near the Plaza in the center of town

A food cart on the Plaza

The Sanctuario de Guadalupe with the oldest extant shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States

Morning shadow on pueblo-style house

Persian lunch at a Canyon Road restaurant featuring grilled chicken marinated in lemon juice and herbs

Guan Yin, Goddess of Compassion, outside the entrance to  Project Tibet on Canyon Road

Project Tibet is through the yellow doorway.  In the foreground is Wiford Gallery and a small part of its extensive wind sculpture garden.

Chile powder choices at the Saturday farmers' market

Looking across town ...

... then toward the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the opposite direction

Window display in a shop on the Plaza

A Gallery of Photos: Out the Train Window

Amtrak's La Junta, Colorado, fresh air stop

It's that time of year.  Another winter, another trip outta here.  And, with it, an excuse to return to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I am now staying for a month in a rented casita, a small but comfortable abode fashioned from a 100-year-old adobe with foot-thick walls and one of those kiva fireplaces built in the southwestern pueblo style that some people call "beehive." They're small, intimate, charming, distinctive, and aromatic, especially when burning the incense-like wood of this northern New Mexico region. Heaven, in other words.

My 3-day, 2-night trip from the East Coast via Chicago to New Mexico involved day and night tooting at each and every level-crossing, bouncing and rattling over tracks that could probably use some repair, and the realization that the dining car now features paper and plastic where it once took pride in using china coffee cups, freshly-ironed white tablecloths (and napkins) and metal cutlery.  (Ever try to cut up your chicken with a plastic knife?)  Everything is now dispensable except the glass salt and pepper shakers.  Everything is also in little packets--honey, mustard, salad dressings, butter, jam, "cream."  As well:  no toast, no fried eggs, no ice cream.

I spent my hours looking out the window and taking "snaps" (as we used to call them), jiggly focus and all.  Here are a few.

Massachusestts

Indiana

Iowa

Next morning, Kansas

 Colorado:  range-style water tank and windmill

Colorado

New Mexico.  This stretch of  highway follows the old Santa Fe Trail.

Raton, New Mexico

Five minutes away from my arrival  point