Une Envie de Sel

The adobe churches of New Mexico always make me want to paint. I rarely paint in oils, and even watercolor - my medium for many years - has been scarce in my studio of late, since I've been working mainly in pen and ink on recent projects.

But this territory is very familiar to me.
We lived in Taos for a couple of years when I was in grade school.
These places, their smells, the quality of the sky and the sage and chama shrubs...
it is all very evocative to me.

The sculptural forms of the local churches have inspired so many,
including my father,
and so these images bring back for me images of his studio spaces with their cement floors,
their odors of paint and charcoal, of heated metal and freshly-carved wood.

It isn't likely I'll paint these places anytime soon.
Life is too full, and I have too much work as  it is.

But at least I have my camera.

Who knows, maybe painting places like this
is reserved for another phase of my life.
It's nice to have things to look forward to, isn't it?

btw I snapped these photos very quickly after hopping out of the still-idling car to photograph this church, which I have photographed so many times before. Q was in the car sound asleep (finally) and my husband waiting in the driver's seat, and we were making time for Taos to have dinner. It was one of those afternoons so bright and hard and flat and glass-clear that you can't imagine you'll get a single good shot...and yet, sometimes...