STUDIO VEGAS NM
Word from the SW USA
Here I am in a new world!
New shapes, new colors, new textures, new place to keep the brushes and the paints.
Studio Vegas NM has been established in a remarkable little room off of the main house. Around four sides of this 14 x 14' room are eight windows, and two doors, one to a south semi-porch/patio, and the other to a north-facing roofed patio that runs some 46' along the west side of the farmhouse with a generous paved floor about eight feet deep.
Now where could you find a better corner to make art?
Out these windows are miles and miles of flat prairie and near and far mountains and mesas and “nothing”in all directions.
I fill the bird feeder on the covered porch and the birds, by now, know what it means when I take a container of seed out there in the morning. We talk, these birds and I. We talk bird talk. My accent is lacking, but they whistle back as if they understand.
Large cabinets for large papers and canvases! A sink! A small skylight brings daylight into the space. Outside the windows is the freshest of fresh air. The water comes from 600 feet down in a well. The water is soft. (That is a new variation I will find out about, having lived with relatively hard water for my painting.)
The COLORS! There is a wild difference between the colors of Northeastern New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest where I have lived for over 40 years. My palette is learning new tricks. My sense of value is having to adjust. Things are BRIGHT here. Colors seem washed out. And different each day. The sun! The sunsets! The dawns! The colors, the shadows, speak out loud and clear against the adobe soil. Or the cumulus clouds press down on us, dark and gray-blue, or even green, or yellow, when they bunch up for a loud downpour. For maybe ten minutes or so. The sky is so large it holds many weathers at once!
The winds are so dramatic. Noisy and sustained, like a very long train forever going by. Don’t leave the screen door unlatched some mild afternoon. It will flap itself off in a stiff wind.
Passive Solar house built on homestead acres some 43 years ago. This was taken in winter. Now the trees are getting green and the flowers are blooming.
Happy Stuff from Susan Holland © 2019 Cusp of May
