Second day of Pigment Hunting

The attached pictures sum up what this Pigment Hunting workshop is about. To paint the tremendous landscape of New Mexico, the landscape that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe, you should use the actual colors this landscape produces.

Yesterday’s adventures were a mixed bag for some of us. The morning started out splendidly. Waking up to a clear and brilliant sunrise after an evening of heavy rains, thunder and lightning, no hail this time. I actually woke up in the middle of the night to a clear sky, which brought me out of the Earthship to gaze up at the stars so close in such a high elevation. Thankfully after years of traveling out to Prescott to visit my parents in Arizona, I have not been overtaken by being in such a high elevation. Some people and things really have a hard time adjusting, a woman in the group experienced her archival pen explode right in her hand while hiking out to one of our collection spots.

 

Back to yesterday, we made our way down to Abiquiu, the Faraway Place of Georgia O’Keeffe, where we hiked up into the layers of color so exposed by the erosion of water, sun and wind. The morning was a great challenge for my lack of hiking experience, but it was more climbing over the boulders than walking a trail, which I used to enjoy a lot. I was proud to make it through, even with a stiff neck, sore back and torn knee meniscus. The sky was an unearthly blue, a perfect morning for witnessing the green of the thriving vegetation after the monsoons against the red of the earth and ancient cliffs of this part of the country.

 

But then by midday the group kinda fell apart, at the last minute we were told to carpool in order to get down this very difficult dirt road that surely my Prius could not handle, only to find that the purple pigment we were searching for could not be located. Some of the group started to eat their lunch, while others like my self had left our food in our cars. I got rather pissed off, along with some others, so we gruffly took off back to gather the car and head out to the Ojo Caliente Spa. Where I hopped from one soaking pool into another to relax my tensed up body. When we arrived the changing room was crowded with a group of woman gently singing amongst the humidity of the showers. I overheard another woman saying to them, put your ear pieces in, put your ear pieces in. The scene was rather disorienting. When I emerged out of doors, I saw that the group was joined by a group of young men who were also gently singing. “You are the face of love” over and over again. They were all dressed in white. I was speaking with another member of our group and realized this must be a cult of some sort, because she said she had witnessed them all earlier in one of the pools praying together. As they left they waved to us all, as if wishing us well. Can’t say I felt this way, but was much more relaxed after they left. It had been 20 years since I had first visited this Spa. I remember it as being much smaller in scale. But it was full of a wide range of folks, seeking the healing effects of the mineral waters. I did feel more relaxed and enjoyed a dinner of fish tacos from their restaurant. After which we drove back to the Earthship while the sun slowly set behind the cliffs.