Coffee With Clark: Santuario de Chimayo'

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Adobe and turquoise--therapy two

Adobe and turquoise, Taos, 5 by 7 watercolor, 140# d'Arches

Painting is foremost an exercise in seeing and problem solving. Inspiration, craft, talent, sure. But after the previous post on adobe therapy, the more I looked at the painting, the more I knew it needed.
So here is the second version, with blue sky adding the necessary contrast. I like it so much I bought a mat for it today.

Santuario--4.5 by 9

And in the meantime, I found the little watercolor sketch I mentioned two days ago that I did at Chimayo' 10 years ago when leading a student trip to New Mexico. This was done en plein wire, while my students wrote and photographed around me. Great memories.
Adobe and turquoise are sacred--no wonder there is therapy there.

Meditation

Just out the window, black silhouettes of trees remind me of those halcyon days with you, when we climbed out of the cellar toward enlightenment. Now, at a glance, the wild birds swing into view, obscuring the real world of young men dying to get home, and the snow that falls on our brains stays solid - never melting into springtime. On the ferry, we sit and compare notes as to whom in life has suffered the most; men, women, boys, or girls? Suddenly, in a revelation, you say it is the Buddha over on Main, who sits on his plywood altar, surrounded by plastic flowers, subjected to all the passersby, who have never had a Zen thought of their own… --K. Lawson Gilbert

Coffee Grounds

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Adobe and turquoise--therapy two