11x14, Oil, $500

Painted "en plein air" at the beginning of Monastery Road, just up the road from Ghost Ranch. We were looking north at the wondrous cliffs formed so long ago during various geological ages. The light was playing in and out of the clouds, but it was fun to try to capture it anyway, waiting for the light and the shadows to return. Painted without a paint brush, with a paper towel and palette knife. I intend to touch it up slightly, perhaps with a paintbrush, providing a little more detail in the foreground. I have to wonder a bit about the prominent cliff structure. It's one of the 'muffin-top' cliffs that are ubiquitous along the Chama River in this part of New Mexico. But a viewer thought it was a hole in the mountain. Perhaps I was trying to see through the mountain to the beginning of its formation! I've decided to leave it as is; I rather like the ambiguity. Sold Dec 2015 at the Purple Sage Gallery. in Albuquerque. 


Chama Cliffs Evening (sold 2015) Large Image