"Sons of Turner" Day Three and Four

Wednesday was hot. The funny thing about being down here in the Southwest is that though I have been in the sun and heat of the day, I have not yet sweat a drop. It must just evaporate off of me unlike Chicago where it could be 65 out and you'd still sweat.

Painting wise, Patrick and I found a really cool area to sit for a while and capture the Santa Fe atmosphere. Patrick painted the facade of a very old church while I was focused on the top outdoor patio of a restaurant called "La Fonda." After we finished our paintings, we went off in search of iced coffee and our next painting. 

Our journey lead us to the Santa Fe Train Station. this is an active station where commuters still ride the "Rail Runner" trains which are slick, bullet train looking cars. Really nice. There were also lots of old train cars that were sitting and a few were rusting. These became the objects of our next paintings. Patrick took a yellow one and I took a green one. The paintings came out pretty sweet. 

We eventually met up with the rest of the group and wend back to Suitable Digs. Gabriella made pork ribs that night and we stuffed ourselves silly.

Thursday was our fourth day in Santa Fe and a few of us decided to stay around the complex and paint rather than venture into the town again. The Suitable Digs compound is way cool and offers many unique scenes to paint. The others went into town and painted.

I wanted to capture as many photos of our temporary home as possible, so I took my Nikon D90 and wandered the grounds. There is this really cool abandoned and rusted out mobile home from like the 60's or so that's on the edge of a rocky crevice that was really awesome. I took a few photos of that with the hopes of returning to paint it soon. 

After wandering for about 15 minutes, I came across a Bull Snake on the outside staircase. It was surprising because our host told us that there were no snakes around to worry about, but lo and behold, here one was. I followed it for a while and tried to take some pictures of it. I called over some of the group who had stayed behind to witness the snake. Eventually, it slithered away and left us alone.

A few of us tried to paint, but the heat was so bad we ended up staying inside. We did, however, manage to go out for lunch at a Thai place and then went off for some grocery shopping and laundry. Patrick was going to make fish tacos for dinner and I was going to make the salsa. When we got back from the errands, we put the groceries away and relaxed for an hour or so playing a game called "Blokus," a tetris like game involving multiple players trying to prevent other players from using all of their pieces. It was fun and challenging. I got my butt kicked.

We cooked and ate with the group around 7:30 pm or so. Afterwards, we stayed at the table telling our most embarrassing moments. Some of the stories were terribly surprising.It was so much fun. 

Today is Friday. We're going out to some ancient ruins that are un-excavated  that are about an hour or so drive from here. I am excited as they are on top of a mesa, something I've never been on top of. this is going to be fun, but it's totally exposed to the sun. No shade other than the buildings. We're not going to be there all day because we're going to a gallery opening tonight. 

Woot! Free wine and cheese!