My New Life in Santa Fe

South Platte, 12 x 16 Oil, detail

I lived and painted in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the ’80s, then moved back to Colorado, hoping to return some day. Previously, in Colorado, I had just completed my BFA and decided to visit my college girlfriend Judy, who had moved to Santa Fe about ten years before and never turned back. What was keeping her there?

Judy had moved to New Mexico right after college and after a free wheeling adventure including selling hand painted shirts, opened her own clothing boutique on the famous art district of Canyon Road. (She then creatively built her 30 year successful business!)

My first visit to the enchanting state caught me at a perfect time of life. I was making a living with free lance graphic design and could do that in New Mexico too. A month after my visit, I moved to Santa Fe.

My true desire was to be the best painter I could be. The inspiration of the natural environment of New Mexico, plus the vibrant art scene was all I needed. After a year, I returned to Colorado to get married, and then raise a family while painting at every opportunity. Many trips returning to Santa Fe and Taos over the years kept me entranced with my “second home”, and it’s artistic inspirations. I burned up the roads each year with my travels, taking in all the amazing landscapes and skies between Boulder County Colorado and New Mexico.

Now I’m back to my second home, which is now my new first home. Our children are grown up, and we have new lives. After so many return visits to New Mexico over the years, I’m back home again, painting 30 hours a week (or more!) and taking time to soak up the amazing light, color and living environment of this place.

I’ll take time to explain in a new writing about my travels between Colorado and New Mexico over the years, mostly solo, driving the roads in a day trip along historic trails. There was once a cattle trail called the Goodnight Loving Trail between New Mexico and Colorado and beyond. Mr. Goodnight must have loved the places, since he finally hung up his spurs and settled part way on his trail.

I understand. Beauty calls us. We all respond in our own fashion. I’m figuring out my way too, every new day.

God bless you, thanks for reading.

Karen

Rio Grande, detail