Valdez in the Hondo Valley
Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”

This painting was made in September 2007 during my annual pilgrimage to Taos, New Mexico. I painted there the day before I began teaching my one-week plein air workshop. I was looking down over the Hondo Valley farmlands to the town of Valdez. I painted in the morning, before the heat set in, before the winds kicked up and before the typical 1:00 p.m. thunderstorm. I was unable to complete the painting on location, so finished after I returned to California, working from sketches, photos and my memory of the beautiful land of New Mexico.