I spent a week in Santa Fe, New Mexico with my mom; we stayed at the vacation home of a good friend of mine. I graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 1990 and have many fond memories of the city.

This is the house:

On the inside it was, of course, spectacular with real books and real art:

 

And the views from the big windows were spectacular and went on forever. There was a massive thunderhead cell in the distance late one night and within it the lightning lit up mountains I know you’d never see in the daylight, they are that far away. This was a view to the north-east:

And a view from the west:

Clearly, this was a very inspiring landscape; luckily we arranged to be there for a week. We’d decided on having a quiet artist-type vacation, in which we’d actually make art, not just look at it or buy it (more common Santa Fe pursuits for tourists).  My mom attended a 3 day workshop about calligraphy, which was coincidentally offered the week we were there; she is a very talented calligrapher. I brought my easel and set up on the second-story balcony to draw this view (minus the truck):

After 4 days, I completed this drawing (again, minus the truck). It’s 18″x24″ and turned out well. Which is good to say after all the effort. It was great to have a covered balcony where I could leave things undisturbed and work at my own pace.

The house was right by Fort Marcy Park, which is one of the few bits of public space near the Plaza downtown. The views are the best in the small city. For example, this view of a small rain shower west of town:

Our last evening there we found a kindly gentleman to take our photo. We look very relaxed. And how could we not? We had a completely relaxing and inspiring experience: