Cool adobe walls protect a Taos flower garden from the heat of summer.
A hot summer day painting on location in this Taos courtyard garden finally drove me into the shade of a giant cottonwood tree, where I dreamed of a tall, cool glass of lemonade. The lemonade never arrived, but the day taught me to weave warm and cool colors through my painting like the hot sunlight filtered through the dense foliage of this remarkable garden. This is the second painting I've done of that garden. The first was a plein air; this one, I created almost ten years later in my studio, painting from photo references. The play of light and shadow on adobe and the relentless summer heat came back to me as I painted, remembering the day that inspired it.
- Subject Matter: Landscape, Southwestern
- Collections: Northeastern New Mexico