High Road to Taos Artist Tour

On my second day in Santa Fe, we headed out on the High Road to Taos Artist Tour. http://highroadnewmexico.com/tour.html.  Basically, the artists open up their homes and/or studios to the public for these two weekends in September. Our first stop was not at a studio, but rather at El Santuario de Chimayo, which is a really cool church with a lot of history. Built in 1856, pilgrimages are made here every Easter. These pilgrimages originated by U.S. soldier who prayed to the Santa Nino during the Bataan Death March. Here is more information in case anyone is interested: http://www.elsantuariodechimayo.us/history.html.

 El Santuario de Chimayo

Offerings on a fence in a field of yellow wildflowers.

 

 Pilgrimage Crosses

 Reflections of the shrines in a pool of water.

 Shrine Shadows

After El Santuario de Chimayo, we got back on the road for the artist tour.We made it to Truchas, Chimayo, Cordova and Condiyo areas...there was just not enough time to make it to all of them. I guess that is why it is a weekend thing! Anyway, we hit some really cool places.Our first stop was at Weavings by Marie in Cundiyo. She made some beautiful weavings and we each bought something! Next we headed up to the end of the road in Truchas and stopped at Casa Sandoval. While my friend was looking at beads, I found this lovely field of flowers to photograph (below).

Our third stop, which is pictured below, was at the gorgeous Hand Artes Gallery with a sweeping view of the valley. As I was standing here taking this photograph, I noticed what I first thought was a dog making it's way up the hill, but then quickly realized that this was not a dog at all, but a coyote. Of course, I did not have my zoom lens on the camera, but if you look real close, you can see the coyote in the middle of the image. Several people came over to join us to watch the coyote stroll past several horses, who didn't seem bothered in the least, and make his way up the hill stopping occasionally to glance around.

Beautiful hanging wind chime below. My friend bought one this same color! They were very heavy!

This photo op was calling my name!

Next stop, was Cardona-Hine Gallery and Studios. This gallery was filled with exquisite paintings and sculptures, but, alas, was beyond my price range. We did, however, run into several adorable dogs at this gallery who were a lot of fun...one of which knocked me down as I was kneeling to take a photo of the window below :).

The little devil posing for the camera!

Next stop was at Connie Salles and a shared co-op of all the local artists. This "Make Art Not Bombs" mural was painted on the side of Connie Salles Gallery.

Next to the Connie Salles Gallery where the mural was painted was this old falling down building that almost looked like it was bombed...sort of struck me as ironic.

Our final gallery stop of the day, and my absolute favorite gallery was the Bill G. Loyd Gallery. He specialized in those lovely bell wind chimes and RAVEN sculptures. Ravens are a favorite subject of mine, so this was a very cool stop! 

Loved this sign as we were walking in. I met that Alpha female dog too!

Beautiful porch!

Lots of chimes and ravens!

I bought a smaller version of the raven pictured below to go out on my patio.

Our last stop of the day before heading home was at a lookout point for the badlands along Highway 76. Pretty cool!

After arriving home around 3:30 PM, we took Sazi and Yogi out for a nice walk and then went to Naaga for Indian cuisine...delicioussss!!!

Well, that's about it for day two of Santa Fe. It was a really fun day and the weather was picture perfect! Tomorrow I drive into the mountains of Taos to visit San Francisco de Asis church and a few other spots!