Day 2-Taos, New Mexico

Day 2 found us painting along the road by an old farmstead. The ranch had been in their family for over 100 years according to the owners brother. He came by to watch us all paint the structures and let us know a little history. His brother owns the land now but they all grew up there when it was still a working farm. He assured us that there were no plans to tear down the old structures-they enjoy watching the artists come to paint there.

The day was a little cloudy with off and on peeks of the sun. Albert and a few of the other painters painted a group of three buildings that were on the slope of the hill. I walked up aways away and MaryAnn and I set up to paint the long barn like building.

It is always so nice to see people preserving the past, and also, in the process their heritage. This is one of the main reasons that I love plein aire painting. You record the moments of time at a location that may never be the same as the moment you paint there. I painted a barn in Odessa, Mo. that had been in their family for years. The next year I went there to paint on their farm and the whole front of the barn had collapsed due to a small tornado. It made an interesting new painting opportunity but I did miss the old structure I had painted the year before. Since the farm is no longer a dairy farm, the owner has no plans to rebuild. So, my painting is the last record of how it looked when it was a dairy farm.