And the Ground Opened: Taos Gorge

In October of 2019 on a plein air trip to Taos, I realized I only had one more day, but I had about 5 painting locations left to explore.  I happened to purchase Kevin MacPherson's newest book on the trip, and in it he suggests various painting activities and exercises for when you can't get out to paint a full painting.  He suggested making color notes by mixing colors that you see in the landscape and then putting them down in roughly the right places on a 2 in. x 3 in. small sketch.  Later, when you're ready to paint, you can use the "color" note you mixed on site to create the same color in the studio.  So that's how I created "And the Ground Opened. . ."  I created the color notes at a pull-out rest-stop between Pilar and Taos.  The Rio Grande Gorge stretched into the distance, a huge hole in the ground, with mountains in the far background.  I had this scene in my mind for nearly a year before actually doing the painting.  

At this time, "And the Ground Opened. . ." is part of the Far Country show at TAGArt120 Gallery in Taylor, Texas.  The show is up between August 29 through October 17.