Colours

Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a joyful surprise. In spite of the heavy rains fearing we might need Noah’s Ark again, the place looked vibrant with colour. The adobe houses even more deeply coloured when wet, a striking contrast with the dark pines and the aspen, yellow in their autumn finery.

Brightly painted pillars of a museum

A painting of the aspen

Colourful clothes made from Chinese kimono's

It is a town and probably a State so different from the Northern clime. In the centre, around the Plaza, I inspected the many shops selling Indian artifacts, beautifully decorated pots with geometrical patterns, all hand made by the native population often still living in pueblos, silver and aqua coloured jewelry, stunning necklaces, but heavy looking and better suited for bigger women I think. Just as well as they were expensive, as were all the shops around the Plaza, except for the souvenir shops. Most shop owners offered me a considerable discounts, which made ma e wonder how much profit they make, profits for the middle man and not for the artists!

Canyon Road is the place for all the galleries and artists’ studios. It is located away from the central pedestrian shopping area. Early in the morning it was still quiet which was lovely. We walked around and up the road, admiring the bronze statues of animals and children, bigger than life, the many mobiles or wind features on long poles meant for gardens, and then of course the art displayed in the galleries. 

Everything was brightly coloured, in lemony yellows, lipstick red, cobalt blue, just leaping off the canvas. Unfortunately the gallery owners were not artists themselves, but in one of the smaller studios I was lucky and found an artist at work who did not mind having his photo taken when I asked.

Below: some paintings of the artist we see here at work

 

And of course it was cowboys and Indians, shops with handmade cowboy boots, in different patterns and colours, very striking and very artistic. In one of those shops the man in charge or owner told me he just designed the boots and they were made elsewhere by hand. A pair of simple boots might start at $500, but usually the ones made to measure would cost from $1250 upwards. And most boots would be made to measure. He offered me a pair of Cowboy slippers for $300! Noisy slippers at that. The woollen horse blankets in traditional patterns were another expensive attraction.

Some artists specialized in painting Native people, chiefs in full regalia, proud and weather beaten. Quite a few of the artists were Native people themselves.

We ended up at the top of the road, in a teashop with some 200 (!) varieties of teas. I never knew if they gave me the one I had chosen, as it was unknown to me and the waiter mixed up some orders. It had a chocolaty flavor, pretty unusual.

Glass flowers