Hacienda in Pastel and Colored Pencil

I finally got back to doing some drawing after my mural was finished.

In Taos, we visited back in Feb., all the homes and buildings are of the pueblo style with the sand colored exterior and flat roof. DR wasn't sure he could live in a town where all the buildings looked the same, even the McDonalds, but I thought it was wonderful.

I loved how the buildings, especially the hacienda we visited, seemed to come from the earth and how the sky seemed extraordinarly large. As though the buildings weren't the town's focal point but the sky was.

So I did a drawing...here you go.

A woman in the foreground.

The sky. I wouldn't call the white things clouds; more like power....mmmm, that's not right.

Sometimes I find it very hard to put into words what I feel when I draw.

I love pastels but they are big and bulky and a bit difficult to use when trying to create sharp details. I got a brainstorm to use some colored pencils over the top and it worked really well. I think that's something I'll have to do again.

Martinez Hacienda; the trading center of historical Taos.

The last stop we made in Taos was probably my favorite; 

the Martinez Hacienda which was built in 1804 by Severino Martinez.

Warning; this is a really long post!

The Sante Fe Trail splits into two paths in Cimmaron, KS; the desert trail which was shorter but dangerous and the mountain trail which was safer but longer. The SFT merges together again right north of Taos, NM. For travelers in the 1800's, Taos was probably the largest town they had seen for months. And because of the influx of travelers the Martinez Hacienda grew into a trading and mercantile center where practically everyone went to do business. Martinez often sent expeditions to Mexico to buy and trade for goods.

I had read about the hacienda before we arrived but was still surprised at how small and simple the facade seemed. Were we at the right place?

Everyone but the kids had to stoop to enter. This door isn't the original entrance to the hacienda; the original entrance was on the perpendicular side to the right of us. It was large enough for a wagon to have driven in but has since been barred from people entering or exiting.  

After going through the gift shop (of course) and paying our admission, we entered a square courtyard with a well. The hacienda was built as a fortress with only one entrance, no exterior windows and a well inside to ward off attacks by Comanche and Apache raiders. Although there was snow on the ground it was a very pleasant  bright, warm day. I could have sat out in the sunshine in the courtyard all day long!

There were are a total of twenty one rooms in the hacienda but I won't bore you with shots of all of them. These was the main living quarters for the family. All the children would have slept, ate, studied and played in this room. The parents had their own bedroom. Good for them!

This was the weaving room!!! I've always wanted to have a loom of my own so I really enjoyed this room. There were at least five floor rooms and various tools displayed. Look at the far wall behind Yap. Do you see the two black rectangles? Those are carding combs (with metal teeth) used to clean and straighten wool fibers before they are spun. Now, look the the left and you'll see two cross shapes on the wall.

Those are wool carding paddles using teasel thistles. I've never seen anything like that before!

Of course there were rooms displaying common farming and blacksmith's tools. Here's Officer explaining how to harvest wheat.

I wouldn't mind having a kitchen like this; the fireplace was awesome!

(I spared you the picture)

Okay, I lied...here's the kitchen fireplace. Again with the fireplaces! I'm thinking of building a southwest style fireplace in my house. Do you think DR would notice mud in the living room carpet? Nah, probably not!

The granary.

There was a second courtyard in the hacienda. The layout was two squares butted against one another.

The double doors was the blacksmith shop but visitors are only allowed to look through a pane of glass into that room.

One room displayed the many religious icons and artifacts that would have been common for southwest families, especially wealthy families, to have owned at the time. There was also a chapel in the hacienda used by the family.

We had to practically drag my sister and brother in law out of this room. There was a display of 8 - 10 guns that were very old and in rough shape. The bottom gun's wooden stock had at one time started to fall apart so wet rawhide was wrapped around it and allowed to dry and shrink to hold the pieces together.

The next gun pictures are for my dad. Get online Dad this is for you!

This was Jim Bridger's gun and it was repaired by wire in three places.

Even without a flash it's hard to get a good photo in a display case but I hope you get the idea Dad.

It was a long weekend.

My monkeys got drug through three states, countless museums and restaurants.

They stayed up too late, ate too much junk food and got bored with all the walking we did.

But I think that even they had a good time and will remember this vacation for a very long time. Not only do I like to take lots of pictures, when we visit places like this, for the memories but I'm hoping my kids will get excited when they look through these photos years from now and want to learn about Taos all over again.

A Russian Artist in Taos

We also went to the Taos Art Museum which is housed in the home portrait artist Nicholai Fechin. Fechin (1881-1955) was born in Russia and trained at the Imperial Art Academy in St. Petersburg. He was well known in his own country before arriving in the United States in 1923 and he built this house in Taos between 1927 and 1933.

Though the Taos Art Museum wasn't large, it was housed in someones home after all, it had a very nice collection from area artists many whom were in the Taos Art Society. The Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis has a wonderful collection from Taos Art Society of artists and they've been some of my favorite artists since I first saw their work when I was in high school. It was exciting to not only see more of their artwork but to be in the environment they painted in.

Fechin himself designed the house and carved the extraordinary woodwork in the home. Once I was in the museum I was easily enamored with the actual house and often forgot the artwork on the walls. The house is a mix of Russian, Spanish and Pueblo styles.

Much of the woodwork was done by Fechin with intricate carved details. He carved stools, benches, decorative posts, closet doors...it was amazing!

I just loved this stairway!

Between the stairway and the fireplace I was ready to move into and live in this house.

Isn't the wood on this fireplace gorgeous? I could imagine pueblo pottery or bones and rocks sitting on top.

Behind the house, Fechin had built his studio which is now the museum gift shop. Actually his studio was built before the house and that's where the family resided during construction of the home. I didn't get many pictures of the studio but these huge windows allowed a wonderful quality of light into the room. I can easily see how an artist could paint all day in a room like this.

By this time my monkeys were getting a bit tired of being drug to museums between sledding and McDonald's meals. They weren't always excited about posing for pictures...can you tell?

I bet you are kind of tired about reading all these posts about Taos too aren't you?

No worries, I promise, tomorrow's is the last one and probably my favorite; The Martinez Hacienda!

Harwood Museum, Art Art Art!!!!!

Taos, New Mexico has a long history of art in the area; Georgia O'Keefe, J.D. Salinger, the Taos Art Society to name a few of the big names. I was pumped  to hit some of the art venues Taos offers.

On the Saturday before Valentines Day we hit up the Harwood Art Museum in Taos and boy did my jealous bone come out!!  

Check out the art room the museum has for kids!

The museum provided supplies for the kids to make Valentines. They had construction paper, glitter, stickers, markers, scissors, ribbons, glue sticks and tons more all laid out for the little ones to create Valentines for loved ones. The boys worked for an hour and a half!  

This is a paper mache dragon made out of a tomato cage that hangs on the wall of the art room. Yip loved it and we are on the lookout for our own tomato cage (and warm weather) to make our own! Every Sunday the museum opens the art room for two hours to let the kids make anything they want. How cool is that?

I want to move to Taos now please.

The rest of the Harwood Museum was small but

with some really beautiful artwork.

Another one of those fireplaces I like so much!

This painting caught my eye; a crowd in a movie theatre watching Indians attack a stage coach.

Ah! One of my favorite western artists, Joseph Sharp.

I enjoy contemporary art too and this wood sculpture of men wrestling

 reminded me too much of Yip and Yap!

But my favorite at the Harwood, the wooden sculpture Jesus Superman.

The Harwood was nice but small but the better museum

was the Taos Art Museum we visited the next day

 ...but you'll have to wait for that fabulous museum until next week!

Rattlesnake Sausage and Kit Carson

The very best thing about vacations is this momma doesn't have to cook or clean! Granted, for the majority our meals weren't great; breakfast at the hotel, lunch at McDonald's (3 kids you have to bend) but dinner we tried to find a nice grown up place to eat most nights. My favorite dinner was at Doc Martin's. This isn't like an Applebees or LoneStar; Doc Martin's is fine dining...thing $20 a plate! It isn't often we get to eat somewhere so fancy so we splurged.

 DR went traditional with Chili Relleno (I think that's how it was spelled)

My sister had Braised Buffalo Ribs. This was awesome! I love buffalo but I'd never had any as tender as this! Yep, she and I shared our dinners. Sisters are great!

Marvel Man had the special, Baked Salmon. Looks good doesn't it?

Me? Well, I'd been snacking all afternoon and really wasn't hungry by dinner so I opted for an appetizer Rattlesnake Rabbit Sausage with some sort of sauce I couldn't identify with soaked raisins. Now that I look at this photo a bit more those raisins look like little things rabbits leave behind..hmm, glad I wasn't thinking that at the time. Rattlesnake? Well, I'll try anything once and I have to say it was wonderful! It was mild, not at all spicy or odd tasting at all. I would definitely try rattlesnake again.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

We also made it to the home of Kit Carson. If we hadn't been paying attention we would have missed it. It's right in historic downtown Taos nestled between shops. As we entered what looked like an alley we came to a courtyard.

Off to one corner was a traditional outdoor oven used to bake bread. Some residents still have these in their backyards.

Once inside we sat down to a short History Channel video about Kit Carson. His great great grandson actually portrayed Carson in the video and their is a striking resemblance between the two men. Our guide showed us an actual beaver skin hat, very worn, and a beaver pelt to explain to the boys Carson's career as a trapper.

At the age of 16 Carson left Missouri and gained experience as a teamster on the Sante Fe Trail and spent about ten years as a trapper. He left the life of a trapper after beaver became scarce and at 34, Carson married his third wife, 14-year-old Josefa. They had eight children together raised in their home in Taos built by Josefa's family. Carson went on to guide John Fremont on expeditions to the Continental Divide and Mojave Desert and serve in the Mexican, Civil and Indian Wars. Many general accounts of Kit Carson describe him as an outstanding honorable person. Albert Richardson, who knew him personally in the 1850s, wrote that Kit Carson was "a gentleman by instinct, upright, pure, and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans".

The Kit Carson home was small consisting of only two or three rooms for living quarters. There were fireplaces like the one in this kitchen in most historical buildings in Taos. I just love these fireplaces!

The only reason the Kit Carson Home hasn't fallen into ruin is because of the efforts of the Masonic Bent Lodge #42. Kit Carson became a Mason in 1854 and the Grand Lodge bought his home in 1910 and raised funds to restore the neglected property of their most famous member. The museum in the Carson Home is full of artifacts, photos, letters not only explaining the life of Kit Carson but setting a scene for life in Taos in the 1800's

The Kit Carson Home is a wonderful little museum that I would highly recommend stopping in to check out.

Bullet Holes and Mountain Slopes

To begin our trip to New Mexico we left on a Thursday right after the boys got home from school and drove about half the distance and found a hotel. Then on Friday morning we got up early and headed off. Around lunchtime we rolled into the little town of Cimarron, New Mexico. A little town with a big history. Cimarron is the home of the St. James Hotel a stopping place for some of the most legendary figures of the Wild West.

 Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Jesse James, Bat Masterson, Bill Cody, Governor (and author) Lew Wallace were just some of the famous customers of the hotel.

The hotel featured about three rooms furnished the way they would have been in the 1800's when these men would have stayed. I just love that bed. Fancy! 

 I like the idea of a fireplace in your hotel room. Why can't the Best Western do that?

 But the real story of the St. James Hotel is the bar where you can still see the bullet holes left by numerous gunfights in the tin ceiling. There were probably a dozen all together. My boys just thought that was amazing!  By the looks of the bullet holes I'm betting that pretty stained glass window probably isn't original!

The hotel is still a hotel and you can still rent a room for the night but be warned! The St. James is supposedly haunted by the men murdered there. A list of the gunfights were listed on the back of the hotel's restaurant's menu. Yep, the Wild West was really wild as the St. James history proves.

As much as we would have liked to stick around the St. James looking for ghosts, our goal was Taos so we hit the road again for a couple more hours and after checking into our hotel and asking some of the locals we found the perfect spot to go sledding in the Carson National Forest. Oh, I think these pics speak for themselves and explain just how much fun we had, no ski tickets, no crowds just lots of fast and bumpy fun.

 Yap

Yip

This is only half the hill we slid down!

Oh, and we adults didn't hold back either! My sister Officer.

Yahoo and I...of course she had enough when she realized she couldn't walk by herself in all that snow and I wouldn't let her go down on the sled by herself. She's a bit stubborn.

My brother in law Marvel Man..

...and DR. You know, I think there are times, like these, when this vacation was a lot more fun for the adults than for the kids! Who says you have to go to ski resort to have fun in the snow?