Ghost Ranch art workshop with Bob Rohm

Bob Rohm, Instructor

Week-long painting workshop at Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch

NW of Santa Fe, NM

October 10-14, 2011

Here's Bob Rohm doing his first demo for our group of 14 painters (only 3 pastel, the rest oil)

My pal Elaine Leedy picked me up in Albuquerque and the next morning we headed for Santa Fe via Madrid up Hwy 14, the old Turquoise Trail.  We were only driving through, because we had an early afternoon appointment to visit Albert Handell's studio (later) but I caught this



Madrid gift shop... it's really a blue building!  LOL

I didn't carry an umbrella on the plane, but actually had two that were in my car parked at a friend's house in Walnut Creek.  I drove there from Mendocino and took the BART to SFO.  It was quite pleasant going and coming, since I had earplugs (highly recommended) and my sketchbook to capture people on the train and quick splashes of scenes out the window.

Oh Glorious full moon of New Mexico....

 Reminded me of what I'd seen 2 days prior in Albuquerque:



We were very fortunate to have timed our visit to Albuquerque to coincide with the last weekend of the Balloon Festival and then get up early enough in the morning to actually see several of these strange creatures in the sky.  Bumble Bees (actually there was a wedding of two of these), a Buffalo, stagecoach, and multi-colored orbs much like this one above.

Rocks, rocks and more rocks.  Here's a pile now:

Kitchen Mesa

Kitchen Mesa

Don't get the name, but I did a pretty nice painting of this hunk of rock!  The mornings were chilly and as the week passed, the afternoons warmed up so that we searched for shade and sunscreen! 

 

Pedernal

On Wednesday we went to the Chama River to paint. Water!  At last!

.  I found this cliff edge irresistible with the shadow and the reflection in the muddy river.

Chama River (unfinished)

What a beautiful place  to spend a morning painting.  We painted for the first two hours or so; then gobbled up the lunch we'd packed in back of the cafeteria kitchen.  I didn't make a sandwich, but was able to wrap up some lunch meat in some crispy romaine leaves, and enjoyed peanutbutter/celery sticks as well.  I remember drinking lots of water during the whole trip.  It was easy to do in the dry altitude.

Pedernal for backdrop

Cabin built for CITY SLICKERS

In the movie, this cabin was briefly shown as part of a larger corral area with a big barn and other outbuildings, fences, horses and cowboys.  Now it stands alone on a large flat plane just a bit inside the gate to GHOST RANCH and I attempted to paint this view.  You'll just have to come to the gallery to see the finished painting!

One thing we didn't have time for was

laundry!!! but I just loved the colors of this clothesline

with the yellow cottonwood trees in the background!


The whole week was fabulous; I learned so much that I'm excited to apply to my coastal paintings!
If you would like to know more about my trip, please email me.  And if you are interested in the paintings from NM, please visit my website www.suzilong.com after November 1.  Thanks!