This little gem was painted in the late afternoon just before sundown.
A little-known fact, except to New Mexicans, is that in the winter months the temperature can drop to sub-zero temperatures at night time and the next day will rise to 100 degrees warmer (somewhere in the sixties). It is not unusual to open the windows like this in the wintertime.
The adobe (mud and straw) bricks out of which the southwestern buildings are made will store the heat from the daytime sun and release it into the home in the wee hours of the morning. It is amazing to realize that our pueblo Indians were living in adobe homes long before the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the territories. Yes, in this painting you can feel the chill of the outside air a few feet away from you as the sun disappears from the sky, but the room in which you are standing will be a balmy temperature of 78 degrees.
"Santa Fe View" 16" X 20 Oil on Canvas
