Fear and loathing: lost in the west.

70  F  sun and clouds, no wind.

Was I attracted to this spot or just repelled from everywhere else?


#506 View from rt. 165 Sandia Mt.

4-11-15

11x14

Another roadside attraction along Interstate 25 North of Albuquerque.
I drove around a long time before I could find a spot prior to sunset.

I know not to stop on any interstate highway, but do they mean town roads? county roads? I didn't want to find out.

With a welcome like this... I went through because the map showed a through road, I never actually found out because I simply felt too afraid, and turned around. I had a similar experience in a nearby town, outside of this reservation, so in this wide open country, there were multitudes of dead ends, but being an affluent and educated  East Coaster I was able to simply turn around and keep going.

This was the road up Sandia Mt. it was through a national forest and very off the beat in track, but it took a lot to get to this place where  I could stop and paint.

By the time I got here I felt harried and frustrated, and I knew the scene would be changing by the minute, so I had to work fast.

It was all about relative values, and I left a lot of the toned canvas alone.

This is where I stopped 1/2 hour later.

Going out on the road is my main stay for finding scenes to paint. Beyond the experience I had this evening, I'm left wondering about so many things that have little to do with the actual act of putting paint on canvas, or finding a scene I'd like to paint.  I've been "out of my comfort zone" and searched for "just the right scene" before, but it's never  been like this.  Maybe it's that I'm so unfamiliar with this strange land and it's rules and customs, or that the terrain is so wild and spread out.