Roadmap Or Hike To a Painting™

One of the wonderful things about painting in Santa Fe is that it presents a chance to work at the intersection of history and unparalleled beauty.

The Show...

The City of Santa Fe Arts Commission conducted a Juried evaluation to select artists for a show in the Community Gallery at the Santa Fe Convention Center.  Jack was selected and "Goin' Dancin' In Old Santa Fe" will be included in the 2022 BRICK X BRICK exhibit.  This exhibit coincides with the Terra 2022 International Earthen Architecture Conference to be held in the Convention Center from June 7 – 10. The Show will be hung from Friday, June 3, 2022 through Thursday, August 25, 2022.  An opening ceremony will be on Friday, June 3 from 5-7 pm.

The Artist's statement about this work..

I am an award winning artist and expert on energy efficiency and technology.  I was a successful entrepreneur in the energy and buildings space, was inducted in to three Halls of Fame, am a Former member of the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission and Director of the New Mexico Energy Conservation and Management Division.  That background informed this composition, as I sought to highlight some of Santa Fe's most iconic earthen structures, but also to show how these structures coexist with a vibrant life style that is shared by many of the cities residents, including these two dancers.  The warmth of the sunset is intended to evidence Santa Fe's rich access to solar energy.  You can almost feel the heat radiating off of the warm colored adobe walls.  Equally relevant, as I told my Architecture students at the  University of New Mexico, is that I believe environmentally beneficial design, leveraging solar and energy efficiency was born in New Mexico.  Anasazi Native Americans first utilized structural design to optimize solar gain.  These peoples were designing and building earthen structures hundreds, and even thousands, of years ago.   They also used earthen architecture to build "structural mass" and leverage the thermal properties, and heat transfer benefits, of adjoining earthen structures, which actually insulate one another's adjoining heated spaces.   The message of this painting combines these ideas with a depiction of Santa Fe's oldest church and oldest house, and local residents to evoke a sense of this unique high desert community. At 24" x 36", this painting was too large to complete en Plein Air, so I began with a series of color studies and sketches before returning to the studio to finish the painting.  The church is the painting's center of interest and, as was common, many of these earthen structures were built with 2 or 3 courses of adobe bricks, thus increasing the insulation value, and acoustic properties of these walls.  Warm colors in the earth and adobe structures that reside in the golden triangle, on the right of the composition, drawn the viewer eyes in to the painting, and create a visual path for the to follow while moving around the painting.  The goal was to make these earthen structures equal elements of the painting with the dancers, and ideally use the warm of the sunset to draw the viewer in, perhaps tugging at their heartstrings just a bit, as they think about the wonder of living in Santa Fe.

"Goin' Dancin' In Old Santa Fe"... an evening scene at an intersection with Old Santa Fe Trail... 

The Oldest Church, San Miquel Archangel Chapel (1610 - ) San Miguel Chapel is the oldest Catholic Church built in the United States part of whose original walls are still standing and which is still used regularly for religious services. It is the centerpiece of El Barrio de Analco National Register Historic District in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Adobe buildings like this chapel, historically, were not exclusively used for worship and ceremonies.  During the 400+ years, first under the rule of imperial Spain, then Mexico, and finally the USA, the Chapel, dedicated to Archangel Michael, has been many things to many people. It has served as a place of worship for diverse groups of Native Americans; an infirmary for Franciscan missionaries; a target for autocratic officials and exploited Pueblo groups; a military chapel; a unique venue for talks, concerts, celebrations and ceremonies; and a sanctified space for Sunday Mass in Latin and English. Today and into the future, this treasured, privately owned, but ever-fragile structure requires constant vigilance and expert use of traditional construction methods and culturally authentic materials.  San Miguel Chapel first appears in the surviving historical written record in 1628. Construction my have begun by 1610 according to oral history, simultaneous with, or prior to, the official founding of Santa Fe. According to archeologists, this Franciscan-designed house of worship rests upon an early Pueblo settlement from circa 800-1300 CE.  This Chapel sits across the street from the Santa Fe's Oldest House.  The origins of this house seem to be lost, but for more than a century tradition has called it the oldest house in Santa Fe, and often said to be one of the oldest buildings in United States.  It was labeled the "oldest building" in the city on the Stoner map of 1882, and the Urrutia map of 1766-68 shows a structure near the San Miguel Chapel in the approximate position of this house. Tree-ring specimens, taken from some of the vigas in the ceilings of the lower rooms, show cutting dates of 1740-67.

Jack paints Northern New Mexico earthen structures en plein air

Roadmap To A Painting or Landscape Travelogue 

Those who have read my BLOG before, know that I like to share a travelogue on where a painting was done.  My BLOG describes many of my favorite Plein Air painting sites, such as those shown above.  This location is at the heart of Santa Fe, at the intersection of Old Santa Fe Trail and E. De Vargas Street.  The best place to start is on West San Francisco Street at the Santa Fe Plaza.  Take West San Francisco Street past the La Fonda Hotel to Cathedral Drive and turn right following it to East Alameda.  At East Alameda make a right turn and go the the first red light, which is Old Santa Fe Trail, make a left turn.  Going up hill a short distance, you will see San Miguel Chapel on the left atop a hill.  Also on the left is Upper Crust Pizza, a local favorite.  Turn left between Upper Crust and the Chapel on to E. De Vargas Street. and you will drive into the composition of this painting.  As you pass the Nave of the Chapel you will find free parking along the road, and can get out to explore the area.  Looking west from the Church Nave sets up the composition.  This is a beautiful street with many rambling old adobe buildings and a number of iconic Santa Fe eataries, like Rio Chama and The Pink Adobe.  Enjoy getting out and walking around to explore these restaurants as well as shops and galleries.   Have fun!

For More About Jack Mc Gowan, please visit  www.jackmcgowan-artist.com