New Mexico IV: Snow over Taos and Abiquiu, Home of Georgia O'keeffe

On Monday, November 10th, a light snow covered Taos just before down.  We went out to photograph very early in the morning.  The historic LeDoux street is just by the old town square.  It was established by the frenchman LeDoux many centuries ago, originally as a walled compound, now is lined with art galleries.  We took many pictures, the light snow covered adobe wall and art decor were very photogenic.  

We then drove around on Highway 64 in and around Taos Pubelo to photograph the snow scenery.  There were many farms with horses and cows and with the mountain as backdrop all covered with a layer of white light snow.  They were very beautiful and so different from the scenery of previous days.  Here are a couple of the photos.

After breakfast, we drove toward Abiquiu, home of Georgia O'Keeffe.  On the way we visited an Earthship exhibit.  It is a community of ecological friendly buildings in the middle of the barren desert.  The buildings were half underground, and virtually self-sustainable.  They used solar and wind energy and recycled water from natural vegetation inside the house.  All the houses were built with reclaimed materials.  We than visited the interesting art collection by Ken Nelson at Pink School Gallery.  It was again in the middle of desert.  The collection was so diverse and so colorful.  Here are some photos of them.  

The sky was very different from the previous several days.  It was a stormy sky covered with clouds.  It made the desert landscape very dramatic.  We arrived at Abiquiu, but O"Keeffe's house was closed for the season.  A local, Napoleon Garica gave us a first-hand account of her life at Abiquiu.  The challenge of photographing the Abiquiu pueblo church was how to avoid the modern out buildings and electricity wires, but include the red cliff and mesa in the background.  We then drove around the back road of the town and came across the three crosses, which may gave her the idea for her "Black Cross" painting.  I was the last person to get back into the van, and got the amazing light at far away mesa behind the crosses.  Here are some more photos.

Our final task of the day was to look for the location that Ansel Adams photographed his famous photograph of "Moonrises over Hernandez" at 1941.  Here it is, the church and the grave yard, minus the moon.