Doing a study of a hillside this morning when a blue locomotive from the Santa Rita mine came up from the south. The engineer and I exchanged waves. 30 minutes later it came back down, barreling down the mountain with 4 or 5 cars of ore, out of control, spewing smoke from what might have been locked brakes, ore and gravel flying out of the cars. I stepped into the road to get away from the flying rock. Looked down to the intersection, crossing guards down luckily. Didn't hear anything. Figured it might have been a bad driver. Kid came down on a bicycle and asked me if I thought it was weird. "Yep" it was. In years of living there (Hanover, NM) he hadn't seen the train ever go 50 mph coming back to the mine. He left to investigate. Then I heard sirens. Train jumped the tracks about a mile down. Three people in the locomotive died. The older man, the one who waved, apparently was an artist. I couldn't find anything on his work on the internet. His girlfriend was riding with him in the locomotive although she didn't work for the mine. They were both new to the area. Very sad.

solstice is not too far away ...

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold

Will be giving a talk at Leyba and Ingalls Arts from 5-6 pm on December 10: "Painting What You See, Not What You Think You See. A personal journey through landscape and imagination"  Starting at the end of January I'll be teaching still life (Tuesdays, 3-5) and figure drawing/painting (Thursdays, 3-5) at Leyba and Ingalls. Really looking forward to it. It's a bit of an added treat that Diana Ingalls Leyba and I met while we were students at Tyler School of Art in 1977.  Diana and her husband have been carrying professional quality materials in their shop for over a couple of decades.

For those interested in taking either of the classes, here's a 90-second video made for the Lawrence Arts Center where I taught for a number of years. It gives a little preview of what will be emphasized.

Planning a winter trip to Norton Simon museum in Pasadena, plus other LA area museums. Not sure if I'll extend it into northern California for a drive-by of Neil Young's place, but who knows. It's only 9 hours to LA.

one of four in a series done near the Ben Lily monument in the Gila Wilderness

The thought of a semi-truck lurching out of a space in an Oklahoma truck stop at dawn. Cold, diesel. There's a lot to post this week but a few miles to go before that can happen. Another trip to Santa Fe. Winter plans. New paintings. Conversations with collaborators. Which reminds me: fellow artist Erik Sandgren and myself will be launching a parody-of-plain-air painting website soon. Landscape painting is considered quaint, no doubt. I'm always out in the fresh air tripping over pine cones and thinking deep thoughts you know.