Near Rain Valley Ranch - and Two Mountain Towns

Near Rain Valley Ranch

Oil on canvas, 10x10

When you are a painter, everyone has an idea about where you should go. I love hearing the ideas, and I almost always take people up on their ideas, if I can. 

This week, because people told me I should, I visited Bisbee and Jerome, small Arizona towns. Bisbee is somewhat near Tubac, and Jerome is sort of close to Sedona. 

I think that people sent me to these places not because they thought I'd like to paint them, but just because they thought I would enjoy seeing them. And I did. But in both cases, I was glad to leave. 

Maybe it was just me, maybe it's the effect of doing a lot of standing alone out in beautiful fields, or maybe it's just a mood, but Bisbee and Jerome both seemed just a little too cute for their own good. I had a similar - but much stronger - feeling about Key West. 

I was intrigued by the architecture of Bisbee and Jerome - and by the incredible challenges that builders must have found in those places, building houses up and down steep hillsides - and in the case of Jerome, frighteningly steep hillsides! 

Beyond that, both towns were so geared for tourism that it made me sort of sad. There were great stores in both towns, and excellent stuff for sale - but I felt the lack of "real town." It's a disheartening shift I know well, having watched Stonington Borough, in Connecticut, go from being a real town to being a tourist town. It's not that I don't like what's there - it's just that I miss what is no longer there. 

Also, it is sometimes difficult to remember, on these trips, that I am an artist - not a tourist! The pull to be a tourist is nearly overwhelming at times, especially in places like Bisbee and Jerome, where the focus is on Stuff to Buy. I am not here to visit and see and buy. I am here to paint, to see the soul of the place, the feel the bones of the earth, to find the rhythm of the heartbeat of the land. 

I made this painting on the way from Bisbee back to Tubac. There was a nice overcast to the day, which softened the shadows and enriched the deep colors of the grassland. The wind picked up just as I stopped painting. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

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In Bisbee, in addition to a few great trucks, houses are built up into the sides of the mountains. 

Downtown Bisbee has tons of shops, restaurants and galleries, galleries, galleries. The town was jammed when I was there, on Presidents Day. 

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Jerome is also built into the side of a mountain - a much steeper mountain. And the road to Jerome - and from Jerome to Prescott - is pretty terrifying. I liked both towns, and felt lucky to get out of them without spending all my money.  

Many of the homes in Jerome are perched on the edges of cliffs. I asked one woman if she was scared - and she said that after 11 years there, she'd gotten used to it. 

Fighting fires in Jerome must be quite a job. I saw the trash guys, and let me tell you, getting a big trash truck up and down those steep and narrow streets requires some real skills. 

There was still snow at the edges of the road from Jerome to Prescott! 

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One of you wonderful sponsors sent me to the Granite Dells - which looked like another planet! 

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Dog of the Day

I met this cutie in Bisbee. His human said he was half boxer and "half handsome stranger."