We drove to Santa Fe around 2:00 to attend the opening of
the Florence Pierce resins show at Charlotte Jackson’s Gallery. We first stopped at Stephen’s Consignment,
but did not see anything of interest.
Then we went downtown and tried to go to Aaron Payne’s Gallery and Nat
Owings Gallery and both of them were closed.
We saw Nat but he was going to the gym at around 4:00 and said he may be
open Saturday morning. We both got the
feeling that they did not think the folks who came to celebrate the Santa Fe Fiesta
were very good customers and that the folks who came to Fiesta kept their
customers away. We walked around the
square and looked at the booths, but did not see anything very interesting. I got the same feeling about the Santa Fe
Fiesta crowd and scene that I got at the Albuquerque street fair scene. A decidedly different crowd that the one I am
used to and not very appealing culturally to us. We then drove to the Railyard and visited
Jacqueline at Tai Gallery and found out she had recently bought a house in the
Osage at Agua Fria area, so we were happy for her.
We walked next door and saw the resin pieces at Charlotte Jackson’s
which were impressive because you could see Pierce' transition from white resin
with manipulated surfaces in her resin pieces to pure colored resin without any
manipulation. There was a pure resin
piece that was 20"X20" that must have been one of the first pure color resin pieces that
shimmered that looked like it may have been one of the breakthrough pieces that
I liked a lot but it was priced at $20,000.00.
We were not expected until 6:30 and it was 5:15, so when Suzette found a
Pasatiempo and we saw that the Chirascuro Gallery was having an opening, we
drove to Canyon Road, parked and stopped at Ernesto Mayans Gallery for a bit,
but he was closing so we walked across the street to Chiaroscuro Gallery and
saw the show there, which did nothing for us because no Fonseca's.
We then walked up Canyon Road to New Concept Gallery that was also having
an opening and I was amazed that it was showing new work by Jane Abrams and
Aaron Karp. I looked at Aaron Karp’s new
work for a while and decided to not buy anything. When when I turned the corner to go to
another part of the gallery, I saw and instantly fell in love with a Tim
Prythero model of the local Dairy Queen that had stood at 15th and
Central, just two blocks from our house where we used to take the kids for ice
cream, until recently demolished.
I have always felt a strong appeal for Prythero’s work ever since I saw
Bea Torgerson’s Prythero piece twenty-five years ago but this was the first piece I have
felt an immediate urge to have one. Prythero's Dairy Queen piece was exact to the last detail including the electrical box on
the western wall of the building. Thank
God it was priced at $2,250.00. After a
little bargaining I bought it for $2,000.00.
A picture of the DQ is at http://www.newconceptgallery.com/prythero_portfolio.html
TIM PRYTHERO
Albuquerque’s Tim Prythero has been working in his distinct miniature style for over 20 years, sculpting buildings, churches, old adobe structures, gas stations and eateries. He works in great detail to document the history of a past era. He describes his passion for such subject matter: “I’ve always been fascinated by the sculptural beauty of old adobe structures and the more formal Colonial architecture… Many buildings of Northern New Mexico are disappearing due to neglect and weather and I think it is important to document these subjects before they disappear.” Tim has shown extensively in the US including New York, Washington DC, Santa Fe, Dallas, and Los Angeles. His work is held in numerous collections such as Chase Manhattan Bank and The New Mexico Museum of Art.
Happily we drove to T.R. and Linda Lawrence’s home on Old Pecos Trail
high up on the hill across from John Gaw Meem’s designed Baptist Church. Thanks to Suzette and her new gardener,
Jefferson, who is a bee keeper, we presented T.R. and Linda with the perfect
house gift, a bottle of fresh local honey from Suzette’s new bee hive. When we arrived we met their house guest
Paulo, who is an Italian chef and teaches yoga, We had drinks and appetizers on their patio behind their house.
We then moved inside for a light meal of
chicken stuffed with goat cheese and herbs with sautéed squashes. Linda had
pounded the chicken breasts out and after stuffing them had wrapped them in bacon
strips to hold them together and give them a bit more flavor and then grilled them. I found the dish to be very simple and one of
the most appealing ways I have ever experienced to prepare grilled chicken breast.
T.R. and Linda do not do dessert, which was fine with us,
but when they offered us additional drinks after dinner, I asked if they might
have an after dinner wine, Linda rummaged through their liquor cabinet and found
an unopened bottle of Fonseca Bin No. 27 fine reserve port.
I could not see any vintage year listed on the label of the
Fonseca Bin No. 27. Perhaps the reason
is that it is a blend of several year’s ports.
Here is some information on Fonseca’s Bin No. 27:
Winemaker's Notes
Fonseca
Bin No. 27 was created over a century ago for family consumption, and only
released commercially in 1972. It is produced primarily from wines from
Fonseca's own quintas in the Cima Corgo and thus shows an exceptional quality
and consistency from year to year. Blended from reserve wines selected for
their intense fruit character and depth of color, Fonseca Bin No. 27 spends
four years in large wood vats prior to bottling. Although it may improve
slightly with bottle age, Bin No. 27 is ready to consume when bottled. It does
not require decanting, as a cold precipitation prior to bottling prevents any
"crust" from forming. Its well-knit structure, rich, velvety full
body and luscious blackcurrant and cherry flavors, also evident in the nose,
carry into an intense, lingering finish. Bin No. 27 should be served at room
temperature either alone or with simple, classic last courses and desserts. It
is best consumed within two weeks after uncorking.
Critical Acclaim
"Fresh
and grapey, with plenty of grip and power behind dark plum, chocolate and berry
flavors that feature slate and pepper notes."
90 Points Wine Spectator
90 Points Wine Spectator
Linda and T.R.
graciously offered to open the port even though they did not want any of it, so
Linda offered us cognac sniffers and I poured glasses of port and we moved back
out to the patio where they had built a fire in their metal fire pit on the
patio and we sat and talked and fed the piles of wood T.R. had gathered from the
trees in their yard and talked until after 10:00 when we had exhausted the pile
of wood and the fire finally died down and we all got sleepy. The slightly cool
weather made the fire on the patio feel even more welcome, even though it told
us that the seasons were changing with Fall and Winter soon arriving.
We thanked T.R. and Linda for a lovely evening and took the
rest of the bottle of port they offered and drove to Vhal and Amy’s house in
Eldorado. Amy had waited up to welcome
us and Suzette gave her a bottle of honey and we talked for a few minutes and
then went to their downstairs guest bedroom to sleep.
Bon Appétit
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