Last year when I came crippled off my backpacking journey, I left the trail two weeks earlier than planned. The frugal thing to do would have been to change my travel plans and return promptly home to New Mexico. Fourteen days earlier and just five days into my Long...
musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
dawn chandler santa fe artist
returning to autumn in new mexico
I love Vermont and I miss it. Though not a physical resident, in the last couple of years I’ve become a resident of the soul of Vermont. I’ve so much more to reflect on and share about my long walk through the Green Mountain forests. But I am a physical and...
finishing unfinished business : hiking the last 100 miles of vermont’s long trail
Journal Entry ~ 8 September 2016 ~ evening ~ Day One Returning to a personally sacred landscape after a long hiatus is an extraordinary experience. In a way, it’s as though you never left. If you’re lucky and your sacred place has not been altered by...
painting among lovebirds, enemies & johnny depp
A week ago my pup and I hiked up to one of our favorite spots high in the forest above Santa Fe. Take one of the major thoroughfares, then turn off onto a well-used ‘unofficial’ trail; after a ways cross a meadow; make your way through the far evergreen grove and...
amulets of the trail
“SPLAT” pause “SPLAT” pause “SPLAT” pause “SPLAT” ...was the sound as I emptied my PO box this afternoon, depositing most of its contents into the waste bin of recycled trees. Of the 4-inch stack of mail in my little locked cubbie-hole, the only thing worth saving was...
painting morning light on albuquerque’s la luz trail
When My Good Man revealed this weekend that he is on the “waiting list” for this year’s La Luz Trail Run, and that he wanted to do a training run up there this weekend, my painter’s mind started scheming. My last plein air painting excursion was in early April. After...
how vermont trees lead back to new mexico sky
When I set out last year to walk across Vermont, one of my plans was to create a body of paintings based on my hike. They would be in the style of my “textual landscapes’ where I combine language (text) with semi-abstract landscape elements. The text might come from...
how a landscape painting evolves
It's always a little amazing to me how a landscape painting evolves. Even though I'm intimately aware of the stages, it still surprises me every time when, in the end, I have something I can actually recognize and identify. Between the first dabs of paint and my...
jumping off and leaping in
I guess it was my turn. My turn to have a crappy week…or two. Let’s face it: I lead a pretty charmed life. I’m self-employed doing what I love; I’m active and in good health (I haven't had a cold in five years); I’m reasonably financially secure; I live in desired...
finding grounding in the new year
I never would have thought I'd find grounding in the sky; in flight. This new year loomed for me with a feeling of. . . . . . lack of focus? Imbalance? My birthday is lost in the week between Christmas and New Year’s—a weird time when I always feel kind of in...