Lunch and More Museums in Santa Fe

After another morning of birding along a beautiful creek in a town called Gallisteo, we came back to Santa Fe and had lunch in a small Mexican deli called the Palacio Cafe. Len had a Cuban Reuben Panini -- made and served by Spanish-speaking cook and waitresses -- that is, 4-way fusion food.

Inside the Palacio Cafe: paintings that recall the work
of Frida Kalho, unibrow included.

My lunch: New Mexican enchiladas.

We then proceeded to New Mexico Museum of Art and then to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

The courtyard of the New Mexico Museum of Art, where we saw a collection of drawings
on loan from the British Museum, including works by Michaelangelo, Leonardo,
Rembrandt, and many more works from the 15th century to the present.

The Georgia O'Keffe Museum.

The O'Keeffe Museum has a remarkable collection of paintings and other works that she produced throughout her life. It also presents many photos of her and her surroundings -- even photos and sketches of her in early childhood by her mother and sisters, who were also painters. 

In her earliest years as an artist, O'Keeffe was influenced by a famous art-instruction book by Arthur Dow, and by Alon Bement, her teacher at University of Virginia where she studied. The work above depicts the UVA campus, in the style she was then learning.

Not long after her time at UVA, she began to develop her own style of abstraction. She lived in a number of places, including New York City, where she began to be recognized as an innovator and creative artist. Visiting the museum reviews the details of her personal and creative life, especially the many years she spent either part of the year or full time in New Mexico.

"Pedernal, "1941-1942. Among the vast number of O'Keeffe paintings I have seen, her depictions of this mountain near
Ghost Ranch near Santa Fe are always my favorites. A few years ago, I drove up to that area from here, and
was amazed to learn that her paintings aren't abstractions, but that the Pedernal mountain truly looks like this.

O'Keeffe was a gardner and a cook. This New Mexico photo, by
Tony Vaccaro, shows her preparing salad for lunch. (1960)

In this photo, she's picking Angelica for the salad.

One of the galleries.