Days Fifteen and Sixteen: Elephant Butte to Taos

Rebecca Salsbury James

---

Rebecca Salsbury James (1891–1968) was a self-taught American painter, born in London, England of American parents who were traveling with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.[1] She settled in New York City, where she married photographer Paul Strand. Following her divorce from Strand, James moved to Taos, New Mexico where she fell in with a group that included Mabel Dodge Luhan, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence.[2][unreliable source?] In 1937 she married William James, a businessman from Denver, Colorado who was then operating the Kit Carson Trading Company in Taos. She remained in Taos until her death in 1968. James is noted for her “large scale flower blossoms and still lifes painted on glass." She also worked on colcha embroidery, a traditional Hispanic New Mexico craft style. Wikipedia

Murals painted in 1934 in the former Taos Courthouse building

---

The artists studied with Diego Rivera.

The Fechin house

---

The Fechins purchased a two-story adobe house, and spent several years enlarging and modifying it according to designs by Fechin. Changes included adding and enlarging windows, enlarging the porch and making the rooms more open. He also carved doors according to Russian style, created triptych windows, and carved furniture for use in the house, which reflects a combination of modernist, Russian and Native American sensibility.[3] Sixty-eight of Fechin's works in a variety of genres can be seen at his former home, as part of the Stark Collection of the Taos Art Museum. The house is now used for the Taos Art Museum.[3] Some of the personal spaces have been preserved. In 1979 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Ready for dinner

---

I've changed from sleeveless dresses and sandals to leggings, sweaters, and down jackets in a day!

Dinner outside

---

We were the only ones on the patio! It's cold!!