A Natural Eye: The Expressive Landscape — New Mexico’s Red Rock Canyon Country

Eddie Soloway is bringing his Natural Eye workshop into the spectacular multi-colored canyon landscape made famous by Georgia O’Keeffe. Our home base is the quaint Abiquiu Inn, an hour and a quarter north of Santa Fe. Our location puts us within easy drives to Ghost Ranch, Plaza Blanca, the Chama River, and the sparsely settled mountains and canyons that have been a magnet to painters, writers, and photographers over the decades. In addition to Georgia O’Keeffe—Ansel Adams, Marsden Hartley, Paul Strand and many others walked these landscapes.

The workshop starts Sunday evening, October 23, at 7:00pm and concludes Friday morning, October 28, at 10:00am. Northern New Mexico comes alive in October. The workshop is timed for the blaze of Cottonwood trees that lace the river canyons with a ribbon of yellow. The end-of-day light casts a clarity that has long been a magnet for artists of all genres. Eddie’s workshop is designed to push your seeing from what’s right in front of your eyes into the world of abstractions, reflections, layers, movement, and then deeper into the realm of concepts and imagination.

During the week, outdoor experiences in local natural areas take you through important steps to enriching your photographs of the natural world as you find yourself focused less on objects and things, and more on the magic of moments and the essence of places. You stop chasing the light and learn to enjoy the fine art of wandering. You visit the same place in different light and different weather, getting to know it, and hence seeing it with new eyes. You learn that if you hear more and touch more, you will photograph with more sensitivity. You are rewarded by the skills of patience, solitude and emptying. This workshop weaves together eye-opening outdoor experiences, technical lessons, image reviews, and Eddie’s one-on-one meetings with each participant.