For 20 years, while living in California, Sally Delap-John only painted with watercolors. “I wouldn’t even look at oil paintings,” she says. “I couldn’t stand the somber look of them.”
But then she moved to the village of Truchas, New Mexico, and she wanted to go outside and paint in plein air. “Of course, watercolors never worked well for me that way, but the oils did,” Delap-John says. A solo show titled A Painted Tale of Truchas will feature more than 80 paintings that pay homage to her time in the village, created over a span of 15 years. 
Milagro, oil, 36 x 36"
Delap-John continues to be fascinated by the architecture and the landscape around her home, even after a decade and a half of painting it. “In particular, there’s this one little adobe chapel that’s an easy walking distance away from our house,” she says. Compared to many of the other buildings of Truchas, which date back to the 1750s, this chapel is “newer,” but that doesn’t make it a less interesting subject. “I’ve painted it many times, front, back and sides, and I’ve been lucky enough to get permission to show my art in the building in the past.” 
Truchas Peaks, oil, 24 x 36"
This is the building depicted in The Red Willow Chapel. “I was out for a walk one morning during one of the colder parts of the year, and in the winter the willows turn red,” Delap-John explains. “I saw the willows against the chapel wall and it was a different angle than I had ever painted before.” She used simple shapes to create the architecture, then filled those shapes in with a multitude of different colors to create the texture of the adobe.
Milagro is a view of the other side of the village, where a road rings around older adobe buildings and a mountain range appears in the background. “Some of them the buildings were here when I first moved here, but they’ve disappeared since then,” Delap-John says. “I paint them in like they are still there.” She uses a variety of colors that may not exactly reflect reality, but still capture the heart of the village. 
Red Willow Chapel, oil, 36 x 36"
While painting Truchas Peaks, March, Delap-John set up shop at a friend’s home that had a great view of the mountain range. She typically finishes her paintings in one session, and when she was nearly done, the wind began to pick up in the area. “My hat flew off and I had to hold the painting down on the easel to get it finished,” she remembers.
A Painted Tale of Truchas will be on view at Delap-John’s home gallery, with a view of the Truchas Peaks to the east and the Rio Grande Valley to the west. The show opens on October 1 with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. —
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