Capilla ruin near La Soria         L. Topinka

We had just finished painting this old and beautifully landscaped capilla when the owner offered us a bag of just-picked peaches.  Yum!!  Prufrock¹ was a silly man…of course, we eat peaches. With peach juice dripping from the corners of our mouths, we headed back on an unfamiliar road looking for bell towers and wondering just where the road was going.

¹The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot…Finally a use for the parts of this poem that a long-ago teacher (at least 50 years ago) made me memorize!

I think it is the surprises and delights of each day that keep us going…exploring and painting our way along the backroads around San Miguel de Allende.   We have been painting together for about four years and, of the 523 communities in the municipality of San Miguel de Allende, we have visited at least 200 and painted more than 100 capillas and other historic structures.  It was easy to keep track of our adventures when we started but the sameness of some capillas and their settings…..the memories start to merge.

Capilla ruin near La Soria        L. Whynman

The uniqueness of the setting this week makes it memorable.  We had heard that there was a ruin of a capilla at a nursery not far from La Soria and La Huerta where we had been painting recently.  I found a photo of the capilla on the internet and that sealed the deal…off we went in search of the rural property for the nursery, Vivero Franke, in San Miguel de Allende.

It was the perfect afternoon…sitting in the shade trying to capture the lusciousness of the landscaping and the starkness of the capilla ruin all the while surrounded by laughing children who, as we finished, were chasing the numerous flitting butterflies.

It doesn’t get much better.

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