Around 1960 Morris Blackburn set his sights on working in New Mexico. He and his family acquired a “house in Taos,” where he spent summers with a rigorous routine of absorbing and painting the exotic Southwest landscape. The high desert, with its vast spaces and dramatic, clear light, was well suited to Blackburn’s skill set. From his non-objective period in the 1940s to observed and yet highly formal paintings of the 1950s, regular painting trips were his favored approach. Fishing docks at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the New Jersey Shore preceded Taos and, he made rich bodies of work at each chosen location. The handling of vernacular architecture and atmosphere of Taos Mission is one of his best from this period. 

Other works by Morris Blackburn