Why I Won't be Going to Lunch Anymore: Twenty-one Stories of the Santa Fe Painter's Life

Douglas Atwill

Sunstone Press, 2004 - Art - 244 pages

Outsiders seldom understand the curious amalgam of artists, galleries, misfits and hangers-on known as the Santa Fe Art Scene. Douglas Atwill, a painter living and working in its midst for many years, writes stories with an insider's eye, tales of facing the easel every day, as well as those of dealing with the commercial demands from collectors, galleries and their crabby owners. In this collection of stories, we witness a group of Santa Fe painters confronting their art and life in creative ways, solving the ages-old problems of painting the perfect canvas, making that obstinate muse smile. Each story contains the secret to a Santa Fe painter, facing craft and life, and how he or she confounds the conventional view of what it is to be an artist. DOUGLAS ATWILL was born in Pasadena, California, earned a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps. After a long sojourn on a Piedmont cattle farm in Virginia and on the move throughout Europe, he settled in Santa Fe to pursue painting full-time. From a studio on Canyon Road, he paints landscapes and paintings of his own gardens. His work is shown in galleries throughout the West. Atwill's avocation of restoring adobe houses and building them anew has earned him a reputation for excellence in taste and design, and his houses have been featured in many magazines and books. This is his first collection of short stories.

Contents

• Preface: 9
• The Supine Indian Maidens: 25
• The Deathbed Of Cecily Brompton: 42
• Nature To Advantage Dressed: 74
• Two For The Price Of One: 102
• The Petroglyph Dining Room: 111
• Fair Warning: 129
• Dipping Into Principal: 138
• Studio Studio Burning Bright147: 147
• The Menace Of The Creeping Buttercup: 163
• Catching The Cane Fields: 206
• The Encouragement of Zacariah Mendoza: 219
• LegOMutton Sleeves: 231

About the author

DOUGLAS ATWILL was born in Pasadena, California, earned a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps. After a long sojourn on a Piedmont cattle farm in Virginia and on the move throughout Europe, he settled in Santa Fe to pursue painting full-time. From a studio on Canyon Road, he paints landscapes and paintings of his own gardens. His work is shown in galleries throughout the West. Atwill's avocation of restoring adobe houses and building them anew has earned him a reputation for excellence in taste and design, and his houses have been featured in many magazines and books. This is his first collection of short stories. His other books include the novels "The Galisteo Escarpment," "Imperial Yellow," "Creep Around the Corner," "The Oyster Shell Driveway," and "Dinner in the Labyrinth," the short story collection "Husband Memory Pickles," and "Douglas Atwill Paintings," a collection of Atwill's New Mexico garden and landscape paintings.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Why I Won't be Going to Lunch Anymore: Twenty-one Stories of the Santa Fe Painter's Life
• Author: Douglas Atwill
• Publisher: Sunstone Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0865344264, 9780865344266
• Length: 244 pages
• Subjects: Art / American / General; Art / Caribbean & Latin American; Biography & Autobiography / General