"Teec Nos Pos" - #43 in FC-CP series

In my road trip travels over the years, I've always been interested (and often amused) by the ways in which towns announce their presence to passers-by on the highways and interstates.  In the northeast, it ranges from a simple DOT green-and-white sign along the side of the interstate to a hand-crafted and painted wooden sign "Welcome to _____" as you enter the quaint town or village on a 2-lane road.

In the midwest, I saw town names painted on the sides of barns, and Adair, Iowa, has the town name with a huge smiley face on one of their water towers.

A uniquely western trend, however, is the placement of white rocks on the side of a mountain, hill, or cliff with the first letter of the town.  As a kid, I found this neat, and I guess I still do.  In Tucson, where I went to college, it was "A" Mountain, and was maintained by U of A students.  Prescott, where I spent early childhood and part of the first decade of '00, has its "P" on the mountain.

So, when I saw the full name of the small community of Teec Nos Pos on the slope of a small mesa, I knew I had to paint it.  The name means "circle of cottonwoods" in Navajo, a typically descriptive term of the area.  It is here that the highway heads in a more northeastern direction, and the Four Corners monument is a few miles away.

"Teec Nos Pos"

9x12

oil on panel

Painted from a composite of two photos, I completed this rather quickly in one session yesterday.  However, I had to wait until today before adding the lettering, using a tiny liner brush.  I'm also really digging painting on these oil-primed panels I made. 

And here are two photos from this morning's sunrise.  At this time of the year, the magical light is right around 7 a.m., just when I'm getting up.  What a great way to start the day!

The pink glow on the La Platas to the northwest was unreal, and sadly, not captured as well as I'd hoped in this photo.