Northern New Mexico missions
Foster Hyatt
Created : n.d.
Loaned : 1993
Medium : Watercolor
Dimensions: x
Located: 3rd Floor,South Main Hallway
On loan from 1993 to present
These watercolor paintings of northern New Mexico mountain village churches and a camposanto were painted over the last 10 years by architect-artist Foster Hyatt. He based the paintings on sketches and photographs he made during 30 years of fishing and camping trips in the areas he loves so much. At least one of these churches, at El Valle, no longer exists.
Hyatt has been a resident of Santa Fe since 1942, when he “came here from Dallas for the summer, returned to Texas, then returned to Santa Fe” after he and his wife realized that, once having been to Santa Fe, they could not live anywhere else. An architectural illustrator, Hyatt worked for many years for Willard C. Kruger, whose firm designed this Capitol building. After many years with Kruger’s firm, Hyatt began his own architectural illustration practice, from which he retired in the early 1980s. He started painting actively in the late 1960s, shifting from illustration work for others to his own art.
The watercolors, from left to right, depict:
- Sagrada Familia/Holy Family church in Rowe, a small farming village about 25 miles east of Santa Fe, on the old Santa Fe Trail.
- Santo Tomas Apostol/Saint Thomas Apostle church in Abiquiú, a hilltop village overlooking the Chama Canyon in north central New Mexico.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael #3. Simple sandstone grave markers in the camposanto (cemetery) at San Miguel, a small farming village located along the Río de los Piños in north central New Mexico. These gravestones were carved in the 1930s by an Indian resident of the community.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael #4. Memorial gravestone dedicated to a game warden, flanked by other sandstone grave markers dating from the 1930s, in the camposanto at San Miguel.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael #2. Gravestones in the camposanto at San Miguel.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael #1. Gravestones in the camposanto at San Miguel.
- The ancient San José/Saint Joseph church at San Jose, a village on the old Santa Fe Trail at the Pecos River crossing.
- The private Oratorio de San Buenaventura/Oratory of Saint Bonaventure in the old plaza at Chimayo, now almost completely abandoned except for this oratorio.
- The church at Machó Creek, a small farming community along the upper Pecos River in northern New Mexico.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael church at San Miguel, a farming community in the Río de los Piños Canyon of northern New Mexico.
- Santo Tomas/Saint Thomas church at Ojo Sarco, a spread-out farming community on the “high road” to Taos.
- Nuestra Señora de los Remedios/Our Lady of the Remedies church at Galisteo, an ancient community near the Ortiz Mountains of central New Mexico.
- San José/Saint Joseph church at La Cienega. This very small church in the lower Santa Fe Canyon serves this spread-out farming community in central New Mexico.
- San Francisco de Asis/Saint Francis of Assisi church at Golden, a mountain community on the east slope of the Sandia Mountains between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
- San Antonio/Saint Anthony church at historical Cordova, a small farming community best known for its wood carvers and santeros.
- San José de Gracia/Saint Joseph of Grace church at Trampas, a village on the “high road” to Taos. This church was built in 1776, through the intervention of San Jose, father of Jesus.
- San Miguel/Saint Michael church at El Valle. This beautiful little church, once located in the farming community of El Valle, along the Río de las Trampas in northern New Mexico, no longer exists. This painting was made from photographs and sketches made by the artist in 1958.
- San Antonio/Saint Anthony church at El Rancho. This church serves the small villages of Ranchitos, Jacona, and Jaconita in north central New Mexico.
- Nuestra Señora de la Luz/Our Lady of Light church in Cañoncito Canyon at Apache Junction, a historical area of north central New Mexico.
- Santo Domingo/Saint Dominic church at Cundiyo, on the slopes of the steep Frijoles Canyon in north central New Mexico. For decades, all residents of Cundiyo were members of the Vigil family.
