Book description
Neil Bronson, new from the Royal Academy, summers in Provence, teaching
himself to paint outside. Before returning home, he and his friends, Sam
and Carrie, rent a cottage on the coast, playing a langorous triangle of
seaside sexual attraction. Neil's uncle interrupts the idyll, urgently
seeking their help teaching at his art school in Santa Fe. A month
later, Bronson and Sam move into Casa Marriner and meet the faculty
members, several jealous and difficult. Bronson teaches plein air
classes, often at the Galisteo escarpment. At first, the students are
confrontational and awkward, but they soon grasp his enthusiasm with the
New Mexico landscape. While they learn new skills, he refines his,
taking the escarpment as a major motif. Crisis at the school involves
Bronson in a curious project and a trip abroad to Greece. Besides
discovering himself in Santa Fe, he explores the world of sex and love
with one of his students, Salazar. New York must wait. DOUGLAS ATWILL's
early days were in Pasadena, California and Midland, Texas. He served in
the US Army Counterintelligence Corps and earned a BA from University of
Texas at Austin. After some years in Virginia and 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 garden. His work is shown in
galleries throughout the nation. Atwill's avocation of house design,
small vernacular residences in classic Santa Fe style, many of which
have been featured in books and magazines, has brought him a reputation
for excellence. His collection of short stories, “Why I Won't Be Going
to Lunch Anymore,” was published in 2004 by Sunstone Press. This is his
first novel.
