I have always loved the adobe   mission churches and fell in love with this famous New Mexican church in Taos  New Mexico. Its San Francisco de Assisi  Mission Church in Taos  I love pastels thought I would give this old mission church a try in pastels. This church  is a New Mexican icon because of its shape and its historical significance .The Franciscans started the construction of the  church in 1772 and finished in 1816. The mission church is a National Historic Landmark.  

I started this pastel on March 11th  while I was kinda down with a real bad cold. Dabbled  with it for the next couple of days . Finished it on March 13 I am pretty happy with it. But what makes this so special to me later that day I heard on the news Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope and chose the name of Francis after St Francis  of Assisi  .  Providence , circumstance , prophetic or just one of those things that make you go hmmm ?  Thats for you to answer for your self.

I took my photo of  San Francisco de Assisi looked at other pictures  made a change of time and added a sunset . This is the result . 

I decided I like  a toothy support for pastels. The the support is a 100% cotton paper  with a gesso and marble dust painted on it first. It was an experiment  recipe for the ground was from other artists this recipe worked very good I believe it was found on http://www.wetcanvas.com . 

This is on a 8x12 paper with hard and soft pastels and a few pastel pencils.
Hope you enjoy viewing it