A painter and author of eleven other books, Atwill has lived in Santa Fe for many years. He has a house and studio on Cristobal Lane, where he painted the canvases illustrated in this book. Atwill writes about each painting in turn, why he painted it and from where the image originated. A number of them are scenes from his own garden, a courtyard between house and studio with apple trees, horsechestnuts, climbing roses, perennials and a rectangular plot of vegetables. He looks outside the north window by his easel for a continuing series of domestic landscapes through the seasons, as well as grander landscapes of New Mexico and scenes of the west.