Studios / Sharp 1

Current exterior of the Luna Chapel.
Interior of Sharp’s first studio, now used for exhibitions.
Paint tube: Green Hue #233, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, Joseph Henry Sharp Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Fenn, P.22.531.
Paint tube: Maratta Red Orange, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, Joseph Henry Sharp Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Fenn, P.22.531.
Paint palette, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, Joseph Henry Sharp Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Fenn, P.22.531.

Sharp Studio 1 - The Luna Chapel
In 1908 Sharp established a permanent home in Taos, buying a house on Kit Carson Road. The next year he bought land to the east, including an old Spanish chapel that he converted into a studio. Sharp's chapel studio was originally built as a family chapel by Juan de Luna around 1835. It later passed to the Diocese in Santa Fe, from whom Sharp bought it. He called it "The Studio of the Copper Bell" and used it for six years, before building a larger studio on adjacent land to the south. After 1915 Sharp used his old studio, the Luna Chapel, for storage, installing a vault in one corner to protect his paintings and large artifact collection when he was away. He had stock in a failed bank and acquired the vault door as a result.

Sharp called Taos his “first love and stomping ground", declaring that he would rather "eat boiled dog in Taos than roast lamb and asparagus in Pasadena".