The Route 66 town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, boasts so much public artwork, it’s proclaimed itself the “City of Murals” in one of its \brochures.
What many don’t realize is one man — Doug Quarles — was responsible for creating about 85 percent of those murals. And he will create more murals in Tucumcari in the coming weeks.
Earlier this week, at a reception organized by The Gallery Inc. in downtown Tucumcari, Quarles sat down with one of those tourism brochures and marked off the murals he’d created. Of the 33 murals listed in Tucumcari, he did 28 of them. And nearly all were done during a 10-year period.
Quarles and his wife, Sharon, have lived in Benson, Arizona, since 2013 and own an art gallery there. But he was back in Tucumcari for several weeks to visit old friends and create more murals in town at TeePee Curios, Motel Safari, Knights of Columbus Hall, Tucumcari Public Library and High Street Church.
“They’re going to have to reprint these,” Quarles said, pointing to the “City of Murals” brochure.
A Louisiana native, Quarles taught himself to paint in a photo-realism style.
He did a few murals in his home state, but a trip out west inspired him to make the move to the Southwest in 2003.
“When I actually got out here and saw the mountains, the rocks, the big sky … it was just beautiful out here,” he said. “I told everybody, ‘I’m going out west to paint. Bye.'”
More than a dozen of Quarles’ murals are found along the Route 66 corridor in Tucumcari. While painting them, he heard a lot of stories from passers-by whose memories were sparked by his artwork.
“When I was painting ‘The Legendary Road’ there on Lowes (Market), this couple stopped across the street from where I was painting. This old woman got out of the car; she could barely move, and she was over 90 years old. But she came up to me and told me she remembers coming through Tucumcari as a girl on Route 66. I was thinking, ‘Boy, that was a trip back then … they probably didn’t drive more than 30, 40 miles per hour on that rough road.'”
Quarles also recalled a Canadian cyclist he’d met. The man had planned to get married, but his fiancée dumped him just before the ceremony. The man decided to use the wedding money to buy a bicycle and travel Route 66 from Chicago.
“He only had two flats (on his bicycle) from Chicago to Tucumcari,” Quarles marveled. “That (trip) was one way to get over a broken heart, I guess.”
“I loved meeting them and hearing the stories. But there were some days I couldn’t even paint because so many people wanted to talk,” Quarles added. “I had Sharon come out, set up a guest book nearby and talk to them so they could let me paint.”
Quarles said he would keep making murals as long as his health permitted.
“I went west to paint, and that’s what I’m going to do if I’m able,” he said.
(Image of “The Legendary Road” by Adam Levine; image of “66 Eyes on 66” by Julie Delio; image of “Where’s My Horse #1” and “Where’s My Horse #2” by H0CT0R; image of “Tucumcari Lumber” by Melissa Gallian; image of “Welcome to Tucumcari and Quay County” at the Tucumcari / Quay County Chamber of Commerce by Maggie)