DeGrazia Chapel, Tucson

Ted De Grazia, artist and creator, built this adobe chapel next to his hand-built house in north Tucson, underneath the mountains and among the cactus desert. There is now a gallery displaying many of his paintings and artefacts, and he is also buried there. As you can see the chapel is decorated with De Grazia's murals and the roof is open to the Arizona sky.

DeGrazia is mainly known for painting colourful, childlike pictures of children but we found that his main work is of serious subjects: as well as a series of Christ of the Cross he painted series documenting the history of the region - a missionary priest working with Papago Indians, early Spanish exploration, bullfighting in Mexico, Native American rituals and myths.

We got up early so we could look round Tucson before it got too hot and we thought this would be somewhere to go in the afternoon where there would be indoor stuff as well as outdoors. When you stepped outside the 102 degrees were noticeable!