Western Art Collector Magazine-Might of the Earth, May 2019

INSIDE Santa Fe • Taos • Painters of Canyons and Deserts • Art of the Horse MAY 2019

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COLLECTOR'S FOCUS

PAINTING CANYONS & DESERTS

MIGHT OF THE EARTH

BY JOHN O’HERN

1. P.A. Nisbet, Taos Gorge, oil on linen, 20 x 33"

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COLLECTOR'S FOCUS

PAINTING CANYONS & DESERTS

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2. James Cohan Gallery, GSENM, Slot Canyon No. 1, marquetry hybrid, 69 x 59", by Alison Elizabeth Taylor. 3. Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Mazatzal Cutbank, oil on linen panel, 10 x 14", by Matt Smith. 4. Trailside Galleries, Reflections at Phantom Ranch, gouache on paper, 5¾ x 9", by Greg McHuron (1945-2012). 5. Josh Elliott, Monuments and Man, oil, 48 x 60" 6. Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Evening Salute at Red Wash, oil, 24 x 36", by G. Russell Case. 7. Matthew Sievers, Red Sunset, oil on panel, 48 x 36" 8. Matthew Sievers, Misty Morning, oil on panel, 48 x 60" 9. Maxwell Alexander Gallery, In the Land of Mesas, oil on linen, 20 x 30", by Brett Allen Johnson. 10. Matthew Sievers, Guarding the Edge, oil on panel, 16 x 20" 11. Patricia Rose Ford, Piedra Lumbre Morning, pastel, 11 x 14"

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ne of the remarkable visual experiences in northern New Mexico is to drive north through the Rio Grande Gorge toward Taos. After traveling at river level for miles, the road rises up above the Taos Plateau through which the gorge runs. The feeling is one of discovery, as if tens of thousands of people living in the region didn’t exist and you had made a great discovery.

The Rio Grande Rift, up to 800 feet deep, slices through the high desert plateau, formed not by the erosion of river water but the action of tectonic plates and volcanos millions of

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years ago. The river, which begins in southern Colorado, found the rift to begin its nearly 1,900-mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

P.A. Nisbet, who lives in nearby Santa Fe, has painted the area many times, often featuring the dramatic clouds of storms that frequent northern New Mexico especially during the summer monsoons. Taos Gorge is a tranquil view with clouds modulating the light that illumines the canyon’s walls. The tranquility belies the fact that the Pacific and North American tectonic plates continue to scrape against each other very slowly and deep pockets

of magma create hot springs at the surface.

Less than 500 miles west is the Grand Canyon in Arizona, carved by the Colorado River, 277 miles long and sometimes a mile deep. It has inspired artists for generations.

Phantom Ranch sits above the river at the bottom of the canyon. Designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter and originally operated by the Fred Harvey Company, it was built in the 1920s.

Greg McHuron was a plein air painter who sought to bring the excitement of being in the out of doors to his oils and watercolor/

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gouaches. With a minimum of detail in Reflections at Phantom Ranch he sketched the rocks, added a bit of light gouache in the distance to suggest sunlight and to give depth, and just enough color in the foreground to show the effects of light on the water.

Matt Smith lives in Arizona and also paints in plein air. In Mazatzal Cutbank he portrays the atmospheric heat in a canyon

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of the Mazatzal Mountains that rise above the Sonoran Desert. Cutbanks are formed by erosion as water from a stream hits the soil on the outside of a bend. He says, “I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without seeing the influence of man. When I paint, I feel I’ve hit the mark when I’ve captured a balance between mood, look and feel.”

Alison Elizabeth Taylor writes, “I spent time

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hiking, photographing and sketching parts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). I had heard stories about the sacred and mystical forms and was compelled to go there by family lore. Even though images of all of these landmarks are readily available on the internet, it is important for me to experience a subject in three dimensions to be able to depict it.”

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Slot canyons are formed by water rushing through rock, often narrow and deep with sinuous, colorful walls.

Taylor works in marquetry, the craft of wood inlay from the Renaissance. She takes it many steps further in “marquetry hybrid, a medium that is a mix of painting, collage, photo and wood inlay. The underlying organizing structure consists of cut shapes of wood veneer put together over the previously

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drawn image; on top of this is oil painting and pigment prints of photographed textures taken from the GSENM site.”

In her work, as the other artists do, she brings attention to the fragility of these canyons and deserts, endangered by over visitation and, in the case of GSENM and other sites, by a residential proclamation “revoking federal protection and leaving large areas of previously protected land open to the sale of

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oil, coal and mining leases.”

Her visceral response to the landscape echoes that of the other artists: “To experience the desert is to witness the whole of geologic time in an instant; the stunning landscape that is a visual record of floods, extinctions, ancient sea beds, ice ages and meteorite explosions. A seemingly barren place that is actually full of tenacious life, but which shows no sympathy to the unprepared.”

Throughout the pages of this special section, collectors can view works from some of the top Western artists and galleries working with majesty of canyon and desert landscapes.

The 11th annual Grand Canyon Celebration of Art takes place September 7 through 15, a juried competition, exhibition and sale of plein air works depicting the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon. Artists who will be taking place in the show this year include Bill Cramer, Linda Glover Gooch, Michelle Condrat, Cody DeLong and others, and proceeds go toward a fund to establish an art venue at Grand Canyon.

Matthew Sievers’ instantly recognizable landscapes incorporate spontaneous brushstrokes and generous use of his palette knife. “My desert pieces are an expression of the strong moods I feel whenever I spend time in such a unique environment. The fresh energy of the morning air, the sleepy afternoon heat and the majesty of a desert sunset inspire me to recreate these beautiful scenes. I particularly love the atmosphere of the desert when the sun is low, blanketing everything in a moody haze,” says Sievers. He offers up advice to collectors: “The purpose of art is to evoke emotion. Wellrendered paintings can be especially moving.

Paintings of the desert and all its unique beauty provide an opportunity for collectors to

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12. Patricia Rose Ford, Monument Valley Splendor, pastel, 11 x 14" 13. Kathryn Stedham, Hidden in Plain Sight, oil on canvas, 30 x 36" 14. Trailside Galleries, Through the Canyon, oil on board, 10 x 8",

by Michael Godfrey. 15. Kathryn Stedham, Rio Grande, Bend, oil on canvas, 6 x 8" 16. Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, Depths of the Canyon, oil on canvas, 40 x 30", by Cody DeLong. 17. Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, Unveiling, oil on canvas, 18 x 36", by Robert Green. 18. Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, Evening in Elysium, oil on canvas, 30 x 36", by Dawn Sutherland. 19. Trailside Galleries, The Showers of Sunrise, oil on board, 26½ x 24", by William Phillips.

connect and be drawn in.”

A highly-regarded entity in the Western art sphere, Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, California, deals in a variety of subject matter, including historic and contemporary Western scenes. The gallery showcases canyon and desert landscapes from such modern artists as G. Russell Case, Ed

Mell, Brett Allen Johnson, Mark Maggiore and many others.

“As a plein air landscape painter l love the great outdoors and particularly the scenes of the Southwestern deserts and coastlines,” says artist Patricia Rose Ford. “That would include the canyons of those locations also. There is so much to see and paint here in the Southwest.”

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