Category: Uncategorized

Janet Bothne

February 2023

Featured Artist - Janet Bothne

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

My love of art goes back to my childhood where I was given much encouragement and space to explore creativity. Over the years, I’ve explored many mediums and styles ranging from fastidious realism in oils, pastels and watercolor, to where I am currently— vibrant abstract works in acrylic & mixed media. While mastering draftsmanship, perspective, and the many techniques that go into good realism certainly gave me a wonderful foundation in my practice, it wasn’t until I let go of realistic subject matter that I found my “center” with abstraction. Leaving the pre-set subject matter behind and delving into my imagination was like letting go of a crutch; it’s been freeing and constantly vexing at the same time. Now when I think of going back to realism, I think of it as getting the answers before taking a test.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

Coloring with my mom when I was about 5 years old. All my friends went to Kindergarten and my parents couldn’t afford to send me. (It wasn’t free back then.) She’d spend hours drawing and coloring with me, and when asked by friends why I wasn’t going to school, I remember telling them, “My mom needs me to color with her at home.”

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

After years of working in oils, pastels, watercolors and dry media, I’ve ended up with acrylics and mixed media. When I started getting nauseous from oil paint fumes (despite good ventilation in my studio) I knew it was time for a change. I hadn’t used acrylics since high school, but I quickly learned to let the paint show me what it wanted to do, instead of trying to make it behave like oils. I’ve come to love how quickly it dries, allowing me to apply many layers while keeping colors fresh.

What other media have you used?

Just about everything under the sun. Watercolors for still life and landscapes, portraits in pastel, oils for just about all sorts of subjects and now acrylics and collage for abstracts.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Expressive, vibrant compositions about color & color contexts

What inspires your work?

Color and color relationships

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

It’s so hard to choose! But if I can only choose one, I’d have to say Hans Hofmann. He embraced what I’ve come to understand about “letting paint be paint” and he was a teacher to many of the most noted abstract painters from mid-century America. Attending his classes in Provincetown, MA would have been my “Mecca”.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

I currently have work at Weems Gallery, Hotel Andaluz and at various restaurants, and other public spaces in Albuquerque. I also have reps in CA, FL, MA, MD, and TX.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I’m a frustrated musician at heart.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Stay true to whatever your passion is regarding your work. Over decades I’ve had numerous people tell me what I “should be doing” to please this group or that, or to fit in here or there, but in the end, following those leads doesn’t necessarily lead to authenticity.

Your website:

www.janetbothne.com

Fran Krukar

DEcember 2022

Featured Artist - Fran Krukar

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

My name is Fran Krukar and I’m a watercolorist.  As a Military wife, I took art and college classes in many places, graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1980. Some years later, I took watercolor classes from Dorothy Voorhees and many workshops sponsored by the New Mexico Watercolor Society.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

At the age of nine or ten, I used some clay-like material we had to play with into a fluted bowl.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

Watercolor is my only medium.  Watercolor chose me rather than me choosing it since it is the only medium that keeps my allergies happy.

What other media have you used?

Clay for about ten years until my allergies said enough of that.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

They are traditional, sometimes contemporary still lives and realistic portraits.

What inspires your work?

The challenge of portraits, or capturing brief moments of time and my new interest of painting interstate highway intersections all inspire many ideas.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

That would be Vincent Van Gogh.  He had a hard life but never lost his determination to paint.  The brushstrokes in thick paint show so much confidence.  The way he sees his subject matter of ordinary people and things we see every day and take for granted, such as a vase of flowers, then makes us see them in a totally new way is mind-blowing.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

The work is shown at Yucca Gallery, the Corrales Studio Tour and local exhibits including Masterworks, New Mexico Watercolor Society, New Mexico Art League and State Fair.

What is something most people don’t know about you? My husband sailed a catamaran in our younger years.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Paint what you love and never give up.

Paul Rodenhauser

October 2022

Featured Artist - Paul Rodenhauser

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

Creative expression has become a way of life since my arrival in New Mexico sixteen years ago.  I was fortunate to have already retired from my academic position at Tulane University School of Medicine when Hurricane Katrina triggered the deluge in New Orleans. I was still teaching a few hours a week when the city flooded.  After returning from mandatory evacuation and pursuing arrangements to restore damaged property, relocating to the higher ground became my top priority. My interests include painting, photography, pottery, ornamental poultry, landscape gardening, 19th-century literature, creative writing--and Musetta, my cat.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

As a teenager, I dabbled with acrylics on just a few occasions before becoming caught up in a liberal arts education with an emphasis on science. Ultimately, I earned a doctorate in medicine and pursued residency education in psychiatry. During that fifty-year trajectory of preparing for and serving in the medical profession, I had only occasional free time to pursue creative interests.  Photography fit in most easily.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

Oils (on canvas) have been my only medium. I don’t recall selecting oils as a result of an active decision. Starting and sticking with oils was more a consequence of eliminating options that seemed less natural for me.

What other media have you used?

None, unless crayons count.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Bringing nature, especially birds, to life on canvas is gratifying.

What inspires your work?

My passion for the natural environment is mainly birds but all forms of life.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Claude Monet. I had the distinct pleasure of visiting his home and gardens in Giverny. The opportunity to reflect on Monet’s captivation with nature and art--and their interconnection—was an extraordinary, unforgettable privilege.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

Not in a gallery currently, but I do enter shows.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I started painting at age 70.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Consider all forms of creativity as expressions of what cannot be communicated in words. Follow your calling and your voice. Let art serve you--and others.

Bill Monthan

August 2022

Featured Artist - Bill Monthan

I have been admiring art since early childhood. My father was a commercial artist and photographer. My mother was an author and editor. Both were in the advertising field in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in my early years. The crowd that they surrounded themselves with were creative artists from all mediums, including graphic arts, music and theatre. I studied many of the art mediums offered while attending Northern Arizona University (NAU). Ironically, the only area of coursework I did not focus on while at NAU was painting. After this seven-year journey of studying art, I realized I would struggle to support a family as an artist so I entered the healthcare field by studying Respiratory Care and Cardiopulmonary Medicine. My journey in healthcare took me from clinical practice to healthcare leadership over a 35-year span of time. During that time, my wife and I raised three sons.  Throughout the years in healthcare, I continued to draw and do illustrations primarily working with pastels. Once I retired from healthcare, I took painting lessons and focused on oil painting. I have been a member of the Corrales Society of Artists since 2012. I have participated in studio tours in Corrales and Alameda and also have been accepted into numerous juried shows including Corrales Fine Arts Show, Old Church Fine Arts Show, RGAA Encantada, and Masterworks.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

While in first or second grade, I was asked by my teacher to draw a picture that explained what my father did for a living. I went to my dad's third-floor studio and I saw illustrations/drawings of high fashion women’s shoes that he was working on for some ads. So, I drew a picture of a shoe cobbler making shoes and told my class that my dad repaired and made shoes for a living.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

I’m currently working with oil paint. This slow-drying medium fits my style and the speed at which I work. I like the versatility of color mixing that oil paint offers as well as the ability to layer it for the desired effect. The oil medium allows for creative expression in imagery. Painting also challenges me as an artist where my skill struggles to keep up with my creativity and imagination.

What other media have you used?

While studying art at NAU, I focused on art history, drawing, design, sculpture, ceramics, Jewelry making, and etching.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Whimsical, Surrealistic, Impressionistic, color dominant, dreamy, fantasy, and cartoon quality.

What inspires your work?

The beautiful, target-rich world we live in is inspiring in so many ways. I’m inspired by the atmospheric light, ever-changing clouds, and the reflections contrasted by shape-making shadows. One of my biggest inspirations comes from how other artists see and express beauty and create feelings with their art. I’m inspired by art that projects a timeless quality and hints at something that is beyond our current life experiences.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Michelangelo because he excelled in sculpture and painting. (Although my favorite period of painting was the 19th century and the impressionism period).

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

I show my work at Yucca Art Gallery in Old Town, all the Range Cafes, Sobremesa Restaurant/Brewery, and social media.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I enjoyed a competitive athletic spirit in sports throughout the 1970s, 80’s, and 90’s. I was an Arizona State Handball Champion, Nevada State Doubles Racquetball Champion and I coached youth soccer in New Mexico for 16 years.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Artists of all ages entering the field should try to find a passion in a medium and subject matter. Pursue your passion as long as it continues to bring you happiness. Don’t let critics discourage you from pursuing your artistic passion. Once you find your passion try to learn something every day and develop your skills. Realize that if you work hard and follow your passion that someday you will surprise yourself, and possibly many others with your incredible talent.

Featured Artist – Pauline Eaton

August 2022

Featured Artist - Pauline Eaton

A Corrales Treasure:  Pauline Eaton, Artist, 1935-2021

Pauline Eaton's Credo as an Artist… from “CRAWLING TO THE LIGHT”

“Only one who has a personal religion, a unique view of the universe, can be a true artist. “-- Friedrich Schlegel

“The purpose of life is spiritual growth.   We are evolving souls. We participate in the on-goingness of creation.   We participate for the purpose of extending opportunities for growth in each other. We MUST participate, because this is when we are most in God's image--that of creator--that this I, why we, in turn, were created.. “

In this sense, we are all artists or called to be such.  As an artist, I believe my role is to continue making connections and 'realizing my place in the FΑΒRIC OF ALL THAT IS. --Pauline Eaton

Pauline was an artist for the world and identified with William Blake’s intense belief that the spiritual and the manifest are totally entwined.  She painted to express these beliefs and for the benefit of her audience.  Pauline’s paintings are in transparent watercolor, most of which are 46” x 36”.  Some reached up to 5 and 10 feet tall.  Her work is striking, thought-provoking, and colorful.

We are fortunate that she and her husband, Charles, chose Corrales as their home in 1993.  In 1998, she directed the first Corrales Art Studio Tour (CAST).  Today, CAST is one of the largest and most successful studio tours in the Southwest. The Corrales Society of Artists (CSA) was formed in 2007 as Pauline and other local artists saw the need for a more formal organization and management of CAST.  Now, CSA has a membership of over130, and CAST hosts over 80 artists, local galleries, and students from 2 local schools.

Pauline died last October at the age of 87.  We are grateful for Pauline’s pioneer work with CAST, CSA, and her generosity in sharing time with other local artists in promoting a world-class art community in Corrales.

Featured Artist – Martha Rajkay

July 2022

Featured Artist - Martha Rajkay

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

Born in Hungary I come from a family of artists. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Masters in Art Therapy and a Masters in Social Work. I have been a photographer, commercial graphic artist and painter for over 50 years.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

I won a painting contest at the age of 8 and I was featured on TV.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

I paint in acrylics because of their speed and vibrant colors.

What other media have you used?

I was a commercial photographer for many years.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Impressionistic, colorful, vibrant and individually expressionistic.

What inspires your work?

Nature.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Rembrandt.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

Local studio tours.

What is something most people don’t know

Born in Hungary to a family of artists.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Express yourself without fear of being judged.

Featured Artist – Pat Kirby

June 2022

Featured Artist - Pat Kirby

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

All children, except one, grow up. Spoiler alert. Me, Pat Kirby. I’m the one that didn’t grow up.

Okay, so the real answer is Peter Pan, but spend five minutes with me and it’ll be obvious that emotional maturity isn’t taking my calls at the moment. Or ever.

I went through the physiological transformation of growing up in El Paso, Texas, a place that was called a cow town, but the only bovines I ever saw were chopped in bloody pieces and wrapped in Styrofoam and plastic. Nevertheless, I grew up horsey. My mom, a single mom, got it in her head that I was going to learn to ride a horse. Probably because she hoped I’d go horse crazy and skip the boy crazy phase. Wrong. I was very good at multitasking. I was like, “Sure, Mom, challenge accepted. Hold my drink.”

Every week, Mom would schlep me out to a riding stable on the outskirts of town where I learned that horses are biting, kicking beasties that delight in scraping their young riders off on tree limbs. And they are beautiful.

The horse thing is relevant. I’m getting to it. Chill.

I graduated high school and matriculated at New Mexico State University. (I’ve now used the word “matriculated” in a sentence. Go, me!) I graduated with a degree that would be used to cover a suspicious stain on the wall, a couple of dogs, a husband, and about a hundred dollars to my name. The latter being an incentive to try my hand at grown-up employment.

That experiment lasted a little over a decade before I realized my first-grade teacher’s assessment was correct. I ran with scissors, ate paste, and didn’t play well with others.

Hence…art. The refuge of all dysfunctional human beings. True story. The first paintings happened when a malcontent cave person was hiding in the darkest reaches of the family cave and started scribbling on the walls with charcoal. That may not be a true story. If I got my wish and had the conversation mentioned a couple questions below this one, I could fact check that yarn. Anybody got a time machine?

Anyway, throughout my failed adulthood, and beginning in childhood, all I’ve ever wanted was to be the greatest horse artist ever. Not a horse who makes art. Drawing with hooves is hard. A human who draws really amazing horses. My earliest influences were Sam Savvit and Frederic Remington. By influences, I mean I copied the hell out of their work. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, copy. The horse phase was followed by the embarrassing unicorn and Pegasus phase (with rainbows!).

To this day, all I draw are horses. It may look like a dog, a bird, a cow, a dragon, etc., but every critter that emerges from my pencil is just a horse with modified anatomy. This, no doubt, is the root of my difficulties with drawing humans, who are the most oddly constructed creatures in the animal kingdom.

I’ve never been adept at color and instead am fascinated with depicting gesture and motion in a paucity of lines. My wind chimes and shamans, glorified silhouettes in steel, are part of that ongoing exploration. How to infuse a work with life in two-dimensions with little-to-no shading or detail. This can be blamed on two things: First, color is hard and I’m lazy.

Second, the vastly underrated illustrations of Jan Pienkowski. As a child, I encountered his work on the cover of an October edition of a Cricket magazine. The cover featured a deliciously spooky and wondrously detailed landscape, all in silhouette. Witches on brooms in the sky, a fairy tale castle with a ghost emerging from a dungeon; a drawbridge over a creepy ravine occupied by a skinny troll; an island with a unicorn and Baba Yaga’s hut. I stared at that cover for hours. And copied the crap out of it.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

I’m around five years old. I’m sitting on the couch with bottle of red paint and a brush. There’s a sheet of paper in the vicinity and brush is supposed to meet paint and then kiss the paper in the most artistic manner possible. I’m fixing to paint a red cow, because red cows go faster than silly old brown cows. Zoom!

What actually happens is the paint bottle tips over and the result transforms the couch into a crime scene. Which it very nearly was as my mother contemplated killing me when she saw the mess. The unveiling of my first masterpiece, however, was postponed as I attempted to hide my work beneath a throw pillow. By the time Mom found it, the paint had congealed into a lovely, indelible mess.

Thereafter, I became a plein air painter because Mom kicked me and my art supplies outside.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

Metal, primarily steel. Why? Because manipulating iron alloy requires extreme heat. I was the kid who played with matches and set things on fire with a ray of sunshine focused through a magnifying glass. Also, sometimes ate dirt, but I digress.

Plasma torch. Welder. Angle grinder. Power tools that melt and pulverize metal. What’s not to like?

What other media have you used?

My own blood. Not intentionally, but when you work with metal and power tools, bleeding will ensue. And tetanus.

A plain, old-fashioned No. 2 pencil is my weapon of choice for drawing. A hamster on speed has a longer attention span than me, so throughout the years I have dabbled in many other media including: watercolor, oil, acrylics, and pastels.

Presently, I’m working toward the goal of finally mastering human figurative drawing. That goal, combined with a love of anime and manga, led to the purchase of a digital tablet. Digital art gives me the ability to make loads of mistakes without wasting paper. It also spares the home furnishings any disasters when I do some painting.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Sketches in steel.

What inspires your work?

Uh, everything? I prime the creative pump by going online and looking at art. I’ve been a geek long before it was cool, so fanart, art created by fans of science fiction/fantasy books, TV shows, movies, video games, etc., is a perennial favorite. Eldritch, weird and surreal illustrations are my catnip, as are weird and wonderful sculptures and assemblage art. Monsters, gimme the monsters!

Once my muse is awake, everything is inspiration. A group of dogs playing in a yard. The texture of a crumbling old wall. Everything.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

The person who painted the Paleolithic cave paintings in Lascaux, France. The artist(s) had far better mastery of color than I do, now, in the 21st century. And they were painting with beetle guts and berry juice.

I don’t speak Cave person and they wouldn’t speak English, so the convo would be mostly grunts and hand signals. Pretty much like any evening with my spouse.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where?

Back in the halcyon days, before a plague ravaged the land, I could be found at local craft shows. This year, my main venue will be CAST.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I hate sock monkeys. I’m not overly fond of real live monkeys either. (It’s the poo-flinging. And the creepy little hands.) Any configuration of runny egg—sunny side up, poached, soft boiled—makes me ill. I love most nuts, but despise pecans. I frequently fall in love with the villain in movies. I don’t find kittens or human babies particularly appealing, but snakes and spiders are awesome.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

If you want to be an artist, be an artist. Ignore the naysayers who prattle on about growing up and getting a real career. Art is a real career.

Learn to accept criticism, but don’t believe that all criticism is valid.

Learn to identify your audience and recognize that you are part of that audience. Create art that you love, that’d you’d buy, and you’ll find an audience.

Keep abreast of trends, but don’t try to fit your vision to match what is trendy.

Don’t be a snob. Art, craft, sculpture, design, illustration. It’s all art.

Featured Artist – Roger Green

MAY 2022

Featured Artist - Roger Green

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

My initial emotional and cultural influences began as I was growing up on the North Side of Chicago. I lived in a nest of apartment buildings laced with narrow gangways and ever-rising brick walls, that kept the world out and my creative imagination in.

As a teenager, my oasis from this urban maze was in the form of a unique Art Major program at the Nicholas Senn Academy. Where I was mentored by Elliot Balter and Elliot Jacobson, both respected instructors at the Art Institute of Chicago. Their introduction to the world of art and its history, along with my attendance at the Chicago Academy of Art, was to stimulate a life-long interest in the creative act.

My journey into the creative fray began when I worked for two of the world’s largest advertising agencies, where I was to become a Creative Director/ Vice President. There I created and produced award-winning television and print campaigns for nationally known brands. I have received many awards for creative excellence–including a Lion de Argent at the Cannes Film Festival, France; a Gold Medal from the International Film and Television Festival, New York; a Gold Medal from the Hollywood International Film Festival; and three Clio Awards for Creative Excellence.

During this time I was also exploring my own creative artistic processes–large-format Abstract Expressionistic canvases with great attention given to surface treatment and textural effects. My first one-man show at the Claussen Gallery was a success and led to additional solo exhibits in the greater Chicagoland area.

I also taught Graphic Design at the Illinois Institute of Art and was a member of the Art Curriculum Advisory Board there. I was a guest instructor at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and the Ray Vogue School of Design.

I have explored the concept of abstraction and its relationship to the landscape in a series called AbScapes. By shifting the narrative from realistically representing a mirror image of nature, to visually create a feeling of it–I hope to create the concept of a landscape, rather than a rendering of the landscape itself. Through random gestural marks, colors, and forms that align in ways suggestive of clouds and horizons, I can achieve freedom from objective context and portray the abstracted landscapes of my imagination.  While this AbScapes series seeks to create images that are different and unique, there is always a subtle familiarity. It is this intrigue of the unusual and familiar, that can capture our attention and allow for a variety of personal visual interpretations.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

When I was about five years old, my mother gave me a paint-by-numbers canvas that was a picture of a horse. I filled in each shape with the appropriate color number of oil paint and really enjoyed it…I still have it.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

I work in acrylics mainly because they dry fast and I like the intensity of the colors.

What other media have you used?

Interior house paint.
Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

My paintings are expressive, gestural and have a simplistic elegance.

What inspires your work?

I live in the Sandia foothills and every day I see the ever-changing skies and horizon…it’s very inspiring.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Willem de Kooning. I love the emotional gestures of his work and respect the fact that he was one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

I have exhibited at the Weyrich Gallery, FreeStyle Gallery, and South Broadway Cultural Center…all here in Albuquerque. I’ve also shown my work at the Santa Fe Arts Community Gallery.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I collect vintage pressed steel toys from the 20’s and 30’s.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

I think the most important thing is to remain a child when you create and let yourself play. The result will be work that is original and truly represent who you are.

 

Featured Artist – Sandra Lapham

april 2022

Featured Artist - Sandra Lapham

I am a retired physician who specialized in internal medicine, with a focus on addiction medicine. In 1996 I formed a not-for-profit research center in Albuquerque that studied behavioral health and tested new medications to treat alcohol and drug use disorders.

Throughout my life my greatest joy has come from immersing myself in natural settings, which often includes travel to remote locations, and observing wildlife and the beauty of natural landscapes. The beauty of nature also helps activate the right side of my brain, dormant for much of my past. I like the technical challenge of photography and the part it plays in nurturing a sense of my own creativity and unique perspective.

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

At age ten I asked my parents for a camera. They gave me a Kodak Brownie on my next birthday. Since then, my love of photography, paired with an ever-present hankering for travel, has given me lots of opportunities to capture images of the world around me. While in medical school I took photographs of Mexico, South America, Africa, Europe, and Canada, while on a shoestring budget. Now retired I have the luxury of indulging my passion.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

I chose photography as my primary medium. It simply came naturally.

What other media have you used?

In the past five years my interests have expanded to creating mixed media works using wax (encaustic photography). The application of melted wax to photographs preserves them, and gives them a surrealist cast, softening and muting hard edges. The encaustic process also enables the artist to incorporate other elements, like plant material trinkets, into the piece.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Art that fosters a personal connection with the natural world.

What inspires your work?

I believe that nature connects us to the earth and each other. Just viewing a photograph depicting or suggesting natural scenes can help people heal emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.

My hope is that my art will foster a personal connection with the natural world, motivate efforts to preserve our natural environment, and by so doing better our community’s mental and physical health.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would spend a day with Leonardo Da Vinci. Why? He was an inspirational artist, engineer, inventor, compassionate animal lover, and had one of the greatest minds the world has known.

Do you show your work commercially? If so, where?

My work is available through my website, can be viewed in person by appointment, and is exhibited regularly through local art shows.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

My dog, Scout, a Belgian Malinois and I are volunteers on the Sandia Search Dog team.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Join a club, network, and find a mentor who can guide and support you.

Featured Artist – Barbara Clark

Please introduce yourself and describe your background

I am a painter who loves the outdoors and is grateful to get to do what I love. I am grateful because I understand what it is to get in the car every morning and talk myself into one more day of the daily grind.  I have been a house cleaner, a customer service clerk for an insurance company, a rental car rep, and assistant manager for a retail art gallery. I put myself through college at the age of 30 by being the “girl” for a wealthy family in New York. In college I learned the trade of accounting and subsequently opened my own bookkeeping business until my best client hired me away from my own company.  That company was sold in 2006 and now I get to paint!  It was not easy getting here, but this is where I was always meant to be.  Geographically, mentally, and emotionally.  Everything I’ve been through has put me in this very time and place.  And I’m grateful to be here!  I wish the same for everyone!

What is your earliest memory of creating art?

High School!  I had the best art teacher in the world.  She treated me like a prodigy.  She ordered materials for me to experiment with.  She invited me into her home where we took turns cooking dinner for her brood after school while the other got to play with art.  She was a friend and a mentor. She gave me a set of keys to the art lab to keep me out of trouble and keep me creating. I was incredibly lucky to have known her.  Thank you, Virginia Fitzgibbon.

Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork

Oil painting, en plein air.  Because I love the buttery texture and the richness of oil paints.

What other media have you used?

I started with pastels, but the dust is too hard on my lungs.  I currently paint with gouache and watercolor in addition to oils.  I’ve been known to experiment with paint sticks, acrylics, and found objects.

Describe your artwork in 10 words or less

Rich, colorful oil paintings distilling the landscape into basic shapes.

What inspires your work?

Color and light.

If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Any artist: I’d happily spend the day with my art teacher from High School.  I never got to tell her how important she was in my life.

Do you show your work commercially?  If so, where? 

I co-own Corrales Fine Arts, in Corrales and also show at Et Cetera, Gallery Tamaya, The Abiquiu Inn and several locations of The Range.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I’m an introvert.

What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?

Understand your market.  Understand basic bookkeeping.  Pick 5 artists, dead or alive, whom you admire.  Study their work.  Strive to incorporate what they do that appeals to you into your own individual style. Develop your own hand and don’t copy.  To copy doesn’t do justice to yourself or the artist you are plagiarizing.