Horses have always been part of Chloé Marie Gaillard’s life. She grew up in the mountains of France where her father is a farrier and was a jockey before he outgrew the ideal height for jockeys. The family also bred horses. Today she lives in Taos, New Mexico, and in Montana where she and her husband have two horses. Her husband was a bull rider for 15 years. The Montana property will allow them to have more horses. “It’s important to both of us to be surrounded by horses,” she says. “It’s a simple way of living. Horses have a simple life but you have to care for them. Even when they’re big they can be sensitive and fragile. I love taking care of another being. The horses give you a lot back.”
Sand Dunes, oil on board, 11 x 14”
Before moving to Taos and concentrating on her love of painting, which she has done since she was a child, she studied fashion in London and Paris and worked for Christian Dior Couture alongside John Galliano. She has also modeled for Ralph Lauren.
“A friend handed me a book on Frederic Remington (1861-1909) before I moved to Taos,” she says. “I fell in love with his style. I realized then that painting Western art was a good way of expressing the inspiration of my childhood. I’m refinding my roots in a different way. Here I’ve discovered the artists of the Taos Society and in Montana I found Charles Russell (1864-1926). I also found Henry Farny (1847-1916) who was born in France and moved here with his family. He painted the Plains Indians.
Taos Pueblo Church, oil on board, 12 x 16”
“Bill Traylor (ca. 1854-1949) was also a big influence. He’s got the most interesting story. He had been a slave in Alabama and, around 1940, he started drawing on cardboard and brown paper. When I started painting folk art, I did the same thing. It was easy to carry around.
“I like the work of Buck Dunton (1878-1936) among the Taos painters,” she continues, “especially the contrast of his paintings. A lot of Western painters reacted to the light. I like Dunton’s paintings where the person stands out from the dark background. They’re very modern.”
Above: Headed West, oil on board, 8 x 16”
She also discovered the women modernists of northern New Mexico. “I’m super happy to have something in common with them,” she says.
Among her contemporary artist friends in Taos is Jerry Jordan. “Jerry is a mentor,” she says “He was a big influence when I started. His paintings are simple and complicated at the same time. He uses bright colors and simple shapes.” She also points out the work of Logan Maxwell Hagege. “We both paint very modern and love simple shapes and simple stories. We both love color.”
Sage, Hills & Horses, oil on canvas, 18 x 24”
Her friend and gallerist Ashley Rolshoven, director and co-owner of Parsons Gallery of the West in Taos, notes her influences among the Taos artists, but points out, “Her style is uniquely hers.” Among the early women artists of Taos she cites Barbara Latham (1896-1989) and Dorothy Brett (1883-1976). “The women of that period were classically trained,” she explains. “They used color with freedom and moved paint around the way they wanted to. Chloé has that same pattern. Already, collectors of the high-level Taos Founders have begun to collect her paintings. She also has two pieces in the Tia Collection.”
Prairie Trail, oil on canvas, 30 x 40"
Horses, of course, figure prominently in her paintings but there are also bears. “My dad is a hunter and goes to Canada to hunt. When I was little, he told me a tall tale that he had once killed a bear with a knife. Bears are extinct in France and that was the first time I had heard of them. My husband loves bears a lot. Somehow he arranged to propose to me in front of two bears at Yellowstone!”
Opposite page: Chloé Marie Gaillard at work at her easel.
I asked if her career in fashion had influenced her sense of pattern and design. “I used to work in haute couture,” she explains. “It was a difficult world. I’ve always had a sense of repetitive pattern. I don’t know that the fashion world influenced me. I had used pattern when I was painting folk art and now I look at photographs of Native Americans from the 1800s and study the patterns from many tribes. I don’t try to copy the patterns. Most of the time I invent them.
I like to put my own thoughts in my paintings.”
Taos painter Chloé Marie Gaillard. Photo by Chris Douglas.
The deceptively simple composition of Taos Pueblo Church is Gaillard at her best. The blanketed Pueblo residents form a symmetrical base. The O’Keeffe-like door of the church echoes the opening in the Adobe wall as the hills and clouds echo the step motif of the wall and the peak of the church itself.
Repetitive pattern is a recurring element in her paintings. For example, in Sand Dunes the rhythm of the receding rounded hills and wind-blown grasses emphasizes the movement of the horses and riders across the composition.
Gaillard found her artistic niche two years ago and is already an established artist in the Taos art scene. —
Parsons Gallery of the West’s Small Works Holiday Celebration
December 19, 2019, 5-8 p.m.
Parsons Gallery of the West,
122 D Kit Carson Road, Taos,
NM 87571, (800) 613-5091,
www.parsonsart.com/home/parsonswest
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