An exhibition of Roseta Santiago’s latest paintings at Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery is called Recuerdo. The Spanish word means “memory.” The exhibition is a recollection of the past 20 years from the time she moved to Santa Fe, bought a house, built a studio and, as she says, “locked myself in for six months, did my market studies and taught myself to oil paint.” With a career in advertising and design behind her, she was ready for a new adventure.
August Moon, oil and gold leaf on panel, 36 x 36"Her early paintings were of Pueblo pots, their forms highlighted against dark backgrounds. In her studio she was surrounded by Native and Asian pottery and artifacts. She commented, “You can put your hand in the pots and feel the fingerprints of the potter. The presence of the maker is still there. I love the imagination of the potter. It inspires me.”
Pueblo Profiles, oil on canvas, 48 x 30"
Santiago’s roots are mixed—Philippine, Spanish, Irish, Russian, Jewish. “Growing up,” she recalls, “my father had people in the house talking about things I didn’t understand and languages I didn’t understand. I wondered, ‘Who are these people?’ I wanted to know about them.”
She felt an immediate connection with the Native peoples of the Southwest. “The way the Native American community live their lives with simplicity and complexity reminds me of my own life,” she says. “There is a sympatico, an attraction to people who keep life simple, who make things from what they have available.”
Honoring Ancestors, oil on canvas, 48 x 48"Native pots still appear in her paintings but now with people, many of whom are her friends. Often draped in Navajo and trade blankets, the figures recall history and honor tradition.
Always willing to experiment, she created a gold leaf moon as the background for her painting August Moon. The pose of the figure recalls an art deco figurine she once owned. The model wears a buckskin dress the artist sewed when she first moved to Santa Fe. The canteen is a found object that had been intricately beaded.
The Navajo, oil on panel, 12 x12”. Private Collection, Courtesy Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
“I try to make each painting individual,” she explains. “I have a signature palette, not a signature style, and try to make the technique and the design match the thought of the subject.“
“What I’ve come to realize is that there is beauty in the quiet and the subtlety of the past that draws me in. The portraits are not about technical skill, they’re about spiritual skill. They’re readable to the viewer who knows you’re giving them something beyond a photo. They give you the emotion, not just the facts.”
The exhibition at Blue Rain Gallery is scheduled from July 31 through August 15.
Upcoming Show
Up to 15 works
July 31-Aug. 15, 2020
Blue Rain Gallery
544 S. Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 954-9902
www.blueraingallery.com
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