On a recent visit to Ed Mell’s studio in central Phoenix, the artist was found sitting in a relaxed state in front of a new painting, his brush still dabbing at the canvas as he glances at incoming guests. The lights are relatively low, but the room is filled with soft daylight reflecting into a north-facing window next to his easel. Mell is famously soft-spoken. “Hey, man,” he says as he greets studio visitors. Paintings are everywhere.
Dispersing Storm, oil on linen, 30 x 30"
Paintings are always everywhere, but in recent years Mell has come to terms with this part of his career. Not only is his work in demand, but he’s also exploring new venues, including the recent Masters of the American West in Los Angeles and the upcoming Prix de West in Oklahoma City. There was also a recent show in Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, and then his newest solo show, opening March 19, at the Ed Mell Gallery just a short walk from his Phoenix studio. (The show is by appointment only.) “Yeah, there are a few paintings here,” he sarcastically says as he points out his newest pieces, some small works on board and then other much larger pieces with grand views out over his geometric desert forms. “This will be the first show in the gallery in some time, so I’ll be glad to have people back in there.”
Mountain Waterfall, oil on linen, 20 x 24"
Gripping Storm, oil on linen, 24 x 32"
What’s remarkable about his studio, and his magnificent work, is that it is a near perfect cross section of Arizona itself. All of the things that make Arizona unique are right there in the bookcases, on the walls, stacked on his tables and, yes, in his paintings.
“The studio inside is filled with paint cans, easels, brushes, books, posters, Navajo rugs, photographs, cowboy memorabilia, back issues of Arizona Highways, a chrome-and-vinyl 1940s sofa, clay models of potential sculptures, and other idiosyncratic lifetime acquisitions,” Don Hagerty wrote in the 1996 book Beyond the Visible Terrain: The Art of Ed Mell. “The room seems alive with light, color and grandeur, not from the persistent Arizona sun that probes through window openings, but from shimmering skies and landscape vistas of the American Southwest found on the canvases around the room.”
Flash Storm, oil on linen board, 9 x 12"
Hagerty continues: “Landscape paintings lie scattered on the floor or perched on the walls, some small studies, others large finished pieces. All of them reflect the feel of vast space, and their titles reveal magic places. Embedded on canvas, watercourses meander as curves toward the skyline, buttes and mesas lie jumbled about the terrain, and rock spires reach skyward, erect like galleons in a fleet, prepared to skirt slopes and sail over the horizon. Clouds arch and billow over the lands, their definable shadows a counterpoint to the landscape. Like topography, the clouds seem constructed by ancient gods, their shapes companions to the landforms below. It is an art that fills the room with intense presence. The smell of paint permeates the studio, but the smell of the land is there, too. Among the landscapes are other subjects, perhaps an Arizona longhorn, a night-blooming cactus, or rose. They are images enhanced with graphic design, painted with economy, and awash in light and color. The signature on the paintings is almost abstract and looks much like an Anasazi symbol chiseled in rock. Ed Mell, the signature reads.” —
Upcoming Show
Up to 15 works
March 19-April 2, 2022
Ed Mell Gallery
2337 N. 10th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85006
(602) 359-7333, www.edmellgallery.com
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