Jim Vogel has long been known for his narrative paintings of the lives, the lands and the stories of New Mexico. The figures in his artwork, often that of the working man, bear his unique style—large hands weathered by work, by time and by a life under the sun. The artist was born and raised in New Mexico, currently residing in the rural town of Dixon. Vogel describes the town, located between Española and Taos, as a place full of “piñon and juniper scrub, beautiful, arid, deserty, with lots of mesas.” He’s been there with his wife Christen for 23 years, and while the couple has moved numerous times, Vogel says, “Whenever we lived somewhere else, it was always in an effort to serve getting back home.Roustabouts Wrangling the Wind, oil on canvas panel and hand-carved wood frame with metal leaf, 49 x 58”

“New Mexico is very enchanting. You can go from the Chihauahan down south where it really is a desert, and over to the timberline where it’s [all] alpine. The geographic and geologic beauty is limitless.” He continues, “And then there’s the cultural aspect of my own personal and emotional culture of being raised in Roswell down south…We were raised with this love and respect of the history and mythology of its people. Our maternal grandad was very proud of his New Mexican heritage, and he loved stories and histories. He instilled that in my mom and she instilled that in us. There’s this familial, emotional attachment to New Mexico. And then there’s also discovering it over and over again, almost every day.”

Another defining element of Vogel’s work is his distinct use of frames, which often become works of art unto themselves. His oils are often nestled between the doors of tiny antique cabinets, upon the faces of old lanterns or on wooden frames hand-carved by Vogel himself. His elaborate frames are truly something to behold. In Roustabouts Wrangling the Wind, the unruly tent the figures are attempting to control flows off of the canvas, seamlessly transforming into carved wood painted in gold and silver leaf, adding an element of three-dimensionality to the piece. “The end result and the satisfaction of it is always worth it,” he says. But, while Vogel used to work with wood more often, lately he’s been focusing more on incorporating found and salvaged objects into his art. “There’s not a deliberate choice to leave one way and go to another, I just don’t work that way. I just keep working, and then looking backwards I can see that there’s been a progression…The found object aspect is becoming more integral in my pieces.”Boiler Maker, oil on salvaged steel fire door (frame collaboration with Christen Vogel), 89 x 37 x 3”

Vogel works in tandem with Christen, who is the treasure hunter of the pair. Often, she’ll go to antique shops and salvage yards, coming back with a menagerie of treasures that Vogel can then further explore. It’s an equal mix of one person influencing the other, Vogel adds.  “There was a benchmark last year where, in Christen’s scrounging, she came across these industrial steel doors in a salvage yard in Denver,” says the artist. They were fire prevention doors at a massive 7 feet tall, 3 feet wide, complete with rivets and big strap hinges. “She said, ‘These are incredible. You need to see what you can do with them.’”Special Delivery, oil on salvaged steel fire door (frame collaboration with Christen Vogel), 89 x 37 x 3”. All images courtesy Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.

Vogel brought them back to the studio and decided to start painting directly on the surface of the doors, allowing some of the doors’ natural patina to represent aspects of the painting, rather than covering them completely. The end results are twin paintings, Boiler Maker and Special Delivery, both of which were sold at Blue Rain Gallery. “I painted a boilermaker, someone who repairs the locomotives on one [door], and then a box car on another with a woman tossing a newspaper bag. She’s wearing a turquoise ring that perfectly lines up with a rivet in the door.”Happy Campers, oil on canvas panel in vintage Airstream window frame (frame in collaboration with Christen Vogel), 22¼ x 32”

There’s also Happy Campers and Angle of Repose, both housed in a vintage Airstream window frame. Like the story of the steel doors, Christen found the window frames at a second-hand antique store in Denver. “They visually represented that Airstream, Silver Streak era, just that happy camper era,” says Vogel. “It was almost as a personal antidote to the pandemic and the state of the world.
I wanted to do something uplifting and happy. I wanted to make myself feel good by working on these two pieces. We had postponed two personal camping trips [because] it’s just not the time to do that. But I wanted to capture that excitement and optimism of these happy campers going across the country seeing things they’ve never seen before. Being exposed to the giant painted deserts of the Southwest [in Happy Campers], and the giant redwoods of the coast in [Angle of Repose].”

He elaborates on Happy Campers, depicting the high desert and its red canyon walls. “That bigness of the Southwest, the saturation of colors, and this idea that this couple has pulled out in the middle of the desert, immediately pops the ice chest open and breaks out a couple of beers.” Fun fact: Happy Camper is also the name of one of Vogel’s favorite beers, Santa Fe-based Happy Camper IPA.Angle of Repose, oil on canvas panel in vintage Airstream window frame (frame in collaboration with Christen Vogel), 32 x 22¼” (framed)

Elfego Baca Recounts His Standoff With 40 to 80 Texas Cowboys, oil on canvas panel with antique gate frame, 34 x 25”, 42½ x 29” (framed), 42½ x 59½” (opened)Angle of Repose captures the redwoods of the West Coast. If you follow the gaze of the two figures lounging in the bottom right corner, you might spy a tiny spotted owl nesting in the trees. The owl is a nod to Vogel’s father, who would make spotted owls out of walnut shells when Vogel was a kid. For the couples in both paintings, the artist says he wanted to capture a moment of happiness and optimism, as well as a sense of quietude. He adds that while painting both pieces, he’d often go out to look at their own camper, named Pearl, for reference. Vogel says he’s looking to portray optimism more so than nostalgia.The Magpie and the Burro, oil on canvas panel with hand-painted, repurposed antique wood frame (frame in collaboration with Christen Vogel), 24 x 21" (framed), 29 x 42" (opened)

Vogel’s latest work is part of the La Luz de Taos, an exhibition, gala and art sale benefiting the Couse-Sharp Historic Site this May. The painting, Elfego Baca Recounts His Standoff With 40 to 80 Texas Cowboys, is set between two little antique gates with bars on them that can open and close, another object Christen had found. It features a larger-than-life figure from early-1880s New Mexico history—gunman, lawman and politician Elfego Baca. “He was a big raconteur, a self-polishing person who liked to live big and tell big stories,” says Vogel. Elfego is recounting to a group of children the story of his wild standoff with a large group of confrontational cowboys causing trouble in the area.

“Nowadays,” says the artist, “I don’t worry about laying out a plan. It’s all an organic process, and I trust it now. I used to worry a lot, but now I trust the process.” —

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