Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, celebrates the holiday season with their Small Works Annual Show, beginning with a show opening reception on December 2. Described by the gallery as a “treasure trove for collectors, art lovers and gift givers,” the show will offer a large variety of Western inspired small works, with no restrictions on material or subject matter—making for affordable art collecting opportunities. 
Paige Pierson, Agave Azul, oil on canvas, 9 x 12”
Artist Michael Baum presents at least four small works of his spectacular landscape paintings, showcasing his love and admiration for the “visual paradise” that is the Southwest. “The bones of the earth are often laid bare by erosion, creating powerful visual and spiritual impressions. I strive to represent this in my work,” Baum explains. The artist also notes that light is a key tool in sculpting his landscapes, “defining depth, creating drama, getting just the right feeling,” he says.
Baum is also known for incorporating giant thunderhead clouds seen in the Southwest during monsoon season. “Beyond their awe-inspiring presence,” he says, “they represent the forces that sculpted the landscape, the water cycle in stone.”
Michael Baum, Into the Red Earth, oil on linen, 11 x 14”
We see this type of cloud formation featured in Baum’s 11-by-14-inch show piece Into the Red Earth. “There is something magical about this naked, rounded, red landscape that attracts me,” Baum remarks. “It is beautiful to behold in its deceptive simplicity, telling a story as deep as time. [The piece] was painted from photographic references I gathered on a recent road trip. But gathering images isn’t the only thing that goes into a painting. It’s important that I immerse myself in the landscape, using all my senses—seeing, touching, smelling, feeling the air, hearing the sounds. I put all of this into the painting.”
John Maisano, Shiny Things A & B, bronze, ed. of 35, 6 x 11 x 6”
Paige Pierson also pulls inspiration from the Southwest in her uniquely distinctive landscape paintings, and frequently relies on her surroundings and adventures in Northern New Mexico. Defining, considering and depicting space is vital to her work. “Analogous to space is my color palette,” Pierson continues to explain, “as it’s meant to signal to the viewer that yes, I could paint these canyon walls, these mesas, these mountains as they naturally occur to the eye…but, my mind tries to shake things up, to make the image pop, to make it explode. The viewer will see color and an abstracted almost Martian expression of the landscape.”
In show piece Agave Azul, she explains, “I hadn’t considered painting any flora but, a lot of artists paint the ubiquitous hollyhock, and while I like hollyhocks, the agave suits my personality a bit more: big, enveloping, not delicate. Like the agave, the West also leaves this impression on me. It’s a big place, enveloping, not delicate, but it’s home and it suits me just fine.”
Greg Newbold, Desert Grace, acrylic on board, 12 x 12”
The show also features small sculptural work like John Maisano’s bronze pieces Shiny Things A & B, depicting two crows that reflect Celtic, Inuit and tribal influences. His works are also inspired by Art Deco and Art Nouveau. “[This pair] is one of my favorites due to the wonderful nature of crows and ravens,” Maisano shares. “Crows are revered in many cultures as magical and mysterious creatures. They are collectors and often collect shiny things…thus the name. I love that each crow has enough character to stand on its own, but as a pair, they are in conversation. About what, we will never know.”
Manitou Galleries will have these small but mighty works on display, along with many more, through December 30. —
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