For California-born, New Mexico-based Andrea Vargas, following paths of water is a means to access the past as much as the present. Her latest adventures, chronicled in Following Water,an upcoming show at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, have taken her from the Valles Caldera to Abiquiu and the Rio Chama studying rain clouds, rivers and the color-saturated high desert steppe.
Flowing Water of the Chama, oil on canvas, 36 x 24”
“I’ve really had a good time just following the Chama River, which goes from Abiquiu back to Santa Fe,” says Vargas. “It’s been my joy in this last year. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like. I just continue to trek up there and have been inspired.” Painting in plein air, Vargas makes her best effort to capture the moment on site, then takes that knowledge back to the studio. “I feel that when you truly surrender to your experience, you receive the unexpected. Some might call it spirit,” she says.
The way Vargas paints is a two-edged challenge, gallery owner Charles King explains. “It is freezing that moment and waiting for that moment. So there’s this interesting sense of how patient are you to wait for the skies to be right, the colors to be right, the look to be right?
Parting Clouds, oil on canvas, 48 x 24”
He continues, “There is that energy and motion in her pieces that really captures the viewer, this dimensionality that draws people into it, and they feel that movement and excitement in her work,” he says, noting her application of paint with both brush and knife. “She’s got a great palette as well, [and] a great eye for color.”
Vargas has been living in New Mexico for 10 years now, but her road to painting O’Keeffe country took a few turns. Born in the San Francisco Bay area, it was University of California, Berkeley or bust for the young Vargas, whose father once taught there. She was bound for law school but shifted focus during her last year of undergrad.
Strawberry Sky Over the Chama River, oil on canvas, 36 x 12”
A family move to Ventura County, California, took her out of the proverbial urban jungle and opened up opportunities at smaller museums like the Santa Paula Museum, where her solo show On the Ranch is currently on view. “Immediately the beauty of agriculture and the ocean shifted things for me,” says Vargas, who still spends a few months a year there.
When Vargas moved to Santa Fe, the wide-open spaces and community of creatives made her feel “normal,” she says. Hearing Kim Wiggins speak at Autry Museum’s Masters of the American Westin 2020 was a turning point in her practice as well. Inspired by the way he put the art of the West into context and pioneered his own personal style, Vargas continued to define her priorities as a painter.
Springtime on the Chama River, oil on canvas, 36 x 12”
“I’d been watching her work for several years and then, believe it or not, we started to represent her during Covid,” says King. While it was a strange time in the art business, he says, the pandemic enabled artists to work in the field more deeply. “She gave herself that breathing space to do that,” says King. “She’s very thoughtful and introspective about her work.”
Following Water is on view from July 28 through August 6. —
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