Ed Mell is known as one of the great Arizona painters, and it’s unlikely the state is going to relinquish that honor, even as the artist paints more broadly within the Southwest.
Mesa’s Moving Shadows, oil, 24 x 48”
But even for Mell, who has long had a home and studio in Phoenix, there is a special place in his heart for Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he frequently visits, paints and, on August 11, unveils his newest work at the Owings Gallery.
“I’ve always felt that Santa Fe is a very important place to me,” the artist says. “I started showing there in 1981, and I’ve had quite a run ever since, even under all the various names of the gallery before it was just Owings. I like Santa Fe because it always has its modern foot forward.”
High Desert Spectrum, oil, 48 x 48”
Mesas in Shadow, oil, 15 x 30”
Mell is in good company in Santa Fe, which has hosted many of the great Southwest modernists, including John Marin, Raymond Jonson, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe and others who have pushed Western realism further and further into modernism. For Mell’s newest show, the works are a nice mixture of both realism and abstraction. “I go where the wind blows me,” he says. “The big one, High Desert Spectrum, is definitely a little more abstract.”
Volcanic Relic, oil, 24 x 24”
The painter is showing his works at the gallery’s Marcy Street location, while the nearby Palace Avenue location will be hosting a fellow modernist, Tony Abeyta.
“I love being associated with the history there in Santa Fe, and I really respect Tony’s stuff, so it should be a fun show,” Mell says. —
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