This month, Manitou Galleries presents the work of Kenneth Peloke and James Randle in Infinite Horizons. Though the two artists’ styles might differ, they each draw viewers into a deeply emotional and immersive experience.
When Randle first started out as a painter, he had a focus on architectural cityscapes. “Then I moved to the Southwest, and I became fascinated with painting this more desolate, abandoned, decaying Americana,” he explains.
These days, neon signs are the primary focus of Randle’s work. “They are so freaking fun,” he says. “They’re works of art in their own right, and it feels like I’m creating a piece of art from someone else’s art,” he says. When painting, Randle isn’t aiming to create an exact copy of his reference photograph. He might change the lighting, the color, or the angle. It’s not about creating an exact replica, but telling the story of the building.
James Randle, 3 Days Special, oil, 48 x 36 in.
Randle’s painting No Frills shows a roadside restaurant called the Dog House. The neon sign outlines a weiner dog wagging its tail in the early hours of the morning. Randle says, “You can kind of feel the coldness in the air around this place, and it prompts you to think, ‘What happens here? Is this place still open? Do people still eat here?’”
Randle says he hopes his paintings prompt people to appreciate these neon signs as the pieces of handmade art they are. “We don’t really have new neon signs anymore, which is kind of sad,” he says. “I feel like my generation was one of the last to experience these things in their glory.”
Peloke started drawing when he was around 5 years old, and during his early artistic endeavors, he discovered something important about himself: his colorblindness. “I’m red-green colorblind, so I can see primaries pretty well, but life isn’t full of primaries,” he says. “I definitely struggled early on as an artist.”
Kenneth Peloke, Free as the Breeze, oil on panel, 24 x 32 in.
But when he was in college, he began working in monochrome. “I did a lot of drawings in charcoal and really focused on the composition,” he explains. Eventually, he decided to carry that style into painting. A lover of history, his goal is for his work to look like an old black-and-white photograph.
Most of Peloke’s paintings at the Manitou show will depict horses and bison. “Horses are a bit of a self-portrait for me,” he says. “I like to paint things I relate to, and I like my freedom and space. Art allows me to have freedom.”
Peloke’s works are typically large format, because he likes the challenge of big art. He says, “If you see a painting of a horse that’s six feet tall, that’s going to make you stop and look at it for a little bit, just like you would if you saw a horse in a pasture.”
James Randle, No Frills, oil, 38 x 48 in.
In Free as the Breeze, Peloke paints a horse in profile, the wind blowing through its mane. “There’s something about the profile of a horse, especially when it’s zoomed in so closely,” he says. His goal was to evoke the feeling of standing outside, feeling the breeze in your hair. “I want my work to put the viewer in a different place, even if it’s just for a minute or two.”
Infinite Horizons opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on September 5 and remains on view through September 15. —
Manitou Galleries 123 W. Palace Avenue » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 986-0440 » www.legacygallery.com
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