The new work for Maura Allen’s solo show, hosted at Altamira Fine Art, explores the relationship between people, animals and the land, and the “sense of belonging that can exist within a place we call home,” she says. Allen’s inspiration stems from her home in Abiquiú, New Mexico, a place she fell in love with 20 years ago while visiting. However, it’s the people, pace of life and palette that keep her there.
Running on Moonlight, acrylic on panel, 27 x 54 in.
“The work for this show, Long Shadows Home, builds on the subjects and stories that have drawn me to the American West for 25-plus years—expansive landscapes, ranching and rodeo—but now, from a quieter point of view,” Allen explains. “Rather than focusing on the action, I wanted to explore the in between moments.”
Photography is the foundation for Allen’s work, but through painting, printmaking and layering, she’s moving from documentation toward interpretation. “In this new series, light, atmosphere and open space have become as important as the figures themselves,” she says. Light and negative space are increasingly important; I’m interested in what can be removed as much as what can be added. I’m allowing larger areas of sky, landscape and shadow to carry the composition, giving the figures more room to exist within their surroundings rather than dominate them.”
Bonded, acrylic on panel, 40 x 30 in.
Layering is also an essential part of Allen’s visual language. She adds that this process allows the work to retain the immediacy of a photograph while becoming something less literal—an interpretation of a moment rather than a record of one.
“My work [ultimately] begins with an experience—and a photograph,” she says. “I spend a great deal of time on ranches and at rodeos, photographing not only the obvious action but what happens around it, like the waiting, the preparation, the relationships between people and horses, and those brief moments when light completely transforms a scene. Those quieter observations have become increasingly important to me and this body of work.”
Homeward I, acrylic on panel, 24 x 24 in.
In one of her new works, Bonded, depicting a female figure on horseback looking behind her, Allen explains, “I was with two women who are life-long friends, what I call ‘sisters of the heart.’ One was sharing a story and the other was listening intently. It’s that turning back and the bond between them that drew me to the moment.”
In Running on Moonlight,Allen had sketched out a few pieces after a full-moon night in Abiquiú, “where the horses in a nearby field seemed to shimmer,” she says. “[For this piece], I decided to bend time. When I photographed the herd bolting across a river, it was high noon; but as an artist, I reimagined and created a different moment, a new story, with moonlight as my muse.”
Homeward II, acrylic on panel, 24 x 24 in.
Allen has created 14 new paintings for the show at Altamira Fine Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from September 29 through October 13. A reception will be held October 2 from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Altamira Fine Art 172 Center Street » Jackson Hole, WY 83001 » (307) 739-4700 » www.altamiraart.com
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