Opening in early October is a new solo show for Doug West at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. West is known for his distinct style of the Southwest landscape. The artist started his career creating landscape serigraph prints at home, and found success after moving his home base to Santa Fe. After a change in the industry, West pivoted to creating paintings, while maintaining an elegant “straight line” style found in his print work.
La Cienega Dawn, oil on canvas, 20 x 40 in.
“My early printmaking required me to invent a simple and graphic way to translate what I loved about New Mexican landscapes and skies,” West shares. “Serigraph printing is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, building up successively small areas one at a time until the entire sheet of paper is covered. Designing for serigraphs requires reduction from complex to simple. That is what still comes forward in my paintings even now.”
West notes that his work usually focuses on remote places that are somewhat undiscovered in New Mexico. His Blue Rain show includes a few views from Las Playas in the southwest corner of the state, along with Waldo Canyon near Madrid.
West adds, “Mostly, my art is a slow process of struggling through the inevitable creative blockages that every artist must work through. From this emerges growth, and perhaps viewers and collectors might see change from year to year.”
Crimson Rhapsody, oil on canvas, 40 x 20 in.
West’s paintings for his upcoming show will feature stunning landscape views like La Cienega Dawn, taken from south of Santa Fe in the village of La Cienega, with La Tetilla Peak as its western backdrop. “This vista has been a creative muse for me in my work over the decades,” West says. We also find landscapes like Chacoan Ways, Chacoan Dawn and Sunset Citadel—a view of Chaco Canyon at sunset, very near the famous kiva, Casa Rinconada. “It’s all about the serenity and drama of this serene place,” the artist says.
Chacoan Ways, oil on canvas, 28 x 38 in.
Collector’s will also find floral pieces like Crimson Rhapsody, showing a hollyhock that serves as a “celebration of nature, representing the feminine polarity of our world,” West notes.
He continues, “My creative output and the changes that unfold happen very slowly. Thus, my interpretations of the New Mexico landscape are identifiable as my technical abilities have improved, yet my stylistic voice as an artist has been fairly constant even going back to 25 years as a serigraph printmaker. “If there is a measure to be taken away from this body of work, I hope it is a visual impact and refinement.”
Even with his “slow” process, Leroy Garcia, Blue Rain Gallery owner and founder, is confident that “West is one of the most influential landscape painters of the Southwest in the last century. His extraordinary attention to detail gives collectors a connection to the landscape. It is an unmistakable quality that sets his work apart.”
Sunset Citadel, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.
Head to Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe to view the new collection from October 9 through 23. An artist reception will be held the opening day from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe Street » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 954-9902 » www.blueraingallery.com
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