There is a beautiful dichotomy when you step into NUART Gallery on Canyon Road. You're greeted by larger-than-life -paintings by Alberto Galvez ...
And then you step into another room where the scale of the paintings are diminutive, the renderings ethereal and intimate, and you become immediately enchanted by the work of Santa Fe Artist, CAROL MOTHNER.
Mothner, a former New Yorker, has been living and working in Santa Fe for the past 25-years and her exquisite work is in more than ten major museum collections including - The Frye Museum, De Jung Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum. Her show at NUART embraces her passion for nests and birds - a delight she shared with her late husband, painter Daniel Morper.
"I consider myself an iconographer. Each of my pieces is small and most are singular subjects. Whether I am painting a one-eyed horse., a portrait of my daughter, or a Madonna in armor, I am in love with my subject. I try to capture a moment of exquisite loneliness in each of them."
I did a studio visit recently and met Carol and her sweet studio companion, Stella.
Once inside,she introduced me to her muse, a vintage Madonna that has appeared in many variations in her work, including the beautifully-framed painting below from one of her recent shows.
Her 20 x 16' studio is attached to the main house and filled with all the trappings of a working artist as well as a large treadmill and television. She opened a cabinet and showed me her abandoned nests, that she brings to life again in her paintings.
Photographs inform the details of her paintings.
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Preliminary sketches...
