Mr. Berning, a resident of Santa Fe since 1981, is a well known artist, author, teacher, and former gallery owner . His works have been exhibited in such diverse locations as San Francisco, Paris, and New York’s Lincoln Center. In 2005 his paintings became the focus of the film OFF THE MAP starring Joan Allen and Sam Elliott. Also in 2005 he began a year long journey up the west coast of North America. Experiences during this time became the foundation for his memoir about art, which was written over the next three years.
Evocative of the New Mexico landscape with its sweeping vistas and ever changing light, these most recent oil, egg tempera, and watercolor paintings are the result of a fifteen year process described in the entry “A Figurative Derivation”.
Artist Statement:
Being a painter, I was born in 1951 already an antique. After a lifetime of creating images in this post modern world I have come to champion no ism’s. Taking to heart my eighty year old friend’s reminder that his generation made sure everything had been done, I have proceeded to do everything in each painting. The resulting fifteen oil paintings, though inevitably stamped with my distinctive aesthetic voice, travel freely through various fields of contemporary exploration. Accepting that the act of working in paint will result in the echo of vaguely familiar imagery from past painters has released me from the tyrannical demand for newness and, ironically, opened the process to a multitude of possibilities embodied in each individual painting. If it has all been done before there is no territory worth defending. One either stands on shifting sands, or swims.
Many of the paintings completed in this series have sold making viewing of the remaining images difficult. This entry of only available work will update regularly.
All paintings are 18″ x 24″ on 24″ x 30″ paper unless otherwise noted.
Begun two years ago as a project for the Santa Fe Monothon, these intagliotype images are the end result. Each image is 18″ x 24″. Printed in limited editions of ten, using a hand-inked etching and monotype process, each print in its edition is similar yet unique.
Images are 18″ x 24″ on 24″ x 30″ paper unless otherwise noted.
View to the Lake / Pedernal
22″ x 30″ on 28″ x 36″ paper
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After the Rain / Black Mesa
22″ x 30″ on 28″ x 36″ paper
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La Bajada Spring / Placer Mountain
22″ x 30″ on 28″ x 36″ paper
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Spring / Black Mesa
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Spring / Blue Pedernal
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Wild Bosque / Road to Lyden
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Big View From Sierra Negra
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Spring Fields / Abiquiu Valley
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Early Spring Fields
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Cloud Over Cerrillos Hills
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Tree Line / Bonanza Ranch
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Old Spirit / Abiquiu
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Jemez Range / Deep Canyon
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View South to Placer Mountain
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View South to the Sandias
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Into the Canyon
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Pedernal in Overcast
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View to the Sangre de Cristos
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Transendental Afternoon
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Winter Tree Stand
12″ x 16″ sold
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San Felipe Volcano Fields
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Another Blue / Pedernal
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Morning Looking South / Black Mesa
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First Light / Tetilla Peak
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Sand Castle
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Early Winter / The View East
Dry Wash / Los Barrancos
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View to Jicarita Peak
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Autumn Interstice
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View South From Las Golondrinas
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Autumn / Into the Canyon
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Galisteo Clear
sold
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Morning / Sun and Moon
sold
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Vista / East (left panel)
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Vista / South East (center panel)
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Vista / South (right panel)
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Aspen Stand / Sangre de Cristo Range
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Distant Range
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High Summer / Perennial
sold
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Big View to Cerro Bonanza
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Composition / Black Mesa
sold
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Long View to La Bajada Hill
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Night Over Calle de Rio Plateau
sold
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Monsoon Season / Green Hills
sold
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Monsoon Season / Golondrinas
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Gypsum Cliffs / Abiquiu Valley
sold
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Primary Jemez
sold
Summer Solstice / Perennial
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Bright Afternoon / La Bajada / One
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Bright Afternoon / La Bajada / Two
sold
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Spring Fields / La Bajada
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El Rancho de las Golondrinas
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Blue Mountain
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Alameda Spring
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Pedernal Gray
sold
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Storm Over San Felipe
sold
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Early Spring / The View East to La Cienega
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Early Spring / View to the River
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Road to Lyden / Changing April
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Pasture / New Green
sold
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Spring Field / Looking South
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Pedernal / From the High Mesa
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Pasture / Early Spring / Abiquiu
sold
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Three Aspects
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View to the Lava Fields / San Felipe
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Lake View / Pedernal
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Winter Snow / Nambe Badlands
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Placer Spring
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Lake View
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Long View to Pajarito
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Sandia Blue
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Winter Tree Stand / La Mesilla
12″ x 16″
Treeline / Abiquiu
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Mercurial Noon
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Down From Truchas
sold
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Winter Range / From Santa Clara Pueblo
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Winter Storm / Black Mesa
sold
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Placer Mountain Gray
sold
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Dawn / Sun and Moon
Road To Lyden / Autumn
sold
Storm Approach / Los Barrancos
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Autumn in a Halcyon Year
sold
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Tree Line / View South / Abiquiu
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Winter Cottonwoods / Abiquiu
12″ x 16″
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Winter / Cerro Bonanza
sold
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Nambe Badlands West
sold
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View to Truchas Peak from Santa Clara Pueblo
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View to the River / La Cienega
Autumn Fields / Abiquiu
sold
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The View East to Cerro Bonanza Four
sold
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Autumn Tree Stand / Jacona
sold
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Pedernal / View to the Lake #3
sold
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Blue Pedernal #2
sold
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The View East / Espanola Valley
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To Dream of the Jemez
sold
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The View West / Miami
sold
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Bright Afternoon / Springer
sold
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Dusk / Miami
sold
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The Gate at “Point of Rocks”
12″ x 16″ sold
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From the Mesa
sold
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Early Morning / Galisteo Basin
sold
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Pedernal / View to the Lake #1
12″ x 16″ sold
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Pedernal / View to the Lake #2
12″ x 16″ sold
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Morning View South
9″ x 12″ sold
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Ghosts / The White Place
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The View East to Cerro Bonanza Three
sold
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View West to La Solute
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Sunrise / Nambe Badlands
sold
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Cliffs at Otomi
sold
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Bright Afternoon / Pedernal
sold
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Morning / Black Mesa
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An Afternoon Clarified
sold
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Summer Bosque / Road to Lyden
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Summer Arroyo / San Felipe
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White Cliffs / Abiquiu
sold
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Afternoon / Galisteo Preserve
sold
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Afternoon Showers / Ghost Ranch
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High Desert Clarification
sold
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Valley Travel / Abiquiu
sold
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Alameda
12″ x 16″ sold
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Controlled Burn / El Rito
12″ x16″
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Low Stratus / View to the North
12″ x 16″
High Water / Abiquiu Reservoir
12″ x 16″ sold
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Showers Over Rio Chama
12″ x 16″ sold
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Sandia Blue
12″ x 16″
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Canyon Showers / Abiquiu
12″ x 16″
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A Glimpse to the River
12″ x 16″ sold
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San Felipe / After the Rain
sold
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Bright Day / Ghost Ranch
sold
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Frog Song
sold
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Winter Tree Stand / La Mesilla Three
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Blue Paternal
sold
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Long View to the Sandias
sold
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Clear Day / Paternal
sold
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View South From La Bajada
sold
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Spring Fields / Abiquiu
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Canyon Showers
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From Paseo de la Cuma
sold
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Last Snow
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Abiquiu Inn / Cottonwood Grove
sold
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Sangre de Cristo / Winter Dressed
sold
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The View North to La Bajada
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The View East to Cerro Bonanza Two
sold
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Road to Lyden / Gray Day
sold
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Into The Valley
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Lifting Storm Over Placer Mountain
sold
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Winter Shadow / Sierra Negra
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Black Mesa / Clarified
sold
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View to the River / Between Storms
sold
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Perfect Cloud
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Morning View East From Pojoaque
sold
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Winter Arroyo / San Felipe
sold
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Winter View to Pajarito
sold
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On a Bright Day / a Candle
sold
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Arroyo Jacona
sold
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Black Mesa / Winter’s Shadow
sold
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Santa Clara Two
sold
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Santa Clara
sold
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Winter Looking South / Cerrillos Hills
sold
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Winter Looking South / Galisteo Basin
sold
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Behind the Tree / Sun
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Winter / Clear Day
sold
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Autumn / La Cienega
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Late Autumn / Road to Lyden
sold
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View South from the Galisteo Basin
sold
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Monsoon Summer / Green Hill
sold
From the Foothills / Ridgetop Road
sold
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Brilliant Day Two / Long View
sold
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Brilliant Day
sold
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Heading North Into the Rio Grande Valley
sold
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Cumulus Building
sold
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The View South / Showers
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La Bajada
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Storms South
sold
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Monsoon Green / Placer Mountain
sold
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Summer Pasture / Abiquiu Inn
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Tetilla Peak in Shadows
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Monsoon Summer / Ghost Ranch
sold
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Monsoon Summer / Midday
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Monsoon Summer / Desert Green
sold
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Monsoon Summer / View to the Jemez Complex
sold
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Monsoon Summer / View to the Sangre de Cristo
sold
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Santa Fe Valley / Blue Monsoon II
sold
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Morning Overlook / Espanola Valley II
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Perfect Blue
sold
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Jemez Complex / Winter Dressed / View South, West, North
sold
The Jemez Complex is an extinct super volcano. It was created one million years ago in a series of massive explosions. What remains is a mountain of remarkably varied topography. Here, seen from Lower Pacheco Canyon, 20 miles away, the mountain range presents itself in its greatest majesty. These paintings were completed late in the afternoon on consecutive days.
While each panel stands well on its own, I am fascinated by how they speak to each other, lending a transcendent layer of complexity to the whole; this while its palette captures perfectly this blue-steel, mid-winter light.
Jemez Complex / Winter Dressed / View South
sold
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Jemez Complex / Winter Dressed / View West
sold
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Jemez Complex / Winter Dressed / View North
sold
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Bright Winter / Sangre de Cristo Range
sold
This winter sun, under clear skies, reflected off snow covered mountains can be blinding.
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Metallic Sunset / Pena Blanca
sold
This view, looks out over agricultural fields which end in a tree line where the Rio Grande River runs through. The foothills of the southern end of the Jemez Range rise in the distance. Done the day before a snow storm, bands of high clouds were moving in from the west.
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Long View / St Peters Dome
sold
“Long View / St Peters Dome” is another painting from the Cochiti Village paint site. Cliffs of blasted earth have been smoothed by a million years into these powerful undulating forms. They were too distant to truly be capture in this painting. Still, I managed to find some of their magnitude.
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Dome Wilderness / South Gate
sold
I try not to be sentimental. As an artist, it is a mistake to place too much emotional or psychic meaning into these places I visit. It simply does not help with the work. While painting this view from Cochiti Village a thought kept needling my brain. ‘This is not just a distant view of the plateaus from which the Rio Grande River emerges from the Jemez Range, but rather there is some portal here’. I was delighted then to later discover its name: Dome Wilderness / South Gate.
