A sculptor deals directly with the elements, from clay to precious metals to the fire that gives them form, and her finished work will eternally interact with them. When winter’s chill creeps up Canyon Road, familiar sculptures are transformed by sequins of frost or snowy white coats.

The art in our sculpture garden may seem at rest in the cool air, but the sculptors in our stable are hardly hibernating. For our “Holiday Aglow” show, they’ve wielded the elements to imbue a frigid season with the holiday warmth we feel in our hearts.

Chris Turri

Story Totem Moon Guide – Chris Turri

New Mexico artist Chris Turri uses the motifs of Native cultures to help keep their legends alive. The storyteller creates totems and masks, revealing a way of life that is closely tied to nature in symbolism and material.

“I love to work with metal,” says Chris. “I like how it changes with the seasons, how it gets better with age and weather.”

Chris uses patinas on steel and copper to mirror nature’s brilliance, giving abstracted faces and figures the rusty red tone of New Mexico clay or the bright glow of a turquoise stone. He’s sure to spin resilient color into his works, even in the dead of winter.

Suzanne Donazetti

Ocean Star- Suzanne Donazetti

Suzanne Donazetti lives in Maryland, but her art plays out on a considerably bumpier landscape. After dabbling in many mediums, she developed a unique process of painting and weaving copper and has been constructing billowing, distorted grids ever since. Though they look like the stuff of dreams, these abstract color landscapes are inspired by real-world observation.

“My vision is to communicate with color, through the refractive lens of weaving, brief moments of light in the natural environment,” Suzanne says.

The sculptor always amazes with her rose-colored, kaleidoscopic glasses. Can you imagine her dazzling interpretation of a winter flurry?

Josiane Childers and Justin West

Spectrum VI- Childers-West

Josiane Childers and Justin West are a husband and wife team who combined their mediums and created something inseparable. She’s a painter and he’s a metalworker with a fascination for old cars and trucks.

The duo’s steel and plexiglass works skirt the line between sculpture and painting. Abstract color fields bend outward from the wall, forcing the viewer to move about the gallery in order to catch every angle. It’s a dynamic experience that echoes their philosophy about their materials.

Justin is inspired by steel’s strength and versatility, and the fact that each piece was “forged of fire from the center of the earth.” If you come to the reception, make sure to linger in the glow of Josiane and Justin’s works, prepared in our planet’s core and finished at their family hearthside.

Laurel Peterson Gregory

Lindy Lo – Laurel Peterson Gregory

Laurel Peterson Gregory is a sculptor with a very lively process. She starts by carefully studying a particular dance and matching it with a favorite animal, sketching out beautifully symmetrical movements that are enhanced by her subjects’ angular bodies. Bulls waltz, beagles “bump”, a pair of scotties engages in a graceful ballet lift and a horse jumps for joy. Laurel captures these moments in bronze and colors them with rich patinas.

Though Laurel focuses mostly on fauna in her work, the flora that surrounds her is just as important to her creative process. She tends ten large gardens that encircle her home outside Denver, which is a full-time job in itself. While she might be harvesting the very last of her fall crop, there’s no end to this artist’s inspiration.

Waxlander’s “Holiday Aglow” show features new work from all of Waxlander’s artists. Come explore dynamic sculpture and painted winter wonderlands starting November 20. The artists’ reception is Friday, November 23 from 5-7 pm.

If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

Equilibrium - Childers West

When legendary art critic Clement Greenberg first championed Jackson Pollock, he advertised Abstract Expressionism as a movement that cut straight to the essence of painting. He argued that the spheres of art ought to boil down to their cores, that painting should diverge from sculpture by doing away with illusionism and embracing abstraction.

The five abstract painters in our “Harmony” show have rather (post-)postmodern views on the matter. Can abstract painting mix with sculpture, or even follow the melody of a musical composition? At Waxlander, the answer is “Certainly!”

Josiane Childers and Justin West are a husband and wife team who approach abstract painting from a decidedly cross-disciplinary angle. Josiane is a trained fine artist who works with acrylics on canvas, and Justin is a metalworker with a passion for automobiles. Their collaborative Plexiglass and steel “wall sculptures” hang somewhere between painting and sculpture. The painted panels have striking depth and texture that is enhanced by their shapes—they often push out from the wall and into the viewer’s space, making for ever-shifting optics.

On A Wing - Paul Cunningham

Michael Ethridge has been an artist for his whole life, but he wasn’t always a painter. Michael is a trained classical pianist, and his first career was as a performer on cruise ships. When he took up painting full-time, everything he learned as a musician came with him.

“You know there are degrees of tone in music, and there is tone in paint as well. Music goes hand-in-hand with art,” Michael says. “Painting really is a voice, though, it’s just communicated through the brush.”

Paul Cunningham’s paintings splice delicate figures into abstract color worlds. The fish and birds that he paints on his large canvases take our eyes as traveling companions, guiding us through airy clouds and murky pools of color and across the stark lines that often divide Paul’s compositions.

Turquoise Rain - Nancy Eckels

Nancy Eckels is perhaps the most traditional abstract painter of the bunch, but her creative process is also tied to another medium. Nancy grew up in Los Angeles and worked in television production for many years before picking up a paintbrush. Perhaps that explains the striking visual punch of her vibrant canvases. Her works often start out smooth at the bottom but explode near the top into splintered textures that look like fantastical city skylines. It’s as though she’s directly challenging Greenburg’s idea of the essential “flatness” of painting.

Come experience these five incredible artists’ exciting twists on abstract painting in “Harmony,” open through October 15th, and meet them all at our reception this Friday, October 5th from 5-7 pm at Waxlander Gallery and Sculpture Garden.

 If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

There’s a reason abstract painters often work in series. When colors are the stars of your show, painting is all about finding relationships between them. The best hues, tints, shades and tones leap from work to work, having conversations and creating communities until the canvases form a sort of rainbow genealogy. The artists in our upcoming abstract show “Harmony” know that, in art and in life, this is the key: keeping it in the family.

Nancy Eckels

Urban Prism - Nancy Eckels

California artist Nancy Eckels was born into her craft. Her parents met in an oil painting class, and her sister, aunts and uncles are all artists. Nancy received a homegrown art education from her folks, but she didn’t pick up a paintbrush until much later. True to her home state, she preferred her art in technicolor.

Nancy’s first career was in television. She was working as a director on the CBS daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful” when she decided to switch to painting. It must be in her blood, because this self-taught artist was soon creating abstract compositions imbued with stunning emotional immediacy.

Michael Ethridge

Releve - Michael Ethridge

Michael Ethridge also started out in show business. He worked for many years as an entertainer on cruise ships, but never forgot the painting lessons he received from his mother, a landscape painter. When he started painting again, he quickly took a liking to abstraction. His works are swirling seas of color that often press out from the canvas with dazzling twists, ripples and ridges of paint.

Paul Cunningham

Perseverance - Paul Cunningham

Paul Cunningham kicked off his artistic career very early in life. His first studio was the floor of his family’s apartment, where he watched television and copied dogs and horses from John Gnagy lesson books. Though his high school guidance counselors steered him away from art, Paul eventually took an introduction to oil painting at his local community college. The rest is history.

Paul is an adept plein air painter, and has mastered watercolor and figure drawing. His paintings often hint at the figurative, showing birds or fish immersed in brilliant color fields.

Childers-West

Dreamscape - Childers-West

Arizona artists Josiane Childers and Justin West certainly know how family fits into art: they’re married. Josiane grew up in upstate New York and started seriously pursuing an art career after receiving training and encouragement from her high school art teacher. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Purchase College in New York.

Justin West lived in Colorado, Germany, New York and Arizona as a chid. He had a natural inclination for all things metallic, especially old cars and truck, which translated into a career as a metal artist.

When they work together, Josiane’s painting skills and Justin’s metalworking abilities are distilled into unique paintings on steel and Plexiglass. The choice of materials lends the works interesting textures, while the adept paintings display incredible depth. This team is truly in harmony.

Come join the families—of people and pigments—at our reception for “Harmony” on October 5th, and see the show October 2nd through October 15th at Waxlander Gallery and Sculpture Garden.

If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

Charm V - Childers-West

We’re so excited to be showing new work by the husband and wife team of Justin Earl West and Josiane Childers. This Arizona duo creates gorgeous, contemporary painted sculptures with steel and Plexiglas. Their work is strikingly original and wonderfully creative in color, composition, design, style and texture.

Josiane’s medium is acrylic on canvas and Justin’s obsession with old cars and trucks naturally led him to work with metal. When these two collaborate, their painted wall sculptures reflect the influence of Arizona’s spacious skies and desert landscape.

Josiane was born in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains and grew up in upstate New York, drawing and painting at an early age. Her high school art instructor, Nicholas Todisco, inspired her to pursue art, and she went on to study at New York’s Purchase College and in Amsterdam.

Justin was raised in Colorado, Germany, upstate New York and Arizona. He worked in construction and as a mechanic, honing skills that laid the foundation for his career as a metal artist. His painted steel sculptures depict landscapes, abstracts and three-dimensional textures.

“I have been a sculptor all of my life.” Justin says. “I love the freedom of mixing mediums. I have worked with almost anything you can think of from clay, Plexiglas or fiberglass, and wood to concrete, drywall or steel.  Whatever a sculpture needs, I can bring it in.”

For Josiane, color, lines and the very act of working with paint provide inspiration. “Every piece that I paint is an emotional journey through color,” she says. “I am continuously inspired by the extraordinary world around me as well as the exciting possibilities of infinite color relationships. Every single color is beautiful and has a place. I love how the colors ask for each other and vibrate in unison in creation of a new color world. Or one crooked line asks for another crooked line in the continuing quest for balance.

“My painting style always involves a search for perfection and balance in chaos,” she continues. “I begin most paintings with random choices and movements and then solve the puzzle as I go. I am always trying to reach a mathematical perfection with color and form. There is always motivation to paint and I am in love with the paint itself.”

Come in and see for yourself their amazing art. All of their creations are stunning, including their latest. We would like to congratulate the duo on the birth of their baby.  For more information and to see their pieces visit http://www.waxlander.com/artist/52/Childers–West.

 If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!

The 3rd Annual Waxlander Gallery Art Auction is in full swing! The auction runs through next Saturday, February 4th with bidding coming to a close at 4:00 p.m. MST.

With the first two installments of the event available just to Waxlander collectors, we have opened this year’s event to all bidders to allow as many people possible the opportunity to add beautiful pieces of art to their collections. With the works set at the lowest prices of the year, it is a great chance for you to add them to your home or office at a great value.

There are close to 200 pieces up for auction this year featuring the work of many of our artists. We are very happy that this year’s participating artists includes many who have been with us for some time, such as Bruce King, Matthew Higginbotham, and Andree Hudson. We are also very pleased that some of our newest artists, including Christopher Owen Nelson and Phyllis Randall, are taking part as well!

Here is a full list of the participating artists: Lori Faye Bock, Childers-West, Jim Cohen, Paul Cunningham, Suzanne Donazetti, Michael Ethridge, Georgia Gerber, Sandy Graves, Higginbotham, Walter Horak, Hudson, Tony Jojola, King, Ana Lazovsky, Bernard Marks, Sharon Markwardt, Nelson, Marshall Noice, Sangita Phadke, Richard Pankratz, Linda Prokop, Randall, Slava TCH, Jono Tew, Chris Turri.

Additionally, we are happy to announce that special works from artist and gallery owner Phyllis Kapps’ personal collection will also be available!

A few tidbits about the bidding process: The opening bid for paintings has been set at 40% off the retail price. For sculptures, the opening bids have been marked at 25% off. If the opening bid for a piece has started at less than $1,000, then the bids increase in $50 increments. With pieces starting at $1,000 or more, the bidding increases in increments of $100. If there is a piece you absolutely must have and you do not want to take the chance of losing it to another bidder, you can purchase it at our ‘Buy It Now’ price which is set at 10% off retail.

For information on the artists and which of their pieces are available, please visit their artist page at http://www.waxlander.com/artists-santa-fe-art-gallery. Auction Items will be marked in red and will be the first images on each of the participating artists’ page.

For questions on the auction you can call the gallery at 505-984-2202 or email us at art@waxlander.com. To make a bid, the same telephone number and email address apply. The winning bidders for each piece will be notified by phone following the conclusion of the event.

Once again, we are very excited for this year’s auction. It gives us great joy to be able to offer so many great pieces and such great prices.

Happy bidding!!