Three Crosses

The three artists featured in Waxlander’s recently opened group show–Phyllis Randall, Marshall Noice, and Sangita Phadke–have much in common. They all admire nature and possess an innate talent for capturing and communicating its beauty. They all lend an aspect of “whimsy” to their paintings, ranging from Noice’s playful use of color to the personalities that Phadke creates for the vegetables and flowers she paints. They all work with the same medium–pastel. And yet, when admiring the paintings of these three artists side by side, one cannot help but appreciate how unique their visions are.

Phyllis Randall, the acclaimed artist known for her exploration of the architecture, light, and vibrant colors of the Southwest, takes viewers on a special journey in her latest body of work. Entitled “Pastel, Pigment and Passion,” her portion of the group exhibition is a study of nature. Untamed wildflowers, carefully potted plants, and overgrown weeds sprout within her paintings, adding a “new floral element and texture” to her usual work.

In her twenty years as a painter, Randall has delved into the familiar elements of the Southwest: its architecture, its vibrancy, and its intense light. When peering into one of her paintings, the viewer can almost feel the brightness of the desert sun, the rough texture of the adobe, the expansiveness of the purple sky. A once-upon-a-time graphic designer, Randall’s artwork is characterized by her geometrical prowess and her command of light and shadow. But there is one other element, equally as important as the others, that makes Randall’s paintings so enchanting: the artist is in love with the Southwest.

High Expectations

Since her first visit to Santa Fe in 1993, Phyllis Randall has been “enthralled by the beauty and wonder of Santa Fe and the surrounding area.” Her devotion to the Southwest has altered her artistic path since the day that she first laid eyes on it. Originally trained in oil portraiture and realism, Randall made the transition to pastel because she realized that was better suited for capturing the “rich, pure colors” of the Southwest and for “reflect[ing] the play of light and shadow, giving the painting visual excitement and depth.”

In all of her work, this visual excitement and depth is present. One cannot look at one of Randall’s paintings without feeling a sense of wonder. The beauty of the Southwest has been widely celebrated, but it is too easy, in the bustle of life, to stop paying attention to beauty. Phyllis Randall’s artwork calls us back: to the gorgeous slant of the shadows cast by the midday sun, to the bright contrast of a blue window against an adobe wall, to the shifting magic of the sky, to the nimble stalks and unfurled petals of the flowers that rise to meet it.

“Not Your Mother’s Pastels” opened at Waxlander Gallery on June 5th and runs through June 18th. It features the artwork of Phyllis Randall, Sangita Phadke, and Marshall Noice.

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

Hidden Gate - Phyllis Randall

An East-Coast Girl Finds a Home Away from Home

Sketched in bold relief, Phyllis Randall’s pastels distill the colors, shapes, and shadows of the Southwest, casting them across the canvas with a hint of whimsy.

A self-proclaimed East-Coast girl from Maryland, Phyllis first visited the Southwest in 1993 and promptly fell in love. When she returned to the East Coast after that fateful trip, she began experimenting with the bold colors and shapes she had experienced in New Mexico, working first in oils and then switching to the more vibrant medium of pastels.

“I was smitten on my first visit to Santa Fe,” she says. “The light and shadow captured my heart, and the organic adobe architecture fired my imagination.”

A graphic designer by trade, Phyllis soon found herself devoting more and more time to painting, unable to get the shapes and colors of the Southwest out of her head.

“My years of working in advertising and graphic design shaped my geometric style, and the exploration of this mysterious architectural form illuminated by the sun set my imagination free,” she says.

Looking-Up - Phyllis Randall

New Directions

We welcomed Phyllis into the Waxlander family in December of last year. She was a part of our hugely successful online art auction early this year, and she will join artists Marshall Noice and Sangita Phadke in our first ever group pastel show, entitled Not Your Mother’s Pastels, in early June.

While her past pieces have tended toward exploring the lean architectural lines and vibrant colors of the Southwest, her latest body of work, Pastel, Pigment and Passion, is a study of nature.

“From potted plants to wildflowers and overgrown weeds, my work is sprouting a new floral element and texture,” she says. She has also added to the work’s sense of the whimsical with the likeness of her cat, Velcro, who pops up in unexpected places throughout the pieces.

Sneak Peek - Phyllis Randall

Light Savers

Recent travels to the Mediterranean have inspired a new perspective on the use of light, which will be evident in her pieces in the pastel show.

“I studied how the different angles of the sun and the time of day influence the architecture—the diffused sun in Tuscany as opposed to the severity of the sun in Santorini,” she says. “The similarities and differences have sharpened my eye to the play of sunlight in Santa Fe.”

Randall describes her style as Cubism-inspired art meets architecture and her biggest influence as Georgia O’Keeffe. “It is her use of simple shapes and color that I relate to,” she says. “I’ve always felt that I saw things through similar eyes, that my mind breaks subjects down to their least complex and most basic forms, shapes, planes and colors, as depicted in most of O’Keefe’s works. Even her earliest paintings of New York City through her window have that basic quality of light and shadow, geometry and depth that I so admire.”

More than 20 years after first visiting New Mexico, Phyllis has not lost the sense of wonder that overcame her on that first trip. As the years have passed, her work has evolved and she has grown as an artist, but her love for the Southwest is still evident in every piece.

Best in Show

Not Your Mother’s Pastels will feature new work by Phyllis Randall, Marshall Noice and Sangita Phadke. The show will run from June 5-18, with an Artists’ Reception on Friday, June 8th from 5 to 7 p.m.

 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!!

We are very pleased to welcome pastel painter Phyllis Randall to the Waxlander Gallery & Sculpture Garden family!

Canyon Road Morning

After The Rain

She became fully entranced with Southwest on her first visit to Santa Fe in 1993 and has been capturing its beauty and uniqueness ever since.  “I absolutely fell in love with the area,” she says of that trip to the Land of Enchantment, “and I told my husband I think I must have lived out here in another life.”  That’s quite the statement from a self-described ‘East coast girl’.  As a native of Baltimore, she still lives in Maryland but calls the Southwest her “home away from home.”

It was after that trip that Randall began painting again after a 10 year hiatus in which she chose to focus on her career in advertising and graphic design, owning her own studio with her husband.  With her experience in this field and with formal training in oil portraiture and realism, you might say that Randall was well suited to paint the Southwest upon making her connection with it back in 1993.  In time, she transitioned from oil to pastel, which she describes as, “an intense medium that captures rich, pure colors and reflects the play of light and shadow giving the painting visual excitement and depth.”

Cross Reference

Lupie's Garden

In spite of it being an intense medium, it certainly is a labor of love for Randall.  During her career she has garnered much praise for her work and has become a highly acclaimed pastel artist.  But for her, the results of her work bring her the greatest pleasure.  She says, “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing an image emerge out of the darkness of the rich, black underlying paper.”

You can see Phyllis Randall’s work now at Waxlander Gallery & Sculpture Garden, located at 622 Canyon Road in Santa Fe.  For more information on Phyllis Randall please visit Phyllis Randall’s Artists page, or please call us at 505-984-2202.

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