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!

Angels of Tranquility - Richard Pankratz

Born with the soul of an artist, Richard Pankratz took a winding path to the life of a full-time artist. After graduating art school, he found, as all young artists do, that he needed to make money. When he accepted a job teaching high school art he didn’t think it would mean giving up his craft. But eleven years later he found himself still in the classroom and longing for the time to devote to his creative pursuits.

With the rise of the crafts movement in the 1970s, he saw an opportunity to return to his first love — art. Formally trained in painting, printmaking, and jewelry design, he took up the medium of clay and began experimenting with pottery and ceramics.

Now thirty years later, Richard has fulfilled his dream of being a working artist, and his work has expanded and grown through the years. He now works in wood and metal as well as pottery and ceramics, though he admits that clay is the medium he is most drawn to.

“In all the years I’ve been working as an artist, I have always been most enamored by the magic of clay—drawn to it as though it is part of my being,” he says. “If I push on clay it will conform to the pressure of my hand and record the imprint of my will. When subjected to fire, it becomes permanent and will survive long after I am gone.”

While he may love the malleable nature of clay, he also excelled in the metals. His series of bronze angels reveal his love for working in the metals and his expert ability to manipulate the medium.

Stop by our sculpture garden to see Richard’s angels in person. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the gardens, they come alive, revealing the unique depth of vision he infuses into each of his creations.

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

Marshall Noice - Warm Fall Afternoon

Marshall Noice prepares for two shows at Waxlander this summer

Whether he is capturing a scene through the medium of oil paints or pastels, Marhsall Noice strives to evoke the essence of a landscape more than its realistic details. Sunlight filtering through a stand of aspen trees, the full moon rising over a cliff, autumn leaves rustling in the breeze—each scene is an impression of a place, brought to life through his brush.

“My paintings are made in response to things I see in the natural world,” he says. “They capture a place at a particular time. And they capture a moment in my sensibility. My overriding goal as a painter is to create a work, an artifact if you will, that resonates with the spirit of the landscape that inspired me to begin painting.”

A Busy Season

Marshall’s work will be showcased twice in the upcoming summer season at the gallery. His pastels will be a part of the first ever Waxlander group pastel show and will appear alongside other accomplished artists who work in the medium, including Sangita Phadke and Phyllis Randall.

“Many of my pastels are done outdoors as field sketches,” he says. “That’s how I generate material for my paintings. However, this show will be exclusively work that was done in the studio.” The group exhibit will run from June 5-18, with an opening reception held Friday, June 8 from 5-7 p.m.

Marshall Noice - Old Moonrise

We are also excited to announce “New Horizons,” a one-man show that will celebrate Marshall’s oil paintings and pastels. With such a diverse and extensive body of work, Marshall was the perfect pick for a solo show during our busy summer season.

The show will offer classic Marshall Noice pieces, as well as newer work that shows him pushing his boundaries and reveling in the joy his art brings him.

“I’m doing some larger pastels than I’ve ever done before,” he says. “And I’m working in triptych, which I’ve never done, and I’m having fun with that. I’m hopeful that I’ll have a handful of pastels that are done on canvas rather than paper. It is a new way of approaching pastels for me.”

The New Horizons show will run from June 26 to July 9th, and we invite everyone to join us in the gallery on Friday, June 29 for an artist reception from 5-7 p.m.

Marshall Noice - Sidehill Red Ridge

The Joy of the Work

Marshall’s vibrant work stirs emotion in its viewers. It’s as though he has captured a landscape’s very soul in color and invited you to share in it.

“My work’s greatest pleasure comes when I’m in the thick of the battle to let a painting emerge,” he says.

We hope you will join us at the gallery for his shows and experience the beauty of his paintings!

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

Art lovers, musicians, and community members from around the city will descend on Canyon Road on May 12 for this year’s Passport to the Arts. An annual fundraiser benefiting art programs in the Santa Fe public schools, the event heralds the start of the busy summer season on Canyon Road and is always a blast for the local galleries. We expect this year to be no different!

Your “passport” earns you entrance to the day’s events, including silent auctions, performances by local student musicians, a quick draw, and an outdoor evening concert, not to mention all the great galleries, boutiques, and restaurants lining the half-mile stretch of famous Canyon Road.

Andree Hudson in the Quick Draw

We are proud to announce that Waxlander artist, Andree Hudson, will be one of the participants in this year’s quick draw. Andree and her fellow artists will be asked to create original works of art in just 9o minutes. The finished pieces will be auctioned off after the contest. It’s the perfect chance to get inside the mind of your favorite artist and to bid on an original piece.

Andree’s bold paintings bring the American West to life, and she is currently preparing for a one-woman show at the gallery in July.

“I get excited about painting in front of people”

We can’t wait to see what she comes up with for the quick draw, but she hasn’t thought too much about what it will be; she prefers to see what her muse brings her on that day. She can’t wait for the event.

“I get excited about painting in front of people,” she says. “I love it!”

We love it too, and we hope to see you out on Canyon Road on May 12!

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

Going Places - Andree Hudson

Andrée Hudson’s vivid oil paintings bring scenes from the American West to life, capturing intimate moments through dramatic brush strokes and a striking use of color. It’s as though her subjects — a cowgirl resting on a stoop, a herd of bulls in the evening light, wild horses running through the brush — live and breath among us.

Andrée attended Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore to hone her skills, earning an BFA in illustration and visual communication, but she has been drawing and creating works of art since she was a young child.

“I started drawing as soon as I could pick up a pencil,” she says, “and I started oil painting when I was 11.” Her first commission for a painting came when she was still in high school, and she has not put her brush down since.

During her college years and shortly after her talent for capturing the fine details of human musculature and the skeletal form led to a career in medical illustration and drawing, and her work has been published in several publications. But her true passion has always been in capturing the essence of her subjects through the brush, and it wasn’t long before she returned to painting.

Andrée’s pieces have been hanging at Waxlander for four years now, and she has done four solo shows here. Her work brings levity and light to the gallery, and our customers always remark on her unique ability to capture a moment in paint.

She is currently hard at work on pieces for her one-woman show at Waxlander this summer. Mark your calendar now and come by the gallery July 17 – July 30 to see her newest works of art.

Andrée will also be representing Waxlander during the quick draw at this year’s Passport to the Arts, which will be held Saturday, May 12 on Canyon Road. One part of a day of events designed to raise money for music programs in the Santa Fe public schools, the quick draw challenges local artists to create an original work in just 90 minutes. Her finished piece will be auctioned off as soon as the paint is dry. It’s the perfect opportunity to pick up an original Andrée Hudson piece with a unique story behind it!

Far from being nervous about the event, Andrée can’t wait to harness the crowd’s energy to create something new and compelling.

“I get excited about painting in front of people,” she says. “I love it! But I don’t want to think about what to paint until the time comes. This keeps my painting fresh and exciting.”

We can’t wait to see what her brilliant imagination brings to life this time!

If purchasing a piece off the blog, mention that

you found the piece on the blog and get a special discount!