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Giving back: Gallery with a Cause exhibit highlights 'Movers and Shakers'
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Gallery with a Cause has gathered 16 artists who give back to their communities through paintbrush and lens.
Dubbed 鈥淢overs and Shakers: Artists Who Teach, Lead and Inspire,鈥� the exhibition showcases 360 artworks, with 40% of each tax-deductible sale earmarked for the New Mexico Cancer Center Foundation. The money supports patients鈥� nonmedical needs while they receive treatment.
Oil painter and Albuquerque resident Nancy Davis grew up on a ranch near Portales.
Giving back: Gallery with a Cause exhibit highlights 'Movers and Shakers'
鈥淚 just love making ranch-influenced paintings,鈥� she said.
The painting 鈥淜im鈥� captures her niece roping cattle.
鈥淚 paint outside a lot and I also take a photograph,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淪ometimes the plein air paintings work and you know within a couple of hours.鈥�
鈥淜im鈥� gestated from a photograph of the subject roping and branding on the family ranch.
鈥淚 expanded the horse the way I wanted to,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淗is demeanor was very calm. The cattle I did from memory.鈥�
Rio Rancho鈥檚 Carol Mell grew up in Oregon, where she learned to play in the forest, collecting mushrooms and spotting deer and bears in the dark.
Her photo encaustic 鈥淧layground鈥� pieces, with Surrealist-meets-landscapes, draw from that experience. Swings dangle from the top, cradling a baboon and a rabbit, while an owl sweeps the sky.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a place you can imagine going into and playing there,鈥� Mell said.
A former journalist, the artist began in photography but disliked framing her work behind glass. She saw it as a barrier.
鈥淚 got into fine art photography in Taos,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen I moved here, I wanted to paint photographs.鈥�
Mell found a teacher online and studied encaustic. The process consists of natural beeswax and dammar resin (crystallized tree sap).
鈥淭he wonderful thing about encaustic is that you can touch it,鈥� Mell said. 鈥淎nd I wanted texture. I wanted my pieces to look like paintings.鈥�
She begins with a photograph, then invents a digital composition.
鈥淚 did a slow shutter photograph at Heron Lake鈥� in 鈥淧layground with Owls,鈥� she said.
鈥淭he swings are from Ghost Ranch,鈥� she added.
Mell lifted the most of the animals from dominion-free photos and used her own image of a baboon taken in Ethiopia. Then she began painting over the composition in encaustic.
鈥淥ver the top of that you use an oil stick,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of a combination of painting and photography.鈥�
As a child, Mell felt a kinship with the trees, the waters and the creatures that lived there, especially the birds.
鈥淏irds are like the messengers between the physical and the spiritual.
鈥淚 love my fantasy playgrounds,鈥� the artist said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a place you can imagine going into and playing there.鈥�
When she was a child, a neighbor took Mell to a ghost town to collect mushrooms. She absorbed the beauty and magic in nature.
鈥淪he taught me how to navigate the forest,鈥� Mell said. 鈥淪he鈥檇 say, 鈥榊ou know there was a deer here last night.鈥� 鈥�
Santa Fe鈥檚 Adrian Skiles created his homage to New Mexico in 鈥淧ueblo Ladder鈥� after moving here from Atlanta three years ago.
鈥淚t originally was a color photograph,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 take it into my method called 鈥榠mage shifting鈥� and added color, the texture and the depth, and it really popped. I have a program I use that adds a little AI.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e always been an amateur photographer,鈥� Skiles continued. 鈥淚 did a lot of landscape photography. I moved into digital six or seven years ago.鈥�
He moved to New Mexico to capture the feel of the Southwest. He worked as a mortgage broker before coming here.
鈥淚 think you capture something in a moment,鈥� he said of his avocation. 鈥淵ou look at it differently, then you freeze that image. It gives you time to appreciate it.鈥�
He first showed his altered image of Taos Pueblo at the Eldorado Studio Tour three years ago.
鈥淚 had it in my home,鈥� Skiles said, 鈥渁nd a lady said, 鈥業 saw this at the preview gallery and I almost broke down in tears.鈥�
鈥淭hat really moved me.鈥�
