Blue Rain Gallery is celebrating the artwork of landscape painter Doug West this October in a solo exhibition of eight new works. A visionary artist, West captures the heart of New Mexico’s distinct geography alongside its vivid plant life, geology and weather systems—all rendered with a slight sense of the surreal.
Right Here & Now, oil on canvas, 60 x 40"
“Let’s just start with his genius,” says Blue Rain Gallery owner Leroy Garcia. “There have been a lot of landscape artists—thousands, maybe even millions, in this country—and they do nice scenes. But at Blue Rain we look at what makes the artist unique.”
Garcia explains that during West’s printing days, he would make up to 110 screens for a single serigraph. “When he got tired of doing silkscreens, he started doing oil painting…If you look at his large oil paintings, they’re very pointillistic. Most artists aren’t willing to put that much detail into a landscape. His eye for catching the light, the clouds, the sage brush, the yucca plants…his perspective is just amazing.”
My Dream, oil on canvas, 60 x 30"
While the artist is a landscape painter at his core, you’ll likely notice that many of his paintings feature a distinct focal point. In one piece, the star of the show might be a prickly pear cactus in bloom (as in My Greatest Hope); while the three yuccas in On the Way feel almost like three people standing in the desert. Right Here & Now depicts a saturated, rose-like flower against a backdrop of sagebrush, cacti and a vivid gradient sky. “Every landscape Doug does is completely unique,” Garcia adds.
Presence, oil on canvas, 48 x 60"
Most collectors of West’s work will know that the artist was involved in an accident a few years ago in which he suffered severe burns after a water heater explosion. These days, the artist has slowed down a bit, creating around one painting a month. But he’ll never stop pushing forward. “He’s worked really hard to develop his skill set back to where it was before the accident,” says Garcia. “When I talk to Doug, he expresses that he wants to continue to get better.” Garcia explains that when the accident happened, the first thing the doctors worked on was West’s hands. “Sometimes that struggle makes us stronger, and in this case, I can say that about Doug.”
My Greatest Hope, oil on canvas, 60 x 40"
Seeing the Now will hang from October 11 to 26 at Blue Rain Gallery’s Santa Fe location. An artist reception will be held Friday, October 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe Street Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (505) 954-9902 www.blueraingallery.com
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