Painters help us appreciate the world
By Kristin Hoerth
Lorenzo Chavez, Spring Creek, oil, 16 x 20.
I’m writing this note in mid-December in suburban Denver, where we’ve had snow on the ground for at least a week now. This is notable: Usually our snowstorms are followed quickly by a return to bright sunshine and warmer temperatures, so the snow disappears even faster than it fell. Thanks to an extended stretch of cold and clouds, though, we haven’t had that luxury lately. I’m a dedicated distance runner, and all that packed-down snow makes for slippery footing on my favorite trail, but it also means the landscape I run through is lovely to look at.
This week one of my runs coincided perfectly with the golden hour right before sunset, when low light makes everything beautiful. The powdery blue sky, white snow covering the ground, and golden-yellow grasses and shrubs were a stunning combination. The surrounding scenery itself isn’t particularly grand—the trail winds through open fields on the outskirts of several neighborhoods—but that day’s run filled me with peace and joy. Sometimes I have to remind myself to take it all in: the sweeping sky, the reflections in the pond, the foothills and distant mountains. When I lived in the middle of Houston for many years, I had to look at photos to see these views—and now they’re right here on my regular path.
I think all of us have some joyful vistas like this in our lives, whether we live in them now or remember them from the past. Maybe they’re found in places much more remote than my trail, or perhaps they’re at the other end of the spectrum, in the midst of a dense city. No matter where they are, they bring us that transcendent feeling of marveling at the world we live in.
For this issue, we’ve gathered a group of artists who bring us that feeling through their paintings. They have a wide variety of settings covered, from the backroads of Utah to the arroyos of New Mexico to the streets of San Francisco and beyond. Painter Scott W. Prior puts it this way: “I want viewers to feel like they are right there with me,” observing the hustle and bustle of city streets, soaking in the energy and the mood. And painter Josh Clare “seeks to put more onto the surface than a collection of visual elements; he wants to return the awe and majesty he encountered while present in the landscape.”
We hope you enjoy the views.
This Editor’s Letter appeared in the February 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.