Show Preview | Beals & Abbate Fine Art: Coulter Prehm

Santa Fe, NM, November 20-December 3

Coulter Prehm, The Leash, oil, 20 x 16.

This story was featured in the November 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art November 2012 print edition here, or purchase the Southwest Art November 2012 digital download here. Or simply subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!

Thanksgiving is often considered a time for reflection, a time to give thanks for what we’ve been blessed with in life. So it’s a fitting time for a show featuring more than 20 new works by Coulter Prehm, a Santa Fe artist who uses painting to “show love and appreciation” to others. The show, titled Of Love, runs November 20-December 3 at Beals & Abbate Fine Art. An opening reception takes place the day after Thanksgiving, November 23, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Prehm discovered his passion for art while attending Iowa State University, where he began drawing and tattooing. “The guy I worked for said I needed an art degree, so I switched my major,” Prehm says. After his first painting class, Prehm realized that art was what he was supposed to be doing. “I felt like it was a God-ordained mission, and I needed to get busy,” he says. The artist has been consistently painting ever since. Immediately after graduation he moved to Santa Fe to study with his mentor, Tony Ryder.

For Prehm, gratitude and love are integral aspects of his life and work as a figurative and landscape painter. “My focus is to have an interaction with whatever my subject is,” Prehm says. “I want to show a genuine feeling of love for the people and places I paint.” Many of the works in the show are paintings of homeless people that Prehm has developed a personal connection with. “I started painting homeless people a couple winters ago,” Prehm says. “I saw them on the side of the road when it was cold and rainy, so I brought them to my studio to sleep. I slowly developed relationships with some of them and began to offer them shelter and other necessities in exchange for being my models.” Fifteen percent of the sales from the show will be donated to St. Elizabeth Shelter in Santa Fe.

Prehm hopes his appreciation for his subjects comes through in the paintings. “I want viewers to see someone valuing others and entice people to go out and do the same,” he says, adding, “It’s all about love.” —Lindsay Mitchell

contact information
505.438.8881
 www.bealsandabbate.com

Featured in the November 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art magazine November 2012 digital download
Southwest Art magazine November 2012 print edition
Or subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!