Show Preview | Bill Gallen

Santa Fe, NM
Sage Creek Gallery, July 26-August 12

Bill Gallen, Peering In, oil, 16 x 20.

Bill Gallen, Peering In, oil, 16 x 20.

This story was featured in the July 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

AT FIRST GLANCE, THE title of Bill Gallen’s solo show at Sage Creek Gallery—Elements: Desert, Sky, Mountain, Cloud—seems a simple summary of the primary subject matter for this Santa Fe-based plein-air painter who also produces larger studio oils based on his outdoor studies. But pose a question about that title to the artist himself, and the meaning grows more profound.

“I think of these individual constituent parts of the landscape as my friends,” he says, going on to explain that he has developed deep, personal relationships with these elements over the many years he has painted them. “They’re all different in their personalities, and all have different moods that can be expressed,” he adds. Regarded in that context, the 20-plus paintings Gallen plans to hang—he attends the show’s opening reception on Friday, July 26, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.—offer viewers rich opportunities to contemplate how we all relate to the natural world. FOOTHILLS PATH, for example, found its inspiration in a distant downpour Gallen witnessed while biking on the outskirts of Santa Fe. “You could feel the rush, the change of temperature, the moisture in the air, the wind,” he says. “And through the language of paint, I wanted to share my sense of awe.”

Awe on a grander scale is captured in works like FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN II, a view of the San Juan Mountains as seen from his brother’s home in Colorado. “It portrays the last light of the sunset up there, and the alpenglow, which is a powerful thing and reminds me of my beloved brother’s own strength and beauty,” Gallen comments.

The reverence for the natural world that Gallen shares is not limited to the Southwest alone. Some of the pieces, including SPRING ALONG THE MOUNTAIN and PEERING IN, had their start during a painting trip he took last fall to New Zealand with his partner and fellow landscape artist Cecilia Robertson. “A hill is a hill all over the planet, though each part of the world has a different inflection,” he says. “You can recognize a friend wherever you see him.”

Gallen is quick to acknowledge the role that human friendship plays in the development of his art. He belongs to a “loosely associated” gathering of artists who have come to be known as the Bettina Steinke Group, named for the respected late artist and illustrator in whose former Santa Fe studio they now work. He credits “the teachers of the group”—Ned Jacob, Michael Lynch, and David Ballew—for “encouraging me to go out and paint in the landscape,” he says. “And now, having just turned 61, I’m experiencing some attention and success in a vision of a beautiful life that involves talking to my artist friends and to the friends I find in nature.” —Norman Kolpas

contact information
505.988.3444
www.sagecreekgallery.com

This story was featured in the July 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art July 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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