Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
October 11-26
Doug West’s first solo show in two years at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represents more than a collection of recent landscape paintings. The new work reflects a transformed way of seeing and being in the world that unfolded after the artist had a life-altering accident at his home on Thanksgiving Day in 2022—and after the long journey back to the use of his hands for expressing himself through art.
On the Way, oil on canvas, 30 x 30.
Seeing the Now: New Landscape Paintings opens October 11 with a reception at the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. West, who has lived in Baja California, Mexico, for the past 13 years after more than three decades in New Mexico, will be in attendance. The show features striking, large-scale oils inspired by desert landscapes of southern New Mexico and Mexico. Many of the foregrounds in these works center on a single flowering plant.
On that Thanksgiving Day two years ago, West was preparing for a warm bath when he realized his propane water heater’s pilot light must have gone out. He went to relight it, and an explosion engulfed him in flames. The extremely hot flash fire consumed the escaped gas and burned itself out without igniting anything else in the house, but West’s face, hands and much of his body suffered second- and third-degree burns. In shock, yet aware enough to call friends who drove him to the hospital, he didn’t immediately know the extent of his injuries. But he knew his life had been irreversibly changed.
Right Here & Now, oil on canvas, 60 x 40.
At the ICU and then a burn center in San Antonio, Texas, doctors initially gave West a 20 percent or less chance of survival, based on his age (76 at the time) and the severity of the burns. He spent three months in the hospital, receiving multiple skin grafts from a highly skilled surgeon. While treatment was often excruciating and recovery was long, never did the artist see himself as a victim. All along, he held a deep knowing that he would survive and that the experience was somehow an important lesson and gift. With an unexpected sense of serenity and profound gratitude, he found himself approaching people and life with a more open heart.
West’s first painting after the fire, which took six weeks to complete, was only for himself, not for sale. It depicts a white rose against an orange and red sunset and represents purification and being in the moment, he says, adding, “I’ve found a place of silence and profound quiet, and that was imbued in this piece.”
Presence, oil on canvas, 60 x 48.
In the Blue Rain show, PRESENCE is based on photographs West has taken over the years on solo camping trips at White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. As with his other new works, he describes it as an “expression of purity, beauty and simplicity in a moment in time that also extends beyond time.” The paintings also reflect his lifelong reverence for nature, which he sees as “a tonic in a pretty crazy world.”
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- My Greatest Hope, oil on canvas, 60 x 40.
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- My Dream, oil on canvas, 60 x 30.
Blue Rain has represented West since the artist shifted to oil painting 15 years ago after decades of being nationally and internationally known for his serigraphs of New Mexico land- and skyscapes. Gallery owner Leroy Garcia notes that as with the serigraphs, West’s approach to painting involves precise execution and exquisite detail. “Everything Doug does is compelling, and this new work is especially so,” Garcia says. The show runs through October 26. —Gussie Fauntleroy
contact information
(505) 954-9902
blueraingallery.com
This story appeared in the October/November 2024 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.