Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
August 20-September 2
Francis Livingston, Sage Hills, oil, 30 x 30.
On the eve of Santa Fe’s annual Indian Market, art lovers have excellent reason to head for nearby Canyon Road to attend a reception launching Francis Livingston’s show of more than 20 new oil paintings, plus a selection of previously completed works already among the holdings at Meyer Gallery. “This will be my first live opening since before the pandemic,” enthuses Livingston, who plans to make his way from his home in the small town of Bellevue, ID, for the occasion.
The show’s title, Through a Modern Lens, might suggest artworks that would challenge the sensibilities of those who prefer realism in their art. Livingston is quick to clarify, however, that it refers more specifically to the modernist style introduced a century ago by the Taos Society of Artists, including Ernest Blumenschein, Victor Higgins, and W. Herbert Dunton. “I’m trying to achieve a balance between colors, shapes, lines, and masses that creates a sense of solitude and quiet,” he says, adding that he also derives inspiration from a wide range of other sources, including the early representational works of Piet Mondrian.
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- Francis Livingston, The Forest Turning, oil, 36 x 36.
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- Francis Livingston, Layers, oil, 16 x 16.
The aesthetically soothing qualities for which Livingston strives are exemplified by such works as THE FOREST TURNING, in which three cloaked Indians proceed through a wooded scene aglow with rich autumnal tones. The images of the man in the foreground and two women farther down the path “feel traditional,” notes the artist. “But the design of the painting and the flattening of the shapes and simplifying of the images are more modern.”
Livingston explains that his creative process is “a continuing exploration. I start each new painting differently.” The results of such a nimble approach are evident in PATHWAY, a wintry scene of a stream viewed through leafless trees. Despite the overall tranquil effect he achieves here, he describes the painting’s lively brushwork as more “loosely impressionistic, expressionistic, or even abstract” than some of his other pieces. In fact, some viewers may find the bold horizontal strokes of paint on the foreground tree trunks, and the energetic daubs that define the snow and water, so appealing that only gradually do they become aware of a small procession of Native riders and horses in the background. “Those figures are meant to be a secondary read that gives some scale to the scene,” the artist notes. “One of the best comments I can ever get from someone who owns one of my paintings is that, every once in a while, they walk by it and see something new.”
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- Francis Livingston, Palace Avenue, oil, 14 x 11.
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- Francis Livingston, Pathway, oil, 16 x 16.
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- Francis Livingston, Day Moon, oil, 14 x 11.
This sense of fresh discovery may be experienced even in familiar subjects. PALACE AVENUE, for example, portrays the well-known, churchlike edifice of the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown Santa Fe. Here, Livingston’s painterly technique achieves a timeless air of serenity. It offers a quiet escape from the hectic bustle of Indian Market going on just steps away. —Norman Kolpas
contact information
505.983.1434
www.meyergalleries.com
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- Francis Livingston, Winter Tracking, oil, 48 x 48.
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- Francis Livingston, Snow Journey, oil, 20 x 20.
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- Francis Livingston, Open Field, oil, 20 x 20.
This story appeared in the August/September 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.