Show Preview | Sumner & Dene Gallery: Angus Macpherson

Albuquerque, NM, August 3-September 2

Angus Macpherson, Saints, acrylic, 24 x 40.

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

This month Sumner & Dene Gallery presents Touch the Sky, a one-person show for Angus Macpherson. It’s a fitting title for a show of paintings by this artist, who is known for his surrealistic landscapes and skyscapes full of swelling clouds and bursting with color and luminosity. “Macpherson paints that powerful yet dreamy scenery that we all identify as the ultimate New Mexico skyscape,” says gallery owner and director Roy Sumner Johnson.
The show will fill the entire second floor of the gallery and feature approximately 40 new works, ranging in size from 12 by 12 to 74 by 87 inches. An opening reception is Friday, August 3, from 5 to 9 p.m., during which the artist is present to sign his new book, Please Pass the Paintings & Pasta & Pie, Art & Artichoke & Landscape Sky, a cookbook filled with recipes and stories from his collectors over the past 35 years, as well as images of Macpherson’s paintings.

The pieces in the show reflect the artist’s latest work toward his ultimate goal, which he says is “to be poetic about nature and this very interesting place where we float around the sun.” Of his recent work, Macpherson says he has “upped the ante” by using a larger spectrum of color and adding more warmth to his paintings. “I’m very interested in yellows these days,” he says.

While Macpherson is a native New Mexican who is deeply inspired by the scenery around him, his landscapes are not necessarily site-specific. The artist is greatly influenced by both representational and abstract art, and his work is a combination of who he is and what he sees. “I’m trying to communicate a feeling more than a place,” he says. “It’s really a distillation of being awake … or asleep.”

In the end, Macpherson hopes the paintings in this show will leave viewers feeling excited, entertained, and even challenged. “My goal is to really knock people’s socks off,” he says. “I’m trying to use the 400-year-old concept of landscape art to create something unique.”—Lindsay Mitchell

contact information
505.842.1400
 www.sumnerdene.com

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