Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
July 22-August 1
Jean Richardson, Family Gathering, acrylic, 45 x 65.
Two different interpretations of the animal world—both of them rich with meaning and spiritually charged—by two master artists draw visitors to Ventana Fine Art this summer. The gallery debuts new works by painter Jean Richardson and sculptor Rebecca Tobey on Thursday, July 22, and the show is on view through August 1.
Richardson, who lives in Oklahoma, has been making the best of the past year’s isolation, which was intensified this past winter by three major snowstorms and the “big freeze” that struck her state and Texas in February. During this time, she produced half of the eight or so large equine paintings she’ll be showing, along with a generous selection of smaller works. The veteran painter begins each canvas with an abstract expressionist approach, “breaking it up into shapes and colors before going back in to find or bring out horses,” she says. Her resulting paintings powerfully express “an emotional response to horses’ speed or dignity or awe. I use their images to present metaphors.”
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- Rebecca Tobey, Eros and Philia, bronze, h5.
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- Jean Richardson, Regale, acrylic, 45 x 42.
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- Rebecca Tobey, Against the Wind, ceramic.
Paintings she completed during those colder, bleaker days, she notes, feature black, white, and brown tones—“very strong paintings, but not much color,” she says. By contrast, Richardson points to her FAMILY GATHERING, a piece completed in March, whose “warm reds and springy colors reflect the fact that I can be with my family again once we’re all fully vaccinated. Life is looking up!”
Based in Santa Fe, Tobey has long enjoyed a strong demand for her elegantly contoured ceramic and bronze figures, which are inspired by and steeped in the symbolism of western animals and their interpretations by tribes of the region. This show enables her to share a selection of pieces she completed over the past year, many of which directly respond to the pandemic. “I spent a lot of time thinking about how we’ve all felt locked in, caged up, and trapped,” she says, while also acknowledging that the seclusion made it possible for her to experience “tremendous growth in my art, being able to concentrate on what I was doing in my studio.”
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- Jean Richardson, On the Bright Side, acrylic, 40 x 60.
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- Rebecca Tobey, Out of the Darkness, ceramic, h14.
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- Jean Richardson, Nomadic, acrylic, 40 x 60.
The results shine through in both her bronzes and her ceramics. Among the former, two miniature horses—one with a transparent red patina and the other with an unusual purple patina—are designed to be sold either separately or as a pair, their necks intertwining in an embrace. Of their sleek forms, Tobey notes, “The bronzes I did during the pandemic were much more toned down.”
Meanwhile, the designs on Tobey’s latest ceramics sum up the past year’s chaos with Native-inspired reliefs featuring patterns of jagged lines and jumbles of animals and people. Yet these scenes ultimately convey optimistic messages. Tobey points to OUT OF THE DARKNESS, a bobcat on which beasts of all kinds and humans of all colors together run from night toward daybreak, which is represented by a pair of welcoming bears on the animal’s chest. Their message, notes Tobey: “Come this way. You’re home. The dark days are over.” –Norman Kolpas
contact information
505.983.8815
www.ventanafineart.com
This story appeared in the June/July 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.