Ann Korologos Gallery presents Notes on Light: Rick Stevens & Peter Campbell featuring two Santa Fe-based artists who explore western landscapes – Aspen groves, brilliant open skies, ponderosas in winter – with a mystical, dreamlike abstraction, dynamic texture, and eye for light. Meet the artists at the opening reception on Friday, August 2 from 5 to 7PM at Ann Korologos Gallery.
“The rhythms of the natural world transcend tradition in the lyrical style of capturing light and poetry of the landscape of Rick Stevens’ abstract paintings, and the muse of the mind’s eye of Peter Campbell leads him to dreamlike discoveries,” shares Sue Edmonds, gallery director. “Both artists were raised in the east – Michigan and Georgia – and have been called west to paint the landscapes that captivate their artistic spirit, which is continuously evolving and elevating.”
Peter Campbell moved from Georgia decade ago, inspired by the big skies and dramatic landscapes of the west, establishing a studio in Durango, CO and most recently, Santa Fe, NM. Campbell studies the world from his self-designed easel, exploring fleeting moments that catch the eye and elicit an intimate and personal reaction. Campbell's landscapes are abstracted views of nature, a perspective informed by his photographic background. “I work mainly on location to get a direct connection with the landscape,” shares Campbell. “I believe this gets the ‘outside' into a painting, giving it elements that make it alive.” Fleeting glimpses or even visions in the mind’s eye are the spark behind many of Peter Campbell's landscape paintings, and he sets out to find them. The challenge comes, he says, in trying to transfer that instant response to canvas. By limiting his palette and omitting details, Campbell effectively creates an atmosphere, a mood, sometimes even a dream-like world which is open to each viewer's interpretation. Campbell finds inspiration in the mountains, desert and ever-changing light.
Rick Stevens is a Michigan landscape artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico whose work evokes both immediacy and contemplation. A strong foundation painting en plein air and a close affinity for the woods has established Stevens as a landscape painter, and yet, his eye and technique are a world of their own, his style ranging from “quite representational to quite abstract.” The two styles complement each other, he shares. “Having an abstract painters eye when I’m painting landscapes helps in maintaining a freedom from stifling rules—those that you learn in order to break,” shares Stevens. “Keeping a landscape painters eye when painting abstract imagery informs me how to manipulate space and evoke nature’s moods.” Stevens takes his inspiration from the natural world, approaching his paintings with spontaneity and transmitting the feelings evoked by the landscape with immediacy and improvisation, an approach he compares to the jazz music often playing in his studio. While he doesn’t claim true synesthesia, he feels the likeness of music and painting, seeing visual patterns of colors with closed eyes while listening to music and interpreting it through his brush and oil sticks. Stevens paints views found deep in the woods, where he explores on foot.
Notes on Light: Rick Stevens & Peter Campbell is on view August 2 through August 18, 2024 at Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, Colorado and virtually at korologosgallery.com. For questions and inquiries email art@korologosgallery.com, call (970)927-9668, or visit 211 Midland Ave., Basalt, CO.
