Heidi Mixson's "Still Life" Paintings Are Fabulous

When I was in Taos, Len and I went into the Heinley Fine Arts Gallery.  We both fell in love with the still life paintings by Heidi Mixson.

Blue and White Pitcher

18" x 20"

As a young girl, she studied painting with Olga Dorwande, a French/Hungarian painter who frequented Kansas City where Mixson was living.  She learned a valuable lesson from Dorwande, to avoid mannerisms and to paint what she saw without artifice.

Blue Pitcher

28" x 29" 

In the 1980's, Mixson worked as a designer for Hallmark cards and took time off from participating in gallery shows.

 Mexican Tin Frame Altar

After a serious illness changed Mixson's ability to work, she moved to Taos and began painting again.  Her most recent studies includes Saints, altars and religious themes.  I love the bold colors of the fabric behind the Mexican tin nicho with the Virgin of Guadalupe, the terra cotta clay church to it right and the stripes of the Mexican serape.  Of course I like it, it's Mexico and many of the objects in the painting I have in my house in Denver and in San Miguel de Allende.

It is a pretty little gallery in an old adobe, territorial house with the original weathered, wood plank floors.

Marie Claire's Mother's Dress with Pears

The composition of the bold squares with "dress" tablecloth and pears is just wonderful.

Blue Teapot

The Heinley Gallery has a great collection of Heidi Mixson's paintings.  Stop in and check them out.  I bet you will be drawn to them just like we were.