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.

Beware of the Dog

I was in Taos for a friend's wedding and my husband, Len, and I were driving around and we came upon a small adobe church in the outskirts of town.  How funny was this little scene with this cat sitting next to the "beware of the dog" sign.  We never did see the dog.

Emil Bisttram, a wonderful painter

A few weeks ago my husband, Len and I were in Taos for a friend's wedding.  One morning we walked around town and went into the La Fonda Hotel right on the main plaza.  There has been a hotel at this location since 1820.  In the lobby, I fell in love with the painting below by the Hungarian born artist, Emil Bisttram. 

Bisttram was born in 1895 and his family immigrated to New York City when he was 11.   He studied at the National Academy of Art & Design,  Parsons and the Art Student's League.  

His first visit to Taos lead with frustrations.  He wrote, "Whenever I tried to paint what was before me, I was frustrated by the grandeur of the scenery and the limitless space.  Above all a strange, almost mystic quality of light."  Being a photographer, I can totally identify with that statement.  When I am in San Miguel de Allende, I find the lighting mystical and enchanting, especially early morning and late afternoon.  

He returned to New York and that very next year, he won a Guggenheim fellowship to study mural painting.  He traveled to Mexico where he studied under the world famous muralist, Diego Rivera.  Diego Rivera was part of the Mexican Muralist Movement that started in the 1920's along with Jose Orozco and David Siqueiros.  You can find a striking mural by Siqueiros at the Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende.

The colors and composition of the Top of The Hill (circa 1940-50) are spectacular.
After his studies came to an end with Rivera, Bisttram returned to Taos and founded the Taos School of Art. 

He became heavily influenced by painter Wassily Kandinsky which is evident in The Chief above with its bright colors and abstract forms.   Bisttram became one of the southwest's leading painters and teachers.  He  had done so much for the artistic growth of New Mexico, in 1975 April 7th was declared "Emil Bisttram Day."