Western Landscapes showcases the heights and depths of Western mountains, plains, rivers, valleys and canyons featuring Michael Kessler, Andy Taylor, Marie Figge Wise; introducing Linda Lillegraven and James Bohling with an Opening Reception on Wednesday, September 26th, from 5 to 7PM at Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt.

“We are honored to introduce James Bohling and Linda Lillegraven to the Roaring Fork Valley. Bohling reveals his passion for the outdoors through vibrant, dream-like landscapes, and Lillegraven’s luminous landscapes reveal the softer, more subtle aspects of the West,” shared Ann Korologos. “Of course, we also look forward to new works in Kessler’s nature-based abstract paintings, Taylor’s colorful, expressionist interpretation, and Figge Wise’s introspective, atmospheric paintings.”

Michael Kessler is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kessler’s work honors the inner dynamics of the natural world through his large-scale, multi-layered panels. Kessler evolved his landscape paintings towards abstraction, focusing on the cause-and-effect of nature, capturing not the tree, but the texture of the bark; not the river, but the shape of erosion. His process of layering many layers of marks and skins are built up to reveal the passage of time and its own creation.

Andy Taylor lives in Carbondale, Colorado, and has been depicting regional landscapes in his colorful, gestural style for more than 40 years. Taylor takes to the road to create pencil, pen and ink sketches with marginalia, which serve as visual reminders of the scene. In the studio, Taylor, armed with his sketches, imagination, a brush, canvas, and palette, creates his landscape paintings. His style allows unusual, even abstract, perspectives of familiar landmarks, especially as he employs a broad, atypical palette.

Marie Figge Wise grew up among the expansive views of farmlands outside Davenport, Iowa, and now shares her time between Houston and Aspen. Figge Wise is best known for the diffused, tonal style of her still lifes and Western landscapes. The huge vistas of farmlands near her hometown in the Midwest have inspired her work nearly as much the landscapes and rivers of Colorado, Montana, and Texas explored by this avid angler.

Linda Lillegraven lives in Laramie, Wyoming, and earned a BA in Art and BS in Zoology from San Diego State University. The great open landscapes of the West, with their changing light and seasons, offer Lillegraven a lifetime of inspiration. Her oil and pastel works capture the transitions of color and tone of the prairie, so subtle as to be almost invisible, yet masterfully achieved. Lillegraven includes a minimal amount of detail while simultaneously giving the viewer a sense of big skies, open fields, space and scale.

James Bohling was born in Nebraska and raised in Colorado. His landscape paintings have an abstract quality, with a palette that mimics the vibrant colors and rural subjects found in the Midwest and Colorado. Aging barns, towering mountains, and sprawling landscapes capped with big skies are common themes for Bohling, and an ode to his summer visits to Nebraska, camping trips in Colorado and the worn structures of the Rocky Mountains.

Western Landscapes will remain on view through October 27, 2018. To learn more, please visit Ann Korologos Gallery at 211 Midland Ave. in Basalt, call (970) 927-9668 or email art@korologosgallery.com.

View the exhibition online >