Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Pasadena, CA October 18-November 1
Nestled in the southeastern Utah canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau is the town of Bluff. Population 250. It’s a hidden gem that features miles of rocky vistas and desert rivers. Not too far down the road are iconic natural formations like Mexican Hat and the Valley of the Gods. For a painter of the American Southwest, it can be a playground of beauty and inspiration.
In October 2021, California-based Maxwell Alexander Gallery hosted a four-day retreat in the remote area with 13 artists—among them Logan Maxwell Hagege, Brett Allen Johnson, Eric Bowman, Jeremy Mann, Grant Redden, Len Chmiel, Joseph Todorovitch and Kim Wiggins—building community and sharing their painting experiences. Paintings created on location and inspired by the trip were exhibited at the gallery in March of the following year.
Flash-forward to fall 2024. Seventeen gallery artists returned to Bluff for a second retreat. In smaller groups they explored different landmarks; at the end of the trip they came together for a final paint-out and private showcase of completed art. The culmination of the expedition comes with the exhibition Artist Retreat II on view October 18 to November 1 at Maxwell Alexander Gallery, with VIP collector events planned for October 17 and 18.
“VIP collectors are encouraged to reach out to us to be included in exclusive events,” says Maxwell Alexander Gallery owner Beau Alexander. “We will be hosting a dinner with collectors and artists inside our new Pasadena gallery [on October 17]. The next day will be filled with museum tours. We are excited to host the Autry Museum collector group, along with our VIP guests, for an Autry led discussion with the artists included in the exhibition.” The public reception and sale happens at the gallery the evening of October 18 with all artwork being sold by draw.
Wiggins returned to Bluff for the second outing and feels these trips foster friendships and an exchange of ideas. “It brings an artist back to their roots, challenging us, while allowing us to expand our vision in the midst of a captivating landscape,” he says. On the second day of the retreat, Wiggins and fellow artist Danny Galieote traveled to the nearby Monument Valley and set up at predawn. Wiggins’s major painting for the show, NAVAJO DAWN, is an allegorical sunrise inspired by that morning.
Bowman also enjoyed being with his fellow artists in Bluff again, saying their conversations were “both encouraging and enlightening.” He adds, “Being on location is a must; it’s the only way to gather true reference to create from back in the studio.” His painting ENJOYING THE VIEW “was inspired by a mesa outcropping I saw from the side of the road, heading back to the resort in Bluff after touring Monument Valley…the light was amazing! I painted a sketch of it and then later, when doing the larger canvas, I added the figure from another sketch I had done months before from a cowboy photoshoot I did in Arizona. I thought the figure’s leg up over the saddle was a perfect pose for someone ‘enjoying the view.’”
Eric Merrell participated in the retreat for the first time, and he appreciated the chance to explore a part of the country he doesn’t visit often. “The great spaces of the American West are very transcendent for me—something I can sit with and look at. You become aware of the age of these lands, the people who’ve been there before,” says Merrell. “I usually start with formal elements like design, shape and color to convey the individuality of a location—what can I build with what’s in front of me?”
For his painting MULEY POINT, Merrell explains, “The three main parts of this painting each seemed to relate to a different basic shape. The foreground is human-scale, aged and chipped with hollowed-out circular depressions in the rocks. Moving up, the view becomes more monolithic in the long rectangular shape of the first bluff, continuing the horizontals on to the distant bluffs, and finally resting at the distant triangle of Navajo Mountain beyond, which is starting to merge with the haze of the afternoon.” —Rochelle Belsito
contact information(212) 275-1060maxwellalexandergallery.com
This story appeared in the October/November 2025 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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