Show Preview | Brad Price

This story was featured in the November 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Every year, Brad Price makes four or five journeys to northern New Mexico from his home in Norman, OK. His mission? To soak up the beauty, store it in his memory, and—while he’s at it—snap photographs of the sites he visits along the way. By the time one of his pilgrimages comes to an end, the artist is typically armed with a thousand new images that serve as references back in his Oklahoma studio. “I need a bumper sticker that says ‘I brake for beauty,’” jokes Price. “When I go out there, I will stop every mile and take pictures, drive and stop, drive and stop.” The effort pays off: Some 30 new paintings by the artist, all featuring his favorite northern New Mexico landscapes, are unveiled at Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, on Friday, November 2. The show, which opens with an artist’s reception at 5 p.m., includes works as large as 50 by 40 inches and as small as 8 by 10 inches.

Visitors to the exhibition, titled Enchanted Expressions, can find portrayals of New Mexico’s iconic canyons, golden chamisa, cottonwoods, and adobe churches, but it’s also peppered with paintings of irises, hollyhocks, and other blooms that grow throughout the region. “Because,” says Price, “that’s just my muse—that’s all I paint. I’m an expressionist, and I’m painting an enchanted landscape.”

Influenced by artists ranging from the early Taos painters to van Gogh to Robert Daughters (1929-2013), Price employs a technique called simultaneous color contrast. “What I’m trying to do is bring nature to life in my work,” he explains. “When you put two complementary colors with the same value next to each other, they vibrate. So, when you put red next to green, they become more alive. Your retina tires of seeing one of them against the other, which causes the edges between the colors to vibrate, so it just brings the colors to life.”

Price, who is also an award-winning illustrator and graphic designer, paints alla prima, building up impasto on his surfaces in directional brush strokes. “There’s this religious element to what I do,” he says. “Part of me is saying to viewers: Look what the creator did. I think some people don’t think of the creator when they see nature, but I do, and I like to remind them that someone made it.” —Kim Agricola

contact information800.779.7387www.meyergalleries.com

This story was featured in the November 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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