A Letter from Home 2017

Mark Maggiori paints "A Letter from Home" with oils, building up layers of color, much like setting a stage for a narrative to unfold. Look at how the light catches the white horse; it’s rendered with such delicate, almost transparent strokes, which is a real contrast with the thicker, more deliberate marks used to define the landscape. Maggiori seems to be relishing in the physicality of his medium, celebrating the texture and the way the paint sits on the canvas. It reminds me of how we build up memories – layer by layer, detail by detail – until they form a complete picture, or maybe a complete fiction. The way the mountain range sits in the background also has similarities with the work of Albert Bierstadt, who was known for his romantic landscape paintings. Both artists show a reverence for nature and the frontier. But where Bierstadt aimed for grandeur, Maggiori offers us something more intimate, the quiet pause of two cowboys, a shared letter, and the vastness of the American West. It's a conversation across time, about home and the stories we carry with us.