The Family Tradition 2016

Mark Maggiori's painting, The Family Tradition, captures a Western scene with a vibrant, almost dreamlike palette. Think oranges, blues, browns all layered together. I can almost feel him working in the studio, building up those big clouds with a brush full of thick paint! It's intriguing to consider Maggiori's process. Was he thinking about the history of Western art when he made this? Or maybe he was just responding to the intense colors of the landscape. That dominant cowboy in the front is really something. It's like he's inviting us to step into the painting and join him on his watch. It's almost as if he's stepped out of a Frederic Remington painting, then gone through some twenty-first century art filter in a painting app. Ultimately, painting is always an exchange across time. Each artist absorbs what came before, adds their own perspective, and then puts it out there for the rest of us. And like with any painting, there is no right way to experience it. You just have to let it wash over you.