Canyon Del Muerto 2014

Mark Maggiori’s "Canyon Del Muerto" is a painting of the American West rendered with a real love for its dusty, sun-baked hues. You can tell right away that painting is a process for him. Look at the way the horse’s shadow stretches, a dark inky pool on the orange rock. It’s a simple shape, but it speaks volumes. The paint is applied in layers, creating a depth that feels almost tactile. The colors aren’t blended perfectly, which gives the whole scene a raw, unfiltered quality, like a memory half-forgotten. It’s like Maggiori is saying something about how we remember landscapes, not as picture-perfect postcards, but as collections of textures and light. Maggiori shares a vision with Maynard Dixon, another painter who saw the West not as a spectacle, but as a place of quiet, enduring beauty. And that’s what makes this painting so compelling - its embrace of ambiguity.