Canyon Del Muerto 2014

Mark Maggiori painted “Canyon Del Muerto” in oil, and what strikes me is how he's captured the spirit of the West with such skill. I can imagine him standing before the canvas, wrestling with the vastness of the canyon, the bright colors of the rocks, and the intense sun beating down. The horse and rider, poised at the edge, cast a long shadow that seems to stretch into the depths of the canyon itself. The paint looks thin, almost translucent in places, allowing the light to bounce off the surface and giving the scene a hazy, dreamlike quality. I wonder if Maggiori was thinking about Frederic Remington or Charles Marion Russell when he made this. All painters borrow, steal, and expand. It's this kind of dialogue across time that makes painting such a living, breathing thing, isn't it? It’s not just about the subject, but how it embodies the history of seeing, feeling, and making.