The Remuda 2015

Mark Maggiori made this painting, The Remuda, without a date, but in it, you can see how the artist uses a detailed brushwork and rich colour, capturing the movement and the dust in a Western landscape. Looking at this painting, I’m thinking about the challenges Maggiori might have faced. All those horses! How do you make them distinct and full of energy? He’s really nailed the way light catches on their flanks. It's a proper traditional rendering. I wonder what it must be like to render so much detail. The brushwork is so smooth, it almost disappears. I'm more of a rough painter, but this is mesmerizing! It's about history, about the stories we tell ourselves. Artists today, we're all pulling from the same well, remixing old tunes into something that feels fresh. We’re constantly in dialogue. And it’s in that sharing, that back-and-forth, that art really comes alive.