On The Kaibab Trail 2015

Mark Maggiori painted this scene of the Kaibab Trail with what looks like a pretty traditional oil painting setup. You can almost smell the linseed! I can imagine him working en plein air, trying to capture that desert light as it bounces off the canyon walls. And, wow, look at the way he's rendered the cowboy's face, so weathered and stoic. You can see the influence of classic Western painters like Frederic Remington, but Maggiori brings a contemporary eye to the genre. He’s not just painting a landscape; he's capturing a whole mood, that feeling of solitude and adventure that's so ingrained in the American West. The paint handling is beautiful, thick in some places, thin and transparent in others. Look at how the texture of the canvas shows through in the sky, giving it this luminous quality. It's like he's inviting us to step right into the scene, to feel the heat on our skin and the dust beneath our boots. It reminds you that artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing on the past while forging their own path.