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By Meredith Hughes
Two pandemically affected Corrales artists in the painting/drawing division of the online 32nd annual Old Church Art Show, October 1-31, recently have completed works inspired by COVID-19, more or less. Mary Sue Walsh’s piece “View from My Kitchen with August Bouquet†sums it up for many: indoors, yet peeking out at a garden, no guests at the table. Victoria Mauldin’s heron, a peaceful but alert “Bosque Dweller,†hot off the easel, seems to be carrying on carrying on.
As one must. Or as the more than 50 artists must, as well as the tireless volunteers of the Corrales Historical Society and the Corrales Society of Artists who make possible the Fine Arts Show each year. This year’s show while online, is not as yet interactive as in a Zoom event, though it’s possible elements of such could be added.
Organizer Carol Rigmark explained that contact information for the artists as part of their bios or artists’ statements is posted on a new website made possible by the labors of artist and gallery owner Barb Clark. The platform used is likely familiar to artists who use FineArtStudioOnline, aka FASO, a Texas-based marketing web tool established in 2001.
Once you’ve clicked on the url, visit the tab labeled 32nd Annual Fine Arts Show and scroll through the artwork. Click on a piece, and then enjoy two elements —“zoom,†in the old fashioned sense of getting closer, but also “room,†wherein the art is pictured on a wall, and you, the viewer even can choose from a limited range of subtle wall colors. And in addition of course there are prices, links to the artist, websites pertaining to them and so on.
Rigmark explained that the online show was considered “a gift we should provide for the artists, especially during this very difficult year. Our two primary goals were to highlight New Mexico’s fine artists and to raise some badly needed funds for the Old Church.â€Â She salutes Diane Cutter, Cheryl Cathcart and Rachel Dushoff, all Corrales artists, as well as Clark, for their contributions to the event.
As noted by Debbie Clemente, publicity volunteer for CHS, “Artists need venues, online or otherwise, to showcase their work. When they sell a piece at this show, 25 percent of their sales are donated toward preservation and maintenance of the Old Church so that this 150-year-old historic structure will be around for centuries to come.â€
And, she adds, “to reward the winning artists in each category, we will create a special show of their works,†to be on display in historic Old San Ysidro Church “once we can all meet again.†Mary Sue Walsh, a competitor in dressage, a horse, dog, and chicken owner, and a Corraleña since 1990, has three pieces in this year’s show, one of a horse titled “Beau Regards.â€
Beau was a race horse from Missouri, “with a sad story.†He had been raced too soon, then inexplicably was “locked up in a 10×10 stall for two entire years.†He came into Walsh’s hands as a rescue, and lived out his days happily, one assumes, in her Corrales pasture.
Walsh, born in Minneapolis, earned her bachelor of fine arts degree in drawing and painting from the University of New Mexico. And has always worked as an artist, supplemented with gallery work, both in Los Angeles and Santa Fe. For years she has used a camera, often an old Canon, as a sketch book. “I take photos every day, of this cloud or that plant,†but she also does sketches in pastel, “to capture the emotional color of a scene.†She switched from working in oil to acrylic once she discovered that some element of oil painting, whether the turpentine, the linseed oil or another ingredient, was making her ill.
“And I might give watercolor a whirl, though it’s daunting, almost intimidating,†she said. As for subject matter, “people are the hardest, then animals!†She does both, especially commissioned work, often done in pastels as “they enable me best to recreate the soft skin of both humans and animals.â€