Marjorie Moeser

The landscape based paintings in this exhibit lean heavily on images that I see, along with feelings that I experience, in New Mexico. The terrain is part of the Chihuahuan desert’s vast open spaces against mountainous backdrops. My paintings, although personal, speak of the universal harmony between humans and nature. They are deliberate statements honouring the beauty that surrounds us.

My colours remain highly influenced by the light in New Mexico. Days in New Mexico are crystal clear. I can look out across miles of open fields toward the mountains. Vast open spaces are everywhere. Sunrise is often soft. Colours are often muted. Sunsets are warm and intense, filled with chiaroscuro (light-dark contrasts). To express this dramatic contrast, I often scratch or carve through built-up painted layers, conveying not only the rhythms of the land surface; but also the exaggerated sense of 3-d, as in a bas-relief.

As a colourist, I keep expanding my palette. Mine is often a full spectrum palette. Shadows shout out in deep purples, alizarin crimson, shimmering blues and subtle complementary mixes. It is easy for the viewer to become lost in this riot of colour. Or, one can find himself or herself in the peacefulness of a sanctuary, enjoying the patterns in a softer pastel-like palette. Skies remain expansive, often swirled through by clouds. Lenticular bands of clouds are quite common; and only in seeing them as they stretch and elongate themselves with subtle shadows at their bases can one truly know that they are not imaginary. Mango orange, a colour lush and juicy as the name suggests, finds its way into the mellowness of a late evening sky. Morning skies are like soft raspberry or peach sorbet.

My landscapes are not intended to be specific places. Elements in Nature are treated semi abstractly to suggest different locales, valleys, fields, expansive desert. An element of fantasy comes through sometimes in a seemingly imaginary colour scheme and in the sense of pattern that I often see in Nature. All these elements are intentional and meant to transport the viewer to a place of imagining that only he or she knows.