Here and Abroad

On Saturday, December 18th, Gallery MAR presents their winter exhibition titled "Here and Abroad." The exhibition features new works by Geore Bodine and Kirk Tatom.  The evening begins at 6pm and include delicious eats and illuminating chats with our artists. Exhibitions run for three weeks following the opening reception.

George Bodine has never had an art lesson, nor attended an art workshop. But if an old Master from the 1800s stepped into Bodine’s studio, he would feel at home amidst the smells and techniques. This self-taught artist has studied pigments, how to make them, their archival qualities, and their history. Bodine’s life has taken him from career to career: an oil field worker, a police officer, an underground miner, a cab driver in Denver, a Navy fighter pilot and TOPGUN instructor, and he currently flies internationally as an airline pilot. It is through this current occupation that Bodine travels to Italy, his main inspiration and painting subject, visiting favored cultural sites and museums. And so it is Sorolla, Zorn, Van Gogh, and Sargent who have become his teachers.

Kirk Tatom began his formal art training at the University of Utah, from which he obtained a B.F.A. in 1972 on a full merit scholarship. From there, he studied at the Kansas City Art Institute. Kirk Tatom was one of the foremost carvers of stone in Santa Fe for nearly 20 years, but in 1997 he put down the chisel and picked up the paint brush. And he’s again become successful. Tatom is known for painting the lush green fields and farms of both this country and England, gravitating towards the rural. Preparation of the panel requires just the right placing of texture exactly where it belongs. The surface may be sanded, scraped, polished, scored then washed, stained, and glazed. Then comes the march of the elements of landscape: a boat, a vineyard, trees, farm animals. Tatom often has as many as ten paintings in the works at one time, finishing them all at the same time with a luminous, handmade gold frame.