(Published July 2020) Dad called me the “Why girl”. At the age of two I continually asked him why? Why this? Why that? It seemed like everything I saw or felt was fair game. Dad was very patient!
As is the case with most children, I was so excited about the world, I wanted to know everything. I wanted to explore everything. I was also intrigued with what I perceived to be “the beyond”. We lived above a store in Battle Creek, Michigan when I was 3 to 4 years old. My bed was in the corner and when I sat on the bed in that corner, I could hear muted sounds, like voices, so that was my favorite place to sit and listen. As a child, I found this so intriguing – positive I was hearing other-worldly sounds. You guessed it, my bed was probably over a ventilation shaft and the voices were those from the store below. However, I prefer my child’s fantasy; it’s much more interesting.
I’ve always been one to push the envelope. In high school, I could hardly wait to get out and begin living my life. I took classes during summer school every year and toward the end of the first semester of my senior year, I went to the office and asked how many credits I had and how many were necessary to graduate. I had enough credits and told the counselor that I wouldn’t be returning for the last semester. Then I went home and told my parents I was finished. Dad said, “get a job.” I realize my parents’ approach isn’t acceptable today, but in the 60’s things were different or my parents were…not sure which. I just knew that I wanted change.
Since the death of my husband in 2017, I’ve been in another phase of self-exploration and expansion. I have been blessed with a full and exciting life and could continue happily in Santa Fe. However, Austin (2020) is called and I realized it was time for me to push the envelope again. To that end, I rented an apartment and once there believed I would locate studio space and continue producing passionately energetic, colorful abstract paintings. Well…that plan changed drastically to marriage and refocusing. We did keep the home in beautiful Santa Fe and divide our time between there and Austin.
I’m so excited about this new adventure and will keep you posted.
New Work from Aleta’s Personal Collection
The Path Beyond (shown as a horizontal) by Aleta Pippin, mixed media, plaster, acrylic on panel, 24″ x 48″, Collection of the Artist
Momentum by Aleta Pippin, acrylic on panel, 44″ x 44″ x 2″
(Published June 2019) Aleta Pippin’s solo exhibition, “Landscapes of the Mind” opens on Friday, July 5, 2019 with a new body of work that represents subconscious emotion in response to nature and physical environments. For Pippin, it’s the clear light, deep blue skies, long views and majestic mountains of the desert – from her childhood memories in Southern California to her adult life in Santa Fe – that stir her passion, influence her emotions and fuel her paintings.
In her latest work, Aleta describes the landscapes of her life with warm color, rugged texture and abstract mark making – an artist’s emotional impression of breath-taking sunsets, impressive mountains and desert flora. In addition to outward environments, Pippin’s exhibition paintings also symbolize internal landscapes as bursts of movement and variations of color relate to personal growth, influential relationships or followed dreams. In this way, Aleta aims to connect with the viewer on an emotional level while reflecting on her own journey.
“The title of my exhibition is a metaphor for each of our life journeys, decisions made, dreams won and lost, love, health, joy – life. As such, the paintings will no doubt be interpreted by each viewer’s perception, choices, decisions, and overview of their own life.”
Below, Aleta Pippin provides insights behind her new paintings for “Landscapes of the Mind” in how they relate to the energy, color and emotional impact of nature.
Through The Portal, oil on panel, 60″ x 24″
“The colors in this painting can be found in the rich blue of desert skies, rose and pinks of sunsets and blooming cacti, and yellow representing the vibrant warm sun that heats the environment. One can imagine diving through the portal (light pink moving into the yellow almost in the middle of the painting) and swimming around in the rich color, enjoying the texture, searching behind the forms, so much to observe in this painting.”
Intertwined, oil on panel, 48″ x 48″
“This painting moves away from my very abstracted work by giving you well-defined forms resembling flowers. I kept the major portion of the pallet in purples and grays purposely to draw your attention to the light magenta emanating from behind the flowers, with an alizarin yellow, and teal and red pops of color.”
Movement in Color, oil on canvas, 36″ x 60″
“To me, this painting is purely abstract – it’s all about color and energy. I blossom in a more arid climate and this painting represents that energy. The colors are the rich hues of the desert and the movement of strong wind whipping bushes and palm fronds about.”
© Aleta Pippin(Published July 2018) Aleta Pippin is constantly evolving her creative practice. Over the course of her career, the Santa Fe artist has poured, brushed and scraped; she’s worked with oil, acrylic and mixed media as well as canvas, aluminum and panel surfaces. Pippin is even known to incorporate digital and new media components into her paintings. “I continue to experiment which is key for my creative muse,” she says. “New ideas are continually born, some finding their way into new work.” Unchanging in Pippin’s process, however, is her commitment to color and the emotional effect it can have on the human psyche. “Color is my driving force,” she states.
Aglow IV by Aleta Pippin
While impressions from Pippin’s early life would become a key inspiration for her artistic career, she didn’t begin painting until 1992 upon moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Influenced by Santa Fe’s creative culture, she began taking classes and experimenting with various media and painting styles until honing in on acrylic and oils. In 2003, Pippin fully committed herself to her art, which she considered to be her third career after building a business and raising a family. “My passion for painting became realized when it bloomed into a full-time career,” Pippin explains. “I improved my technique and found my voice – becoming a contemporary abstract expressionist painter.”
Trip Through the Cosmos by Aleta Pippin
Pippin’s July exhibition, “Here We Go Round in Circles,” is indicative of her commitment to creative exploration as well as her early and ongoing passion for painting in oils – the medium she always returns to even when continuously exploring other avenues. Her love of color, as always, is consistent throughout the exhibition. Her spontaneous nature and personal life impressions also remain constant across this body of work. “I do not plan the images,” she explains. “They are intuitive expressions created by life experience, accessing my broader knowledge. The impressions of my childhood environment express themselves in my paintings. They show up as color, freedom, and energetic movement.”
Pippin’s return to oil – her original inspiration for pursuing a career as an artist – is represented in pieces like “Joy Spreads,” “Carried by the Wind”, “Summertime, and Sunrise…Sunset.” Circular paintings such as “Trip Through the Cosmos” illustrate Pippin’s current explorations painting in the round. For these pieces, Pippin uses a variety of tools including her hands or a spinner to move paint across the panel. The panels are painted with colored resin, which incorporates acrylic or oil paint, and are often embellished with copper leaf or gold leaf details. “Resin is an interesting medium,” says the artist and gallery owner. “It accentuates the surface yet is a visual block to the viewer. In a way it says come closer, but not too close.”
Here We Go Round in Circles I by Aleta Pippin
Other mixed media pieces in the show are created using this process including “Fracture II” and “Through the Portal.”
© Aleta Pippin(Published September 2017) Aleta Pippin presents contemporary visions of the landscape in her upcoming exhibition, Inspired Views, opening Friday, September 8th, 5-7pm. Pippin offers modern interpretations of typically traditional subject matter through her own distinct style, which is guided by an emotional, visceral response to nature.
Aleta Pippin fully abandons the classical techniques of landscape painting in favor of abstraction. Her current environment in Santa Fe as well as memories of her childhood in the Coachella Valley instilled in her an awe-inspiring view of the desert. Pippin recalls the desert’s ever-changing light as a young girl exploring the San Jacinto foothills and fascinated by the rose-colored skies descending over craggy mountain ranges at sunset. Light and color are Pippin’s driving sources of inspiration; these elements along with a fluid and intuitive painting process allow Pippin to reveal her personal relationship with the landscape, which is one of freedom and adventure.
The Journey, oil on panel, 54″ x 18″
The Journey is a 54×18” atmospheric oil painting that Pippin created for Inspired Views. Pippin says of this painting: “I like the color and light in this piece. When I was a child the idea of climbing the first hill to see what was there and wonder what was beyond inspired me to spend hours hiking. This painting illustrates the many hills you can choose to climb and if you continue on you’ll eventually reach the furthest pinnacle. To me, it’s a metaphor for life’s adventures and challenges, as we explore the many opportunities.”
© Aleta Pippin
(Published September 2016) This October, an explosion of color will enliven the gallery with Aleta Pippin’s exhibition For the Love of Color. The show will run from October 12th through October 26th, with an opening reception on Friday, October 14th, kicking off the weekend of the Canyon Road Paint & Sculpt Out.
For this exhibition, Pippin is exploring new imagery within abstraction using both acrylics and oils. Vivid color continues to be central to her artistic expression with painting palettes that vary from soft mingling hues to strong contrasting colors. Swirling movement and flames of soft color rise up the canvas in Radiance, a 60×36” oil painting, while energizing motion and layers of striking hues vibrate against each other in Color Burst, a 36×36” oil on canvas.
Pippin’s intuitive painting style allows her to freely express her personal visions through abstract art. “My goal with every painting is to impart an internal expression that flows freely through me,” says Pippin. “It’s basically a narrative inspired by the paint.”
Color Burst by Aleta Pippin
Pippin is also revisiting pouring the paint, a technique she explored many years ago in her career. Feeling drawn to the free flowing movement of the paint and the ambiguity of the outcome, Pippin is now approaching the process with a broader skill set and renewed vision. New poured pieces will be on display for the exhibition including Magenta Pour, 48 x 48”, oil.
Pippin says of this piece:
“In 2003 through 2005 I used the process of pouring the color. I liked the large splashes and serendipitous events occurring through the use of this process. All of those paintings were done using acrylics; I’d never tried it with oils. So in revisiting the technique, I decided to do some of the paintings using oils. I loved what happened. The color melded together differently than acrylics. I plan on continuing to fine-tune this process.”
Magenta Pour flowed oil on canvas, 48″ x 48″
(Published May 2016) Last weekend, more than sixty artists took to the streets for the Canyon Road Spring Arts Festival. Painters, sculptors, glass makers and more created original works of art outside the galleries on Saturday; their pieces were sold either by silent auction during the day or at the live auction event that evening.
We celebrated the start of the season with a Local Artist’s Reception on Friday and enjoyed a fun evening with artists, collectors, and friends. On Saturday, Gina Rossi, Rebecca Haines, and Cody Hooper painted in front of the gallery and discussed their work with visitors. All three artists sold the piece they were working on. Enjoy our photos from the event and mark your calendars for next year’s festival, May 11th and 12th, 2017.
Artists and friends enjoying our Friday evening reception:
Saturday Slow Draw with Gina Rossi, Cody Hooper, and Rebecca Haines:
A lucky collector!
© Aleta Pippin(Published April 2016) Meeting in the Middle – the title of Aleta Pippin and Greg Reiche’s first collaborative piece, which now hangs in a corporate office building in Houston, Texas. Spanning over 12 feet long and reaching over 3 feet high, this monumental work merges Aleta’s acrylic and resin abstract panels with Greg’s kinetic glass and steel grids. Aleta and Greg have been showing their work alongside each other at Aleta’s gallery – Pippin Contemporary (closed 12/31/2019) for three years, but the idea to create a piece together didn’t transpire until about six months ago.
A group of attorney’s in Houston, who have collected 26 of Aleta’s paintings so far, contacted Aleta last November 2015 to request a very large piece for their conference room.
“I wanted to give them something extraordinary,” said Aleta. “I felt that individual panels was the way to go, but it seemed that making three or five individually painted panels simply wasn’t as dramatic as it could be.”
Then something clicked, and that’s where Greg came in.
“I have to admit, I was surprised when Aleta asked if I would like to collaborate on this piece,” explains Greg. “I have great admiration for her work and was quite flattered by the request, but was also a bit skeptical at first as to whether it would work well.”
They decided early on that Aleta would create the painting first, and Greg would respond. Aleta painted five panels with acrylic paint and a resin surface. The piece then went to Greg’s studio, where he worked from her color palette. The piece was completed within two months…and the results were nothing short of spectacular.
Golds, blues, purples and subtle reds in Aleta’s panels blend together among interesting textures, and the resin finish adds a luminosity to the piece that lends itself well to the effects of Greg’s iridized glass tiles. The tiles perfectly pick up the gold and purple hues, and the three dimensionality of the steel grid adds a dynamic contrast to the surface of the piece. Just as in his own sculptures, Greg uses brass wire to attach each glass tile to the steel, adding another texture and glint of gold to the overall composition.
Meeting in the Middle, Pippin-Reiche Collaboration, 40″ tall x 12.5 feet x 3″ deep
Although unsure at first, Greg was amazed at the outcome.
“In the end, I think it worked beautifully,” says Greg. “The combination of her luminous, organic paintings with the linear grid structure and iridized surfaces of my glass work, worked surprisingly well. I love the way the diverse mediums play so well off each other and the incredible depth of color and luminosity of the entire piece.”
Aleta concedes. “I’m thrilled that Greg agreed to do this. Personally, I’m so excited about how beautifully it turned out and it is such a unique piece that I can see it becoming an important part of Greg’s and my work. It gives each of us the opportunity to reach a market that we weren’t as able to access on our own.”
Soliloquy, Pippin-Reiche Collaboration, 54 x 47 x 3″
The artists were so enthusiastic that they immediately started a second collaborative piece, Soliloquy, to hang in the gallery. This work is a bit smaller in size, 54 x 47”, but creates a similar impact with glass and steel grids moving along both sides of a vertical acrylic/resin panel, which glows with purple hues and tangible texture.
“All in all, I would say it was a fantastic match,” commented Greg. “I can see the potential for some amazing collaborations in the future, as we work together to push the boundaries even further.”
© Aleta Pippin(Published March 2016) Our staff has been hard at work over the past week getting settled into our new gallery home at 409 Canyon Road. Bare walls now support vibrant paintings. Sculpture accentuates various room and creates delight in the sculpture garden. Visitors excitedly pour through to see the gallery and new work. We’re still adding finishing touches, and we along with our artists are getting excited for the upcoming season on Canyon Road. Plan to join us on Memorial Day weekend for our Grand Opening & Fifth Anniversary Celebration, and in the meantime, virtually explore the gallery through these photos:
Paintings by Aleta Pippin, glass sculpture by Suzanne Wallace Mears and sculpture by Greg Reiche
Paintings by Gina Rossi, glass sculpture by Suzanne Wallace Mears
Paintings by Elizabeth Hahn
Paintings – Elizabeth Hahn, Cody Hooper, Aleta Pippin. Sculpture – Guilloume and Greg Reiche
Paintings by Rebecca Haines and Margaret Nes
Pieces by John Charbonneau
Paintings by Cody Hooper, sculpture by Greg Reiche
Framed pieces – John Charbonneau, paintings by Cody Hooper
Paintings – Stephanie Paige, glass sculpture – Suzanne Wallace Mears
Painting by Stephanie Paige, glass sculpture by Suzanne Wallace Mears
© Aleta Pippin
(Published December 2015 – Aleta retired December 2019 and closed the gallery.) Exciting news – Pippin Contemporary is not only relocating, but expanding in 2016! This February, we move to our new permanent home at 409 Canyon Road, the previous location of the Tom Ross Gallery. This means more wall space, more artists, and more contemporary art for us to share with you. We’re invigorated by the growth of our business and are looking forward to new events and ideas for the coming year, starting off with a five-year anniversary celebration and grand opening in May 2016!
Tom Ross has shared his art in this space with Santa Fe locals and visitors for the past 23 years. We plan to continue the thriving atmosphere the gallery has sustained while bringing a new and vibrant energy to this active Canyon Road location. We’ll continue to show Tom’s work along with several other artists – John Charbonneau, Rebecca Haines, Margaret Nes, Gina Rossi, Greg Skol, Elizabeth Hahn and Paul White. We’ve also been privileged to add two outstanding artists to the gallery this past fall, Adam Shaw and David Baca, and will continue to show the core group of painters and sculptors who’s work you’ve come to love over the past several years at Pippin Contemporary. Our full roster of talent will be as follows:
Painters:
Aleta Pippin
Adam Shaw
Cody Hooper
David Baca
Elizabeth Hahn
Gina Rossi
Greg Skol
John Charbonneau
Margaret Nes
Rebecca Haines
Stephanie Paige
Rosenberg (Tom Ross)
Sculptors:
Greg Reiche
Guilloume
Kevin Robb
Paul White
Suzanne Wallace Mears
Troy Pillow
We’ll be introducing our new artists on the blog over the next few months. Subscribe to our e-newsletters to stay updated on the move as well as exciting upcoming events at our new gallery space, and mark your calendars for the grand opening on Memorial Day Weekend, May 27th, 5-7pm. This will be a lively event of meeting new artists and reconnecting with current ones, as well as enjoying music and relishing hors d’oeuvres and wine. Not to mention helping to usher in the next five years!
Our goal for the 2016 season is to create a welcoming place to spend an evening immersed in Santa Fe’s art and culture, as well as the local contemporary art scene. We’re excited to share our journey with you as our business grows, and most importantly as the careers of our artists reach new heights.