Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

Karen Wray and Gallery Curator, Gabrielle   In February of 2024 I dropped in on the Karen Wray Fine Art Gallery in Los Alamos, New Mexico while we were picking up favorite bagels at the local bakery shop. The gallery is across Central Avenue from the Bradbury Science Museum, another favorite local establishment. The museum is home to exhibits of the history of the atom bomb, developed by the Oppenheimer group to "prevent all future wars" (and to end the Second World War). Other exhibits demonstrate research in Fusion as a means to harness electricity in the future.  The owner, Karen, and I enjoyed discussions of composition and color for a few hours. She teaches classes at the gallery and has a deep background in art.  She started her gallery decades ago in a side street mall and a few years back, expanded to this new location and now represents over a dozen excellent artists. I was tempted to sign up to teach classes beginning with my 1-dayArmature/Composition class (see: th

  Turbulent Lands, 15x25, oil Third Place, 2024 NM Masterworks Oil/acrylics Studio Painting I've been painting in the Los Alamos area for a few years. The cliffs leading up to this famous town are striking. I became obsessed with trying to capture their feeling - the shapes and texture and the light on them at different times of the day. One of the first paintings was Turbulent Lands I, a smaller painting that in fact was not done on site. It's difficult to paint on the edge of a cliff (and edge of a noisy road) so after taking many photographs and making value sketches as well as diagramming an appropriate armature, I did the following painting in my motel room during a Paint Out sponsored by the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico:  Turbulent Lands I, 10x16, oil I wrote an extensive blog post on this painting:  https://karenhalbert.blogspot.com/2023/06/anatomy-of-los-alamos-cliff-painting-in.html . I painted Turbulent Lands I during a Paint Out but from the hotel room so it'