Winning compositions: Old Church Fine Arts Show to feature over 50 New Mexico artists

It’s been 36 years since the Corrales Society of Artists combined with the Corrales Historical Society to form the annual Old Church Fine Arts Show.

This year’s event is slated for Saturday, Oct. 5, through Sunday, Oct. 13, at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church. The show will feature 63 New Mexico artists exhibiting a variety of art forms from painting to photography to jewelry, furniture and ceramics.

Winning compositions: Old Church Fine Arts Show to feature over 50 New Mexico artists

Corrales artist Barbara Clark painted “Truchas Impressions” in her signature explosive color palette. The composition captures a winding road in the farmlands as the blue-green mountains beckon.

Like many artists, Clark took up a brush when a more practical career collapsed. In 2006, the company she worked for was sold; she was an accountant.

“I tried my hand at pastels and it really hit home to me,” she said. “But the dust it created is really hard on your lungs, so I switched to oils.

“When I started with pastels, I just couldn’t go back,” she said. “That I had a business background probably helped me.”

Clark never photographs her subjects. She prefers plein air or painting on site, using her brush to create “color notes” on location.

“I’m a colorist,” she said. “A Fauvist (French for ‘wild beasts’). They were a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over representationalism.

“Color exudes happiness to me,” Clark continued. “I’ve tried to calm it down. I can’t paint in sedate; it’s my job to see these things.”

Born and raised in Baltimore, Clark really wanted to become an artist, but accounting was more practical. She started with an office job.

“I’m old enough that women didn’t get paid enough to live on their own,” she said.

In 2016, she co-founded the Corrales Fine Arts Gallery, where she shows the bulk of her work.

She’s also working on rehabbing an old home near Abiquiú.

“I love northern New Mexico,” she said.

Corrales photographer Dennis Chamberlain turned to photography after retiring as a CPA in Dallas. His father worked for Eastman Kodak, but his son never took it seriously. He learned from workshops and classes, never believing it could support him.

Chamberlain shot “A Splendid Spire” in Utah.

“You hike up around it,” he said. “I took it from a bunch of different directions. They are the natural remnants of where everything else has eroded.”

Chamberlain worked as a CPA from 1969 to 2007. He gradually worked in his photography habit until he retired.

“I just can’t not do it,” he said. “I just have the sense of passion for it.”

That passion really ignited with the advent of digital photography, he said. He was no longer confined to a darkroom.

“I’ve always been a storyteller, so it worked out better,” he said.

The image “Racing the Rain” derived from a composite of New Mexico photos.

“The composite is of this storm with a train down below,” Chamberlain said. “It’s exiting into lighter sky into the future.”

“Distant Memories” evolved from four separate photographs. A friend’s buckboard wagon is the star.

“It was up on a ridge that is sort of similar to Monument Valley with a great sunset,” Chamberlain said. “It’s more sad and nostalgic.”

Both Clark and Chamberlain are 2024 blue ribbon winners of the fine arts show.