Taos is Home 2020

Mark Maggiori’s ‘Taos is Home’ is a painting with warm colors and a smooth surface, depicting a man on horseback set against a backdrop of buildings and landscape. I can imagine Maggiori approaching the canvas, maybe with some preliminary sketches, but mostly trusting his instinct to guide the composition. The brushstrokes are soft and the paint is applied evenly, almost like he’s building up the image layer by layer. The figure is wearing a blanket with a cross symbol. The blanket becomes a central element, drawing your eye in and asking you to ponder its significance. The light is striking the man and the horse, suggesting a particular time of day. It reminds me a little of the work of Frederic Remington. Painting is often like that – a conversation between artists across time. Maggiori takes a familiar image – the American West – and infuses it with his own sensibility. It’s a reminder that painting is a way of seeing and feeling.