Las Conchas-Inspired Art on Canyon Road

Santa Fe painter Cate Moses offers her take on the plight of animals displaced by the Las Conchas fire in a piece on display right now at Arroyo gallery on Canyon Road.---

Moses' mixed media work, entitled "631," superimposes a coyote, rabbit, deer and crows over a photo of a former Cerrillos Road gas station building (above, painting detail). The old gas station, which was located at 631 Cerrillos Road, was demolished after Moses took the photo, so the work also preserves the street art decorating the building.

"I wanted to place the animals in some kind of safe setting after the fire," Moses says. Her work often explores the intersection between wild and urban space.

A "firebomber" plane dumping bright red fire retardant overshadows the piece, as crows fly away from the plane and toward the viewer.

Arroyo gallery, on the corner of Canyon Road and Paseo de Peralta, is also getting new sculptures for its sculpture garden this afternoon created by Archie Held. Gallery owner and professional photographer Scott MacLaren says Arroyo's aesthetic is "southwest contemporary realism."

An oil painting at Arroyo called "White Horse" by Santa Fe artist Karen Whitmore (above and detail below) also caught SFR's eye. According to Whitmore's website, she not only paints animals, but works with them as a veterinary technician, and prizes spontaneity in her work. This and other animal paintings by Whitmore, displayed in frames made of recycled barn wood, are even more striking in person.

Santa Fe Reporter