Untitled Painting of Taos Adobes [SOLD]

Betty Sabo (1928 - 2016) was a famous and successful artist who was born in Kansas City, Missouri.  Sabo rose to prominence as an artist while living and working in New Mexico. She majored in art at the University of New Mexico, and studied for five years under German-born painter Carl Von Hassler.  She is best known for her realistic oil paintings of New Mexico and Colorado landscapes, but she also found success and acclaim as a sculptor. Her works received many awards and are included in prominent public and private collections around the country.  Today, she is highly regarded by New Mexico collectors. In 2012, New Mexico governor Susana Martinez declared February 10th to be Betty Sabo Day, in honor of the artist’s considerable accomplishments. Sabo passed away in 2016.

Taos has served as a subject for many notable artists, adorning great works by accomplished artists and inspiring the early creative processes of aspiring painters.  It’s a quiet, small town, with an endearingly eccentric population and a rich history of creation and collection. Many of its residents are artists or otherwise creatively-driven individuals.  The areas surrounding the town itself are gorgeous—peaceful, sparsely populated, and visually dramatic. The mountains against which the town is nestled are truly grand. They’re steep and colorful, standing in stark contrast to the sleepy adobe town and sprawling stretches of desert below.  Taos is a uniquely beautiful place, and its status as a favorite subject of many of the Southwest’s greatest artists is deserved.

This untitled oil painting is classic early Betty Sabo—Taos adobes, covered in snow and bathed in soft sunlight. Here, Sabo captured with admirable realism a scene with which all Southwest residents are familiar: the dramatic reemergence of the sun after a fall snowstorm. The clouds part quickly, the sky turns from gray to bright blue, and a fresh coat of snow suddenly becomes bright and reflective.  Here, the viewer sees the middle of the process—halfway between the aforementioned gray and blue. Sabo’s incredibly lifelike portrayal suggests that she experienced and appreciated these moments many times.

The snow-covered adobes are finely crafted, as are the mountains behind them.  The mixture of yellow and green trees winding up the hillside appear, from a distance, to be arranged in lines that crisscross one another on their way to the peaks.  This is another subtle naturalistic touch that suggests that the artist was more than familiar with her subject. The painting is signed in its lower right corner. It is signed “Angelos,” which is how she signed her earlier works.  That Sabo was creating such excellent works early in her career speaks to her considerable natural abilities as a painter.

Condition: this Untitled Painting of Taos Adobes is in excellent condition

Provenance: from the collection of a New Mexico resident

Recommended Reading: Masters of Western Art by Mary Nelson