Original New Mexico Painting titled “Plein Air Rio” by Ken Daggett [SOLD]

“Plein Air Rio” is an original painting by New Mexico artist Ken Daggett.  This excellent depiction of a river winding through a canyon was completed using oils on a canvas panel.  While it could be any “Rio,” technically, it bears a striking resemblance to the area in Northern New Mexico where the Rio Grande travels from Taos to Española.  More specifically, it recalls the area between Embudo and Pilar, where New Mexicans gather to swim, raft, and kayak.  Visit this area and look upriver (or Northeast) and you’ll see “Plein Air Rio”—a thick wall of shrubbery on the right side of the river, a gentle hill rising up into a steep purple mesa on the left, and a river that winds its way around a series of slopes that begin softly before rising into steep cliffs.

Speculation about its possible setting aside, “Plein Air Rio” is a beautiful image.  Bold purples and soft greens create the hills, plants, and mesa walls, with diagonal brush strokes that convey the feeling of the hills spilling down into the river.  Up above, the sky turns from white to light blue.  Down below, streaks of white reflecting on the river’s surface link the water with the sky.  “Plein Air Rio” is a small piece, but it makes a strong impression.

The painting is signed Ken Daggett in lower right. It is titled Plein Air Rio on verso. It is framed in a wide, carved gold frame.

Ken Daggett is a painter who grew up in Southern California and now lives in New Mexico.  Daggett’s early artistic explorations were inspired by those of his grandmother.  He studied art in high school courses and at Orange Coast College, but ultimately favored teaching himself over formal education.  He mastered watercolors while working as a freelance architectural illustrator, and then switched to oils while exploring plein air painting.  He lives and works in New Mexico, prolifically creating landscape paintings.

Condition: this Original New Mexico Painting titled "Plein Air Rio" by Ken Daggett is in new and in original condition

Relative Links: Painting Landscapes, Ken Daggett, Western Artist