Originally published in The Taos News, Tempo Section >>
Staff report Dec 13, 2022 Updated Dec 15, 2022
The legacy of Clarence Medina
Paintings of spectacular moments on ordinary days perfectly describe the paintings Clarence Medina made.
His work has the immediacy of being painted on location en plein air, making it easy to see through the artist’s eyes, allowing the scene to envelope you.
Medina’s work evokes that sensation of place, the energy of the day, but most of all, a feeling of home.
Growing up here in New Mexico, Medina recalled he would see painters, their easels set up in precarious locations: a smattering across the hillside, or along the road overlooking a valley or spread out around one of the New Mexican mission churches near Dixon. He thought then that he wanted nothing more than to grow up and do that too.
He showed an unexpected interest in the art districts of Santa Fe and, as he got older, he began to adopt different painters as mentors, finding his own visual language and beginning to paint with finesse and serious intent.
He often spoke about his artistic trajectory of focusing on getting the details right at first, but learning to paint more freely and “welcoming the unexpected“ which ushered in new perspectives.
Clarence Medina was known for the expressive and impressionistic landscapes that reflect a very personal connection to this place, revealing the simplicity as well as the majesty of life in the Land of Enchantment.
Experience the back roads and the by-ways that produced one spectacular painting after the next, on view now at Chimayo Trading in Ranchos de Taos.
See Clarence Medina’s work online at ChimayoTrading.com
chimayotrading.com/product-category/artists/clarence-medina
For visual details visit the Chimayo Trading Del Norte website chimayotrading.com/ or stop by the gallery next to San Francisco de Asís Mission Church, a historic and architecturally significant building on the main plaza of Ranchos de Taos.