Lorenzo Chavez – NWR Artist
Lorenzo Chavez was born and raised in New Mexico. His first inspirations and foundation as a young artist were formed by the local landscape and the art history in New Mexico. Lorenzo now makes his home in Parker, Colorado and uses this location as a base to travel and paint the American West and Southwest. Lorenzo enjoys painting in both pastel and oil. He participates in several national invitational and International group exhibitions and has won major awards including the Pastel Society of America in New York; His work has been chosen to represent PSA in the Butler Art Museum, Ohio. Pastel Society of Spain, Pastel Society of France, Artists of America Show in Denver, Rims to Ruins Exhibition, Plein Air Painters of America, Buffalo Bill Center for the West, Albuquerque Art Museum, Maynard Dixon Country, 100 Gold Medal Exhibition at The Pasadena Art Museum, The Brinton Museum, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, The Brinton Museum, Coors Show in Denver, Butler Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Steamboat Art Museum. Legacy Gallery, Cape Cod Art Museum, Blue Rain Gallery Santa Fe, Helena Fox Fine Art Settlers West Gallery, Howard Manville Gallery, Gallery of the Southwest, Trailside Galleries. He was featured in a successful one-man show at the C.M. Russell Museum and has participated successfully in several C.M. Russell Art Auctions.
Feature articles have appeared in Southwest Art, Art of the West, American Artist Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, Artists Magazine, Western Art Review, American Art Review, Pastel Journal, and Denver Post. Eight new books feature his art: Les Mitres de Art France, Painted Sky, Art Journey American Landscapes, Colorado Landscapes, Pure Color: The Best of Pastel 1 &2, and Plein Air New Mexico. Lorenzo is a nationally known Fine Art instructor who has taught numerous workshops across the United States since 1993. Lorenzo is represented by many major fine art galleries and many private and corporate collections both nationally and internationally.
“My Art reflects my deep passion for the Landscape of the American West. My hope is that the qualities represented in the art traditions of American painters such as the Taos Society of Artists and the American Impressionists are also echoed in my work. I was born and raised in the southern most point of the Rockies in New Mexico. Through the years, while searching for subject matter, I have realized there are many similarities throughout the Rockies. I love the deep blue of the vaulting sky, clouds that float and dance, rabbit brush, chamisa, pinon, pine and juniper, the willows that line the stream banks, the granite in the mountain ranges, aspens and the endless seas of grasses are all subjects for my ever exploring eyes. I strive to represent landscapes that have a timeless appeal to them. I want the emotion I feel to come through in the surface textures of the art. The colors, textures and light of the western landscape inspire and guide my work. It is the simple glimpses into nature that move me to create. Wallace Stegner said it in brevity of words, “A few cottonwoods, the gurgle of water in a creek or ditch, can have as profound effect on me as the grandest view.”
Lorenzo Chavez
“Hollyhocks are a common sight around the villages of New Mexico. It is often called The Staff of Saint Joseph. I have always enjoyed these beautiful flowers that grow along adobe walls in sunny spots.
Lorenzo Chavez about "Hollyhocks"
