Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Charles Pabst, Walpi Morning




Charles Pabst
Walpi Morning
36” x 36”  
$3,000
Frame included


Artist, Charles Pabst, invites the viewer of Walpi Morning on tour of the Pleat Indians and the unique landscape of Arizona.  One can take the first step on the lower right corner of the painting to walk through an incredible village that exists today.  

Comforts of home?... No! There appears to be no running water or electricity and the inhabitants live as their forefathers and honor traditions unique to them.

There is quiet majesty in the unadorned dwellings and the inhabitants who do not embellish or litter the simplistic environments with fences or plantings.  The village exterior wall repeats the cliff formations with strong linear crevices found in the canyon side.  The timeless earthen structures are adjoining and the architecture offers benefits of mutually advantageous living.

The time of day is early morning and only three persons are beckoned to enjoy.  The three figures, solitary in stance are warmed by the warm morning rays of sunlight.  They are wrapped in blankets and are small in contrast to the village and vast landscape.

Charles Pabst selects vibrant contrasting color as the visual tour continues on this crisp morning.  There is refreshing blue sky and stratus cloud formations painted in medium tones of amber, violet and blue.  The colors are dramatic between the light source and the vastness of the West.   Charles Pabst uses the large canvas to advantage as he illustrates the large rock formation, large village, and the spacious sky as the morning light cascades across the canyon. 

The visual tour is twofold.  The plateau and the village appear secondary in importance to the canyon and sky.  The painting is both personal village and greater landscape as the tour continues historically and hourly as the twenty-four hours in a day produce the break of day at the top of the Walpi. 

© Betty Houston,
J.R. Mooney Galleries, Boerne 

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