Bringing Colorado Landscapes into Your Non-Colorado Home November 02 2024, 0 Comments

By Kimberly Nicoletti

Some collectors wonder if it’s fitting to hang landscapes of Colorado in their primary home located in another state, like Texas or even the tropical environment of Florida. Here at Raitman Art Galleries, we believe art should bring joy — it should light you up and make you smile — so we fully support displaying artwork depicting the majesty of Colorado’s forests, mountains, lakes and wildlife in your non-Colorado home.

The truth is: Art has no regional limits. It reflects and celebrates YOU: What you love, how you long to feel and what you treasure. And, when you can’t view the Colorado mountains, aspens and evergreens outside your windows, paintings provide your own, personalized window into nature.

Art elicits memory, and in that way, it allows you to bring home memories and recall them every single day. Research shows that viewing art improves memory by supporting you to recall precious moments you spent in a region, or in nature. Art also evokes emotions and helps you create a relaxing, calming space.

And, it tells a story. Paintings forge deep bonds between you and the landscape. They often prompt you to share entertaining and inspiring stories of time spent in Colorado when guests come to your home and notice Colorado landscapes hanging over the fireplace or in other prominent areas. They can act as a warm welcome in your entryway, connecting you deeper with your heart, and the places on this earth you cherish.

In that way, it inspires, and even keeps the excitement of returning to Colorado ever-present on a daily basis. It’s a dream-maker, in a sense, both transporting you back to wonderful times and acting as a quiet muse that whispers in your ear: Come back to your center, to your happy place.

Additionally, it forms a connection between you and the artist — whether you’ve met the artist or just resonate with the work.

The Colorado landscapes you choose to collect might be more traditional, or they might be more contemporary.

The Rozenvain family is a perfect place to look for energetic, vivid and textural depictions of wild animals and the environment. Check out Barak Rozenvain’s textural, mixed media triptychs, or his sister, Miri Rozenvain’s wildlife, which often incorporates natural stones and sand within the canvas. And, take in the colorful, as well as the monochromatic, portrayals of High Country wildlife — and even skiers — their father, Michael Rozenvain, creates.

Doyle Hostetler’s wild animals and horses draw you in through the power of their eyes, bringing you up-close and personal with the four-leggeds who roam Colorado’s forests.

Or you might fall in love with the moody, cool mountains of Jared Hankins’ “Piney Lake.”

If you’re looking for photography with depth and intriguing artistic value, consider Pete Zaluzec’s collection of both large and small wildlife. He reaches far beyond traditional photography by setting his pieces against Japanese Gampi paper, which greatly enhances the two-dimensional quality of his mostly monochromatic photographs.

There are so many more intriguing painters in the more “traditional” sense, and then there’s the work of Sushe Felix and Tracy Felix.

Inspired by the American Regionalist and Modern Art movements of the 1930s and ’40s, Sushe Felix layers brilliant colors of paint with collage and other mediums, resulting in a distinct, stylized interpretation of nature.

Tracy Felix reflects the light of the Colorado sky using layers of oils to create shadows and blocks between colors to portray vast snowfields, aspen trees, rivers and Colorado’s iconic peaks.

These are just a sampling of artists who masterfully depict the beauty of Colorado. We love introducing you to our nature-inspired, Colorado artwork, so feel free to stop in on your next visit, or contact us to explore all of the options we offer.