The magical realism of Alyce Frank

The Magical Realismof Alyce Frank features a painter who characterizes her own work as "Taos Expressionism." She cites Van Gogh, the Fauvists, and the Taos School as important early influences. Though Frank has been painting for thirty years, she did not become a painter until she moved to New Mexico. "New Mexico was so powerful and demanding that the way I made peace with it was to paint it." When Alyce paints it is with a partner, and they take a picnic. They paint outside and "if you were there, you would know it was the place, though my paintings are not 'realistic.'" A brilliant palette of rich primary and secondary colors embellish her large (36' x 48') landscapes in a way that makes you acutely conscious of the seasons, the life in the trees, fields, and mountains. She could only have created these paintings in New Mexico, and yet their appeal is universal, primitive, mythic. A title in theNew Mexico Magazine Artist Series