An opening reception for artists Peter Campbell and Susan Matteson will take place at the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the gallery at the corner of Main Street and Grand Avenue. The reception will coincide with the first night of Mancos Days.
Campbell has lived in Durango for 20 years and paints in a somewhat classical realist style, he said. His pieces are inspired by landscapes around Colorado and the southwest, including deserts, mountains and rivers.
He strives for a timeless quality in his works, he said.
“I hope to create enduring works of art that don’t necessarily have a sense of place,” he said. “You might not know what I’m painting. I’m looking for glimpses of places we see and trying to amplify them to get people to look at them again.”
Campbell has shown his work at the Goodnight Trail Gallery since October, but he will bring about 11 new pieces to the opening Friday.
Some highlights of the show include two cloud paintings, one with warm colors and the other a night scene with cooler tones, he said. He said the juxtaposition of the two pieces is striking. Another piece Campbell is excited to show is a large painting of an apple orchard.
Many people tell Campbell they never get tired of certain paintings, he said.
“I like when people get emotionally involved in the piece,” he said. “The thing I alaways strive for is to have the pieces have longevity over time.”
Matteson’s portion of the show will feature two personal pieces painted near her parents’ farm in Illinois, she said. One features a grain silo with clouds in the background near the farm, and another features a lake scene near a place where her brother used to work, she said.
“Those are two paintings that are more personal that I always wanted to do,” she said.
Some of Matteson’s favorite places in Colorado to paint include the Lizard Head area and the backyard of her home in Dolores, she said. One piece that will be on display at the Goodnight Gallery is titled “Among Giants” and features a winter scene near Trout Lake.
Matteson hopes that her pieces will help people to see things in a different way, she said.
“We’re so busy sometimes that we don’t stop to see the beauty around us,” she said. “That’s what I enjoy when I’m out there painting.”