Expanding the landscape
Peggy Immel, Pilar Point of View, oil, 24 x 36.
This story was featured in the April 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
Landscape painter Peggy Immel’s first childhood drawings focused on buildings. “In grade school I would draw plans of trailers,” she says. “I could put everything in it and design it the way I wanted.” Later, she studied architecture in college and worked as an interior designer. This love for the man-made is a stark contrast to her years of painting. Immel’s landscapes are often pristine, perhaps featuring animals here and there but with the spotlight always on the natural features of the scene.
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- Peggy Immel, Ghost Ranch Oasis, oil, 24 x 30.
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- Peggy Immel, Hay Bales, oil, 11 x 14.
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- Peggy Immel, High Road Autumn, oil, 16 x 20.
Today, her original interest in buildings is working its way to the surface again. While Immel continues to render landscapes across the Southwest, she is beginning to add more structures to her scenes. “The more I paint these buildings, the more I like to see the interaction between [humanity and] the landscape,” she says. The artist continues to visit Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, but she is also expanding her range to include small towns and settlements surrounding the desert wilderness. “You have these abandoned buildings and small towns with wonderful vistas in the background,” Immel says. “I love to see that contrast.”
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- Peggy Immel, Feels Like Afternoon, oil, 10 x 12.
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- Peggy Immel, First Snow, Study, oil, 8 x 10.
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- Peggy Immel, Leaving Ocate, oil, 16 x 20.
Over the years, Immel has alternated between technical detail and painterly flexibility. Today she combines the two in each painting. “I like to find areas in the painting that I can focus on and bring more of a finish to, while the rest of the painting is looser and more fluid,” she says. —Mackenzie McCreary
Immel is represented by Sorrel Sky Gallery, Durango, CO, and Santa Fe, NM; Wilder Nightingale Fine Art, Taos, NM; ZForrest Gallery, Tubac, AZ; and www.peggyimmel.com.
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- Peggy Immel, Overland Adobe, oil, 12 x 16.
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- Peggy Immel, Ranchitos Sundown, oil, 18 x 24.
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- Peggy Immel, Under an Apricot Sky, oil, 16 x 20.
This story was featured in the April 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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