Listen
Holbein Certificate of Excellence
Pastel Society of Southern California, Make your Mark, International Online Juried Exhibition
24 x 36 in.
Pastel on hardboard panel
$4,200
Available through Abend Gallery, Denver, Colorado

Natasha Isenhour spent her youth and early adulthood in North Carolina before packing her bags 23 years ago and moving to that place that had felt like home in the recesses of her heart for decades. It was in New Mexico that the elements of earth and sky began to drive her creativity. A lifetime of expression through music, writing and a degree in Geology turned to painting.

Isenhour captures her emotional response to the landscape with a contemporary expressionistic style in both oil and pastel. While from a distance a first impression is the realistic feeling of the work, but a closer looks reveals a contemporary edge where her mark making controls the impressions of mass and delicacy. Participating in numerous plein air events throughout the year informs her studio work through the on-site study of value and color temperature as it can only be seen with the eye. Observation and her degree in Geology afford her a deep understanding of the landforms and the bones of the earth that allow her to so effectively convey the depth and mass of her subjects. You will find her work hauntingly unpopulated as she tries to convey the emotion of place while leaving you alone in your thoughts.

“I am mesmerized by the landscape of the Southwest. Every season, every time of day, every change in the weather dictates my emotional response to what I see. The painting Listen, was from the Ghost Ranch area and is a perfect example of how you can simply stand still and watch the physical attributes of the land morph and evolve as the clouds pass and the position of the sun changes before you. As the blues of the shadows deepened and the autumn vegetation began to take on the hot, end of day sunlight, I knew I would have to paint it. The land is a shapeshifter and changes every second. Each second is precious and has its very own story to tell. I want to convey those stories to the viewer as I heard them.”

2019 has brought Isenhour a great deal of recognition. In addition to reaching Distinguished and Signature status in some of the most prestigious arts organizations in the country, she was awarded Best Pastel in the April/May Plein Air Salon by gallerist Dave Ethridge, won Best in Show at the Central City Plein Air Festival by judge Bruce Gomez, and awarded the Holbein Award by Lyn Asselta in the Pastel Society of Southern California’s Make Your Mark International Online Exhibition.

In 2020 she will be exhibiting in the Cowgirl Up! Invitational, teaching a 3 day Oil Painting workshop for Masterworks NM, and a 3 day workshop for MidAtlantic Pastel Society, will be the Featured Pastelist for Mendocino Plein Air as well as attending other paintouts and workshops being added every day. You can find out about all events, awards, workshops as well as view her resume and new works on her website www.natashaisenhour.com. Be sure to sign up for her email newsletter while you are there.

Natasha Isenhour is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Distinguished Pastelist of the Pastel Society of New Mexico, Signature Member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and Associate Member with Distinction of American Women Artists.

Natasha is represented by:

Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Abend Gallery, Denver, Colorado
RS Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, Texas
Cobalt Fine Arts, Tubac, Arizona