Step into Gallery Moab to see what magic our remarkable landscape can inspire through the eyes, hearts, and hands of our talented local artists. We are an artist-owned and operated cooperative whose members create original fine art and one-of-a-kind artisan crafts. Each artist has a favorite medium and unique personal style and vision, so you’re likely to find something here to appeal to every taste and budget.
Samantha Zim is our special Guest Artist in November. A Moab-based illustrator and painter, Zim creates her impressions of the vivid landscape of Southern Utah in watercolor, graphite, and pen & ink. She studied medical illustration at the Cleveland Institute of Art which informs her detailed approach to natural subjects. She focuses on landscapes she has visited in person, working both plein air and in the studio from her own source photography. The works she is displaying range from 2019 to 2023, including ones created during her tenure as 2020 Artist in the Parks for the Southeast Utah Group of National Parks.
Zim spent her childhood largely outdoors, developing a deep curiosity and love for the natural world, which later led her into a profession as a medical and scientific illustrator. Of her subsequent development as an artist, she explains, “Despite being surrounded by the beauty and complexity of nature throughout my artistic career, it wasn’t until setting down roots in Southeast Utah that I felt compelled to create landscape art. The flow and shadow and contour in the canyon country have a distinctly emotional impact, a quality that tugged at my imagination, and re-invigorated my personal artistic practice.” She goes on, “ Coming from a foundation in traditional draftsmanship and observational representation, I was surprised to find that landscape work only really opened up for me when I let go of realism, a direct reaction to the fantastic contours of land in the desert … I feel my work is most effective when it evokes the feeling of a place, as opposed to its exact likeness.”
“Watercolor and pen & ink have proved to be the perfect medium for exploring the desert on foot and conveying its dream-like sunsets and liquid shadows,” Zim says. Her work is influenced by the bold, fluid lines found in comics, the rigorous attention to detail in scientific and medical art, and the sweeping landscapes of 19th century Japanese woodblocks. ”My art reflects, and expands on, my personal experience; I paint from life, memory, and my own source photography.”
Join us at the gallery and mingle with artists and art lovers at Art Walk, Saturday, November 11, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Open Sunday & Monday 11 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.; Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Call 435-220-0891 and we will gladly open by appointment.
One of the artists is always on hand to answer your questions or help you find that perfect gift or memento of your canyon country vacation.
We look forward to your visit!
Gallery Moab LCA • 59 South Main Street #1, Moab, Utah 84532 • 435-355-0024
gallerymoab.com
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