This weekend, Corrales Village returns on one of New Mexico’s most anticipated art and studio tours with the 24th Annual Corrales Art Studio Tour (CAST) on Saturday, August 27 and Sunday, August 28. .
‘Raven and Red Chiles’, an acrylic painting by local artist Victoria Mauldin, is the featured art image of this year’s tour.
Mauldin is one of more than 80 artists who come together with 50 elementary school student artists to showcase their art.
“The local art scene is fabulous and that was a really big factor in buying this house that we bought when we were looking to move,” Mauldin said. “I’ve been to various places in New Mexico that have had wonderful studio tours, and I’ve been lucky enough to live in places that really strongly support the arts community.”
In addition to the artist tour, the event will also feature work in the preview gallery at the historic Old San Ysidro Church, 966 Old Church Road, which opens Friday, August 26.
“Some of my work takes place in the middle of the night, actually, and I’m a huge crows fan,” Mauldin said. “Once I painted my first crow, I fell in love with them and have learned so much more about them since.”
For Mauldin, doing this piece was inevitable.
“So it seemed totally appropriate to put in red peppers or peppers of any kind actually,” Mauldin said. “It came kind of naturally, because those are two things that are really part of New Mexico.”
“What drew me to them was that they’re really bright creatures and they’re family oriented,” Mauldin said. “They care about each other and their friends, and I just admire them because I think they have a connection with each other in the world.”
In terms of art, imaginative realism is Mauldin’s forte.
“But what I love about imaginative realism is that it goes beyond what we can usually see in the world around us,” Mauldin said. “It really ties things together and puts them together in a way that hopefully will make the viewer stop and look at it and say, ‘Wow, that’s very interesting.’ ”
Visitors to the tour will notice a plethora of artwork in a multitude of ways. Viewers will see media including watercolors, oils and photographs, as well as works in clay, glass and other materials to delight the crowd at every turn.
For those wishing to view a sample of the participating artists’ work, maps and catalogs are available online at corralessocietyofartists.org/studio-tour, as well as outside the Frontier Mart at the south end of Corrales, the Preview Gallery of the Historic Ancient Church of San Ysidro and many local sponsors in the area.
