Opening Reception: Paul Milosevich: Hazmat / Highway / Hole / Pontiac / Stubb

Paul Milosevich, originally from Trinidad, Colorado, now resides in New Mexico. He was significantly influenced by the time he spent in Southern California and West Texas before moving to Santa Fe in the 1970s. His painting exhibition in Magdalena, NM offers a glance into these and other aspects of his life, such as his dedication to golf and music.

The anchor image of the show, From Lubbock to Santa Fe, features a view through the windshield of a car as it is driven from Texas into New Mexico. A rear-view mirror hangs like a promise in the sky above the road. Images from Clovis Road out of Lubbock toward Santa Fe are gathered around the edges of the painting as postcard views of specific places, including a Pecos River bank; a Ft. Sumner railroad bridge; and a Farwell, Texas Dairy Queen.

Milosevich cites portrait painters Raymon Froman and Wayne Thiebaud as influences and is intrigued by Russian painter Nicholai Fechin, who came to Taos in the 1920s.

Tom T. Hall, Waylon Jennings, and Joe Ely are among many musicians whose likeness Milosevich has painted. It was Hall and Crickets drummer and Buddy Holly collaborator, Jerry Allison who encouraged him to step outside the confines of academia and leave his tenured position at Texas Tech in Lubbock.

The newest work aligns nicely with this year’s Magdalena Highway 60 Car Show: 1956 Pontiac is a painting of the vehicle that was Allison and Holly’s “double date car.” Milosevich allows that when Allison moved to Nashville in the seventies, he gave him the Pontiac. In the painting, the tell-tale shape of Fisher’s Peak, outside Trinidad, Colorado, rises in the distance, bringing Milosevich’s time line full circle.