John Moyers & Terri Kelly Moyers’ “Echoes of the…
Currently on view at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, California is John Moyers & Terri Kelly Moyers’ exhibition, “Echoes of the Past.”
A chance meeting at a Robert Lougheed workshop in British Columbia brought this couple together, but their love for art, travel, and painting outdoors has kept not only their love story alive, but their artist visions ever changing. It’s worth noting that just in the last month, Terri Kelly Moyers was awarded the Artist Choice Award at the Autry’s Masters of the American West and John Moyers was given the Artist Excellence Award at the 2023 Booth Western Art Museum’s annual Gala. Between the two, they’ve won every possible award there is – from the Prix de West Purchase Award to the Autry Masters purchase award, and everything in between.
It is always a pleasure when you come across artists in their prime. In collecting contemporary artists it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint those periods, but when looking at the new body of work created by the Moyers’ it is no question that that time is now.
John’s fully formed vision of mixing abstract elements within hard painted edges jumps off the canvas in images like “Appeal to the Spirts,” the artist’s largest painting in the show. The painting features a multifigure scene of Northern New Mexican Natives during a ceremony. At first glance it feels like a warm representational painting of the past – but at further inspection it is a total master class in abstraction and composition that very few can achieve so well. Get close to this painting and you will experience thick application of paint mixed with highlights in just the right areas, masterful application of value and reflective light. It is without a doubt a museum quality painting.
Terri Kelly’s painting “Song and Prayer” shows a colder climate scene with masterfully painted hills and landscape that allows the viewer to feel the warmth hitting the central figure. Historical elements are always paid close attention to in Moyers’ paintings. The knowledge and interest in the people she paints comes through her masterful paint strokes, leaving detail out where it is not needed, and rendering other elements to lead the viewer’s eye. The composition is laid out like a perfect road map leading you into the scene and allowing the viewer to feel the vastness of nature. You are left imagining the sounds of the song and prayer on this crisp fall day.
