Vasari21.com Ann Landi March 12, 2018 I still see Big Mama leaning over her garden to pick a zinnia to put in her still life. Her old pink slip hung diagonally, a foot below her hiked-up stained dress, half-covered by her paint smock, which matched her white faux-fur bedroom slippers, both splotched with oil paint. Her long, faded, silky hair, which she wore swept up and bunched in a topknot, gave way and cascaded down her back. Little Mama scoffed at her mother’s painting ou

Phillis Ideal will have an exhibition of recent works at David Richard Gallery in Santa Fe, NM (February 3-March 4), with an opening this coming Friday. As I noted in my profile of the artist, her paintings of the last several years have become more gestural, evolving gradually into the vocabulary of shapes and colors she uses today. She has experimented with pours and collage, monoprints, and most recently iPhone drawings. All exude a sense of spontaneity and joy, and someti

Phillis Ideal, Off The Deep End, 2008-12, Acrylic and collage on panel, 61" x 71" Phillis Ideal knows how to do a wonderful studio visit and interview. I meant to begin this profile in standard journalese, saying something like: Phillis Ideal is a trim, stylish woman with punkishly cropped blonde hair and a wide appealing smile. Or Phillis Ideal works in a spacious light-filled studio at the southern limits of Santa Fe. Or Phillis Ideal has been through numerous transformat