Raye LaRive

Raye LaRive settled in Santa Fe 8 years ago, after a dozen years of coming through for opera, hiking, museums/galleries, and drawing the expansive landscapes.  She has been a figurative artist since her first class at the Art Students League of NY at the age of 13.  The Southwest drew her into landscape and the chaotic, choreography of cottonwoods, and now into abstraction.  Raye taught painting and drawing, perspective, color theory, and figure drawing for 35 years in the DC Metropolitan area, including for The Smithsonian, U of Maryland, and the Walter Reed Army Hospital.  While my current studio work is moving towards abstraction, figure drawing is at the root of the abstractions.  Allowing my abstract vocabulary to infiltrate these portraits has been challenging, while trying to capture essential qualities of my drawing pals.