Max Mallie's Blog: Tamer Pastel Landscapes

Although New Mexico artist Iva Morris is best known for her tempestuous Southwestern scenes of storms and tornadoes, she’s also painted less intense pastel landscapes, as seen below.

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To observe many of the less tempestuous weather events that she paints, Morris just has to step into her backyard. “I live in a farming community with huge mesas that provide a platform for several mountain ranges—the Manzanos, Los Pinos and the Magdelenas—on the east and west horizons,” she says.

Because Morris often works en plein air, she’s likely to see a big storm roll in, too, which results in more intense meteorological paintings. She first focused on these scenes about a decade ago. “I began to take photographs of dust devils and the approaching storms,” she says. “I made a lot of sketches and began adding a variety of media to the surface to capture the visual phenomena of storms.”

See Morris’ stormy landscapes in the October 2016 issue of Pastel Journal, available in print and as a download at northlightshop.com. Available on newsstands September 13.

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