Cellist B/W

By: Joel Becktell

Cellist B/W

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Cellist, #1

By: Joel Becktell

Cellist

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Cellist, #2

By: Joel Becktell

Cellist, #2

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Pieta

By: Joel Becktell

Pieta

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Icon - St. Cecilia with Cello

By: Joel Becktell

Icon - St. Cecilia with Cello

One day, without really planning it at all, I found myself painting this “icon” of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, holding a cello instead of the more traditional viol or pipe organ. Since then, I have made a few variations on this theme, and I feel compelled to return to it from time to time. I think it is wonderful, and also appropriate, that musicians have our own saint.

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Sunflowers in Winter Window

By: Joel Becktell

Sunflowers in Winter Window

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Apple Tree in the Garden, January

By: Joel Becktell

Apple Tree in the Garden, January

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Autumn Sunset near Belen

By: Joel Becktell

Autumn Sunset near Belen

I often drive past this spot in central New Mexico, and I always get an eyeful. The high contrast of the sandy soil, black basalt hills, prairie plants, and sky assure a strong impression. The power poles march up and down the hills, leashed together by their power lines. This evening the sunset was exceptional, even for here, and the warm sky and the cool colors of the dusky land created a memorable visual drama.

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Landscape as I Saw It

By: Joel Becktell

Landscape as I Saw It

This is one of a series of paintings in which I explored my wonder at how a landscape can divide itself into blocks of shape and color without regard to whether they are made up of earth, plants, buildings, sky, or pure light and color. It’s hard to explain, but this painting, while an unmistakably abstract version of the scene it depicts, nevertheless represents one of the ways I sometimes actually see things.

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Bosque Along the Irrigation Ditch in Winter

By: Joel Becktell

Bosque Along the Irrigation Ditch in Winter

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Late Fall Afternoon, Fields

By: Joel Becktell

Late Fall Afternoon, Fields

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Moonset over the Bosque

By: Joel Becktell

Moonset over the Bosque

This is another late-night impression of the view from my painting studio, across a field, over a fence and an irrigation ditch to a dense copse of cottonwood trees, and on to the giant sky.

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Mountains in the Distance, Summer

By: Joel Becktell

Mountains in the Distance, Summer

Depending on the light conditions, the farthest layers in a distant view can be the lightest or the darkest element in the frame. I am intrigued when I look across a view stretching dozens of miles in bright light, and it is capped with a distant mountain that looks entirely black. Sometimes these mountains have a fantastical appearance when you’re able to see them as a single dark shape.

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Summer Landscape

By: Joel Becktell

Summer Landscape

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Sky and Rose Window

By: Joel Becktell

Sky and Rose Window

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Bird in Flight, #1

By: Joel Becktell

Bird in Flight, #1

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Bird in Flight, #2

By: Joel Becktell

Bird in Flight, #2

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Abstract with Cello

By: Joel Becktell

Abstract with Cello

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