2021 Artists will be in the gardens from 9:00 – 4:00 PM on September 19, 2021. (Scroll down to the Artist Bios to find out their gardens shifts.)
photo: Todd & Rozanne Hakala
Gardens and artwork are similar in that they are composed in harmony with a series of shapes, forms, colors, and textures. We invite you to watch the artists as they express their artwork in the gardens. The Placitas Garden Tour has invited a select group of local artists to “create” their magic in each of the gardens. In 2021, the following artists will join us: Barbara Burzillo, Reid Bandeen, Jim Holley, Bev Nagy, Rebecca Nolda, Carol Ordogne, Gayle Elaine Scott, and Juan Wijngaard.
Click here to download the 2021 Artists’ Schedules at the Gardens.
All of the artists’ personal works will be on display for sale at the Placitas Community Library on the day of the tour.
photo: Todd & Rozanne Hakala
This is a very special opportunity for you to own an original work of art at the 2021 Placitas Garden Tour. The artists are working in collaboration with the Sandoval County Master Gardeners & the Placitas Community Library to raise funds for future landscape projects & educational programs in Placitas.
Information about each artist is listed below. If the artist has a website you can click on the artist’s name below to visit it.
Barbara Burzillo will be at the following gardens:
“The Critter Café” – 9am – Noon
“The Lizard Lounge” – 1pm – 4pm
After concluding a lengthy corporate career Barbara decided to pursue her passion for art. She is inspired by a deep desire to communicate on a spiritual and emotional level and feels compelled to find ways to share that feeling in clay and on canvas, creating visual stories through movement and color.
She is a member of the Corrales Society of Artists and the National Sculpture Society. Her gallery representation includes: Ghostwolf Gallery, in Albuquerque, Jezebel Gallery in Madrid, Off the Beaten Path in Cloudcroft, and Wild Hearts Gallery in Placitas New Mexico. Her work has received a number of awards including Best of Show and Best in Sculpture.
Her work is primarily abstract sculpture and painting. She revels in dramatic gestures, bright palettes and rich textures. Barbara’s figurative works are frequently elongated, faceless, fantastical beings and are often described as exhibiting strong emotion and passion. She works very quickly relying on the medium as an active participant in determining the direction of her art. While she sometimes plans, Barbara believes her most successful sculptures and paintings are of organic origins.
Reid Bandeen
Reid Bandeen will be at the following garden:
“Descanso de Aves” – 9am – Noon
Reid Bandeen is a contemporary impressionist landscape painter who began his creative explorations at an early age, where his middle school instructors bought his first paintings. Cultivating his painting abilities intermittently during a professional career in water resources, he honed his skills through studies and mentorship programs with contemporary master painters.
Located in Placitas, New Mexico, Bandeen primarily explores the expansive panoramas and magical light of the American Southwest, though draws and paints during his extensive travels in the U.S. and abroad. Bandeen currently exhibits in assorted regional shows and competitions. For more information please visit http://www.westviewfineart.com.
Jim Holley will be at the following gardens:
“A Very Talavera Garden” – 9am – Noon
“Descanso de Aves” – 1pm – 4pm
Jim has always loved creating beautiful and functional designs for all ages. The beauty of the Southwest inspires Jim to create amazing steel designs such as his Spirits rising from large pieces of local wood, accented with stained glass, to the highly popular Zuni Bear and Quail families that are attached to local and unique logs of cottonwood or juniper. Working with steel, wood, and stained glass, one never knows what Jim will create next.
My creations are inspired by my imagination and the energy of living in the Southwest. Utilizing a blend of steel, stained glass, stone, and native wood I design one-of-a-kind art pieces. I surprise myself many times, creating new designs that evolve into having their own personalities.
Bev Nagy will be at the following garden:
“The Garden of Eatin” – 9am – Noon
“The Garden of Eatin” – 1pm – 4pm
Interested in art since childhood, Nagy took a more practical path as a career. When she moved to North Carolina in 1983 after graduate school, her interest in art was rekindled in response to the rich tradition of fine craft she discovered there.
Throughout her 35 year clinical career, she was an artist by night and on weekends. It kept her centered and focused and provided her with an outlet for her creativity that she did not have in her psychology practice. While she lived in Raleigh, she attended classes at the NC State University Craft Center. She was primarily focused on pottery, but also learned to make baskets. She focused on basketry when her professional work took her on the road as she could take baskets with her.
A marriage of convenience, it blossomed into love! Learning from the masters in the craft, she studied traditional forms and techniques handed down through generations, perfected her skills and began incorporating her own ideas into her work. She joined the NC Basketmakers Association and taught classes at the local community college and art centers. Learning and sharing, she became part of a community of craftsmen that brought a sense of belonging. When she moved to Charlotte, psychology work again consumed her life, but she continued to carve out time to work on her art. She learned new techniques to increase her skill level and practiced, practiced, practiced.
Rebecca Nolda will be at the following gardens:
“The Lizard Lounge” – 9am – Noon
“A Very Talavera Garden” – 1pm – 4pm
Mixed media artist Rebecca Nolda received her Master of Arts in studio art from the University of Minnesota and spent several years in the corporate world as a graphic designer and technical illustrator before moving to New Mexico and pursuing art full time. She has exhibited artist’s books, paintings, collage, and drawings nationally and internationally with pieces in the collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Library, the Tweed Museum of Art, and Artists’ Books USA (United States Information Service, India).
Rebecca says: “I love to explore the subtle relationships between what we see and an expanded view based on imagination. My work is a response to or interpretation of nature, a suggestion of a narrative, a hint at the elapse of time, and a history of occurrences and events. My recent work includes an ongoing series, Mapping the Strata, focusing on geological formations in the Placitas area.”
Carol Ordogne
Carol Ordogne will be at the following garden:
“The Raven Hollow Garden” – 1pm – 4pm
Carol’s goal in painting is to show the beauty of light and color as it plays across an animal or landscape. Her newest technique to begin a painting is covering the entire canvas with black gesso. Some of this black shows through as outlines. She uses a lively color palette on top of the black gesso. The effect is similar to her linocut prints or has the look of stained glass.
Carol’s artistic journey evolved last year with the pandemic stay at home orders and with the birth of her grandchildren. She wanted to reach out to New Mexican children and teach them about nature. She began a linocut series to accomplish that goal. Like Japanese prints there is no reference to light or form, creating a flat artwork of black outlines and bright colors. She hopes that this book of 27 prints and rhyming couplets will introduce the next generation to the huge variety of plants and animals that make up our world.
Gayle Elaine Scott
Gayle Elaine Scott will be at the following gardens:
“The Raven Hollow Garden” – 9am – Noon
“Legacy European Garden” – 1pm – 4pm
I am a native New Mexican and have lived in Placitas since 2004 when I retired from the telephone company.
Art has always found a way to be present in my life in some form or another and once I retired, I began experimenting with many types of media including oils, acrylics, alcohol inks, clay, fused glass, sculpture and mosaics. Each process is an opportunity to learn so I am continuously learning and trying new techniques. Currently my favourite art form is creating mosaics.
Juan Wijngaard
Juan Wijngaard will be at the following gardens:
“Legacy European Garden” – 9am – Noon
“The Critter Cafe” – 1pm – 4pm
Juan was born in Argentina and moved to the Netherlands in his teens. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, Juan worked as a children’s book illustrator, winning the Kate Greenaway Medal for Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. Juan lived in the U.K. for nearly 20 years. After illustrating some 35 books, Juan retired as a children’s book illustrator.
Juan now lives and paints in New Mexico, USA. The natural beauty of the environment, fauna and flora are inspirations to him.
Although he now works mainly in oils, Juan continues to deepen his knowledge of old world techniques, including egg tempera on wood panels, gold leaf, and glazes.
Placitas Garden Tour 