Since she moved to Lama, NM, Monique has been working in three different techniques.
The first is a combination of painting and drawing using acrylic ink, either on paper or on wooden cradled boards. These colorful paintings, mostly diptychs ranging from 8” by 16” to 12” by 24”. They are mental “snapshots” of the ever-changing quality of light, color and mood of vistas that she happens to observe from her property, or while driving. As these “snapshots” are firmly burned into her memory, she has no need to use photos for reference. She first blocks in the main shapes with a brush, then uses pen and ink to overlay the painting with patterns describing various surface qualities in fine detail.
Her second approach falls into the category of mixed media, where Monique re-uses old watercolors, prints and drawings to create small, collaged landscapes, often with a small woman in it who expresses in her body language an emotional state, an insight, or a particular memory.
Her third approach allows for a greater sense of creativity and exploration, while still depicting the northern New Mexico landscape with its huge variety of textures and vegetation. However, She is drawing with just one color of acrylic ink onto a large wooden cradled board, 36” by 24”, with a lively underpainting of Burnt Sienna and Payne’s Gray acrylic paint.
She typically includes small cultural vignettes that attest to the history and viability of the older local cultures, Indian and Hispanic, such as an almost forgotten local cemetery or traditional activities such as picking mushrooms and collecting pinon nuts. She draws each tree, shrub and rock as an individual and inserts various birds to add narrative.
These lush, rich and varied pieces are truly unique and invite the viewer to slow down in this fast-paced era and mindfully wander around and discover what it means to live in the northern Sangre de Christo mountains.
