Vintage signs, classic architecture, and timeless landscapes find contemporary expression in Hit the Road, an exhibition of new paintings by Tony De Luz at Blue Rain Gallery. Opening with a reception for the artist from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, January 31, 2025, the show will remain on featured display through February 11, 2025.
“The road has always inspired my work,” says De Luz, a Boston native who relocated to Arizona 30 years ago. “I’ll drive anywhere at the drop of a hat, and because of that I’ve seen places I wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. I love taking off on side roads and seeing the overlooked sights, because they’re the path that brought us to where we are today.”
Drawing on his experience illustrating for such clients as the U.S. Postal Service and Absolut Vodka, De Luz celebrates the distinctly American imagery of the Southwest through carefully rendered acrylic paintings that dazzle with clarity of color. “I’ll stop the car and shoot reference photos wherever I go,” he says. “I’m always inspired by old motel signs and movie theater marquees, but also just by the beauty of the landscape. I paint the beauty that was—and is.”
One snowy Colorado landscape charmed the winter-weary ex-New Englander so much that it appears in Over the Mountain, an equilateral composition stacked with visual interest*.* “With these massive mountains just white with snow, with little patches of green showing through and the road going below, I couldn’t resist,” he says. “You’ve got all these different planes of action: the road in front, the barn and field, the peaks and clouds—it’s like a seven-layer cake.”
Small-town scenery will also feature strongly in the show through works such as High Steaks, a tribute to the bull-shaped emblem of an iconic eatery in Williams, Arizona. “This restaurant has been around since 1946, but it’s closed now,” says De Luz. “It still has this magnificent neon sign, and I wasn’t sure how long it would still be there, so I thought, ‘How can I not paint it?’”
While many of the landmarks that De Luz portrays are disappearing from the map, they live on through his artwork. “This West is fading away,” he concedes. “When people see my paintings, I hope they’re transported back to a time when life may have been a little easier, and they’ll think to themselves, ‘You know, America has some pretty cool stuff in it. I had no idea.’
Visit Blue Rain Gallery in the Santa Fe Railyard for a visual tour of the country through Hit the Road, on display from January 31 to February 11, 2025.
