Delmas Howe

photo: Charles Rushton © Charles Rushton

"The New Mexico artist Delmas Howe combines Greco-
Roman myth with the myth of the cowboy. [He] offers an idyllic, idealized world, a  guilt-free celebration of a sexuality which no longer considers itself to be forbidden."

Edward Lucie-Smith
Art Today, Phaidon

Lithographs

"THESEUS"
oil on canvas, 38 x 44 inches
© DELMAS HOWE

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About fifteen years ago I first met Delmas in  Amarillo, Texas where he was revered as the wisened cultural hero for a small community of artists and art enthusiasts who were trying to make a civilized oasis out of what seemed to some like a barren backwater.

"PERSECUTION OF AN ESTHETE: SEBASTIAN AND DIOCLETION" oil on cnavas, 42 x 60 inches © DELMAS HOWE

Delmas was  working on at least two bodies of work: one dealt with the more traditional portraiture and landscape where he explored the personalized representation of friends and places he knows well with skillful drawing and paint handling.  However, it was the other body of work that stood out because it was clearly one of the most original group of paintings I had ever seen. Delmas refers to this extended series as the RODEO PANTHEON and in it he links his  understanding of Greek and Roman mythology and the classical representation of the human figure with his long-standing familiarity of the American West as he creates a new playground for the Greek Gods.


Penelope turns to examine the approaching figure not realizing yet that it is her husband. A suitor stands in the trailer and the finished quilt hangs over  the chair. Ulysses is returning in the nick of time. Telemachus leads a horse ino the scene and the dog who recognizes his master first is beginning to wag his tail.

"THE RETURN OF ULYSSES" oil on canvas, 60 x 78.5 inches © DELMAS HOWE

 

Recent Work

Lithographs

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"JOHN, PETER AND JAMES"
oil on canvas, 26x 48 inches
© DELMAS HOWE