“My paintings are of an imaginary world, a pre-industrial Arcadia, a time when Northern New Mexico was nothing but rural villages, usually with a church in the center. Life was based on agriculture, and living in harmony with the changing seasons.”Tom Noble, a third generation Taoseno, has been painting professionally for thirty years and has had the opportunity to observe and study with many of the early Taos artists. Their influence shows in his romantic, timeless portrayals of the landscape of northern New Mexico.
Tom lives in the Taos countryside among fields and sheep, cows and crows, ponds and apple orchards, fences and water ditches and nature’s moods and mountains. Viewing from his studio window, he paints the sublime pastoral fantasies he sees and lives with daily – a major reflection of the man and his life style.
For Noble, memory, atmosphere, weather, and the seasons are all major elements of his compositions. His details are intriguing – the shovel and wheelbarrow recall the difficulties of wresting crops from the land; wells, crosses, coyote fences, hornos (outdoor ovens), and farm animals animate the world of the high mountain villages. He finds that his awareness of color has continued to expand, and he includes ever more complex chromatic nuances in rendering these scenes.
