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SANTA FE, NM. Three salient qualities characterize the artists represented by Karan Ruhlen. First, they have a passion for their materials, both the inherent properties, as well as for pushing and stretching the materials to perform in distinctly personalized ways. Secondly, the artists indulge in the process of making art and particularly in layering materials, which allows them to invest deeply felt emotions within the body of the artwork. Finally, although working abstractly, the artists are inspired by the spectrum of colors, shapes, and textures that comprise their environments, whether natural or manmade. In July, Ruhlen celebrates those qualities once again by featuring the paintings of three new artists. Albuquerque resident Tracy Rocca takes her digital camera into the field where everything from wildflowers to tree leaves inspire her to slow down and observe. Manipulating the camera鈥檚 focal points to blur objects, Rocca creates what she calls 鈥渨indows into an unspecified yet familiar environments.鈥� Her translation of that data into paintings is done with layered glazes of pigments and walnut oil on polyester applied to panel. 鈥淢y goal is to find a slower, more contemplative painting process that reasserts the value of the human hand and creates an enveloping, meditative focus,鈥� she says. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Kit Reuther began her career as an architectural illustrator before moving into the fine arts. Her most recent body of work combines drawing in graphite and painting in a muted palette of oils. Responding to the sensory stimuli of her environment, Reuther applies loose, gestural layers of pigment, using a shorthand of glyphs that reflect dormant plant life in winter snow or the warm tones of spring renewal. "My recent work has stripped away the narrative that comes with recognition of subjects,鈥� she says. 鈥淚mages are implied, but I intentionally avoid literal identification. Instead, organic shapes and mark-making utterances come together to form a personal language on the canvas." Vanita Smithey鈥檚 career as a representational painter came to a close when she rejected the rules of watercolor competitions for the freedom of experimenting in acrylics, encaustic, house paint, and modeling paste. A resident of Santa Fe for the past four years, she is inspired by views from her studio, as well as from aerial perspectives, which are the foundation of her Girard Series featured in the July exhibition. Applying multiple layers of paint to panel-supported canvas, Smithey goes back into the layers with a variety of tools 鈥渢o find and lose forms,鈥� she explains. When her exploration is complete, she finishes the paintings with a coat of wax that compels viewers to join her on a path of discovery. Karan Ruhlen invites you to meet the artists and explore their work at a reception on Friday, July 17, from 5 to 7 pm.