Ed Mell, View from Ward Terrace, 1997
Ed Mell
1942 - 2024
View from Ward Terrace, 1997
oil on canvas
signed lower right: Ed Mell
set into a custom, signature frame, inscribed lower right: Ed Mell
28 1/4 x 56 in. (71.8 x 142.2 cm.), frame: 33 x 60 3/4 x 2 in. (83.8 x 154.3 x 5.1 cm.)
Suzanne Brown Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ 1998
Collection of Kyle and Jeffrey Ferrell, 2016
Collection of Grant and Rebecca Ferrell (by descent)
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1942, Ed Mell developed an early connection to the distinctive landscape of his native state. After studying at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, Mell established a successful career in New York as an art director and illustrator. His return to Arizona began in 1970, when he accepted a teaching position on the Hopi Reservation. The summers he spent on the Colorado Plateau renewed his fascination with the desert and ultimately helped inspire his transition from commercial illustration to the Southwestern landscapes for which he became celebrated.
In Ward Terrace, Mell turns to the dramatic country south of Tuba City along U.S. Route 89, where the elevated terrain overlooks the vast, multicolored expanses of the Painted Desert. The region’s bands of red, purple, gray, and pale sediment provide an ideal subject for Mell’s distinctive interpretation of the Southwest. Rather than simply recording the landscape, Mell reduces its mesas, ridges, and distant formations into bold geometric forms, emphasizing the monumental scale, brilliant color, and extraordinary light of the Arizona desert.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
Ed Mell
1942 - 2024
View from Ward Terrace, 1997
oil on canvas
signed lower right: Ed Mell
set into a custom, signature frame, inscribed lower right: Ed Mell
28 1/4 x 56 in. (71.8 x 142.2 cm.), frame: 33 x 60 3/4 x 2 in. (83.8 x 154.3 x 5.1 cm.)
Suzanne Brown Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ 1998
Collection of Kyle and Jeffrey Ferrell, 2016
Collection of Grant and Rebecca Ferrell (by descent)
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1942, Ed Mell developed an early connection to the distinctive landscape of his native state. After studying at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, Mell established a successful career in New York as an art director and illustrator. His return to Arizona began in 1970, when he accepted a teaching position on the Hopi Reservation. The summers he spent on the Colorado Plateau renewed his fascination with the desert and ultimately helped inspire his transition from commercial illustration to the Southwestern landscapes for which he became celebrated.
In Ward Terrace, Mell turns to the dramatic country south of Tuba City along U.S. Route 89, where the elevated terrain overlooks the vast, multicolored expanses of the Painted Desert. The region’s bands of red, purple, gray, and pale sediment provide an ideal subject for Mell’s distinctive interpretation of the Southwest. Rather than simply recording the landscape, Mell reduces its mesas, ridges, and distant formations into bold geometric forms, emphasizing the monumental scale, brilliant color, and extraordinary light of the Arizona desert.
Condition
A condition report for this lot is available upon request (please include the lot number in your request) and is provided by Santa Fe Art Auction as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers.
