Canyon Segunda
Donald Anderson
Created : 1991
Donated : 1994
Medium : Painting/Oil
Dimensions: 40 inx60 in
Located: 3rd Floor
Donald Anderson’s landscapes are not actual nor are they imaginary. They are painted in his studio from memory. They originate from his mental sketchbook in which elements from actual landscapes are recollected and recombined with imagined elements and details to create his imagined, original vistas. His are the landscapes of the mind.
Donald Anderson is not only an artist but is a patron of the arts, an art collector and a Roswell oilman. Anderson arrived in Roswell, New Mexico in 1946 to try his hand in the oil game. His devotion to the arts is evident in just a few of his artistic commitments. He has been involved in the Santa Fe Opera, founded the Roswell Museum’s artist-in-residence grant, contributed money, materials, work and time to the Roswell Museum and Art Center, acted as a member of the board of directors and major supporter of the Jargon Society (a literary endeavor), and participated as a Smithsonian Commissioner of the National Museum of Art.
Anderson’s commitment to the arts in New Mexico has been substantial as has his fifty-plus year commitment to his painting. He began painting in 1940 while at Purdue University studying mechanical engineering, but his first influence in the arts was developed as a child with his frequent visits to the Chicago Art Institute to view the exhibits. It is these visual memories then, as now, that have fueled his sensibilities.
