Oil
Mountain Living Studio features high quality oil paintings in a variety of sizes and themes. The excellent work of our artists has been voted to be the best in Colorado Springs. Some of our featured artists include Liese Chavez, Steve Weed, Gene Van Essen and Mary Giacomini. Our award winning artists' work will sate the appetite of art appreciators and collectors alike.
Liese Chavez
A statement from the artist: "When I was small, I remember lying on my back under a side table in my Grandparents' house. The tabletop was a round slab of marble, out of which grew a lamp with lead crystal teardrops dangling from a filigree bloom. There was a circlet of these crystals beneath the lamp as well and I watched the front parlor glow in the half-light reflected from these tiny worlds of faceted glass. In that private world just a few inches from the floor, the chairs all had carved feet on the bottom and way above me near the ceiling I could see the undersides of little animal faces in the corners of the moldings. I would climb up the steep stairs to the dusty attic with crates of 45 records and the secret-seeming low doors to mysterious things in storage in the eaves. Sometimes I would hide myself in the tiny sewing room under the stairs or spend hours pawing through Grammy’s costume jewelry, trying on clip-on earrings and peeking into lockets. One day I came into my grandparents’ house and everything looked different. The tiny details were still there, but I was too tall to see them so intimately anymore. Some of the magic had disappeared. I have been trying to get back to that magical world ever since. This series holds all the nostalgia and strange faces of my past. I wanted to know what was inside, what was under, what was behind things. I still do. Come into the wardrobe with me, let the smell of old faded minks brush your face and peek with me up onto the high shelf filled with hatboxes and secrets…" If you are looking to purchase Liese's work in our online store - look HERE. 
Steve Weed
Steve Weed was raised under the dramatic skies of Oklahoma, Texas, and the mountains of New Mexico, and was influenced early by their visual impact. At the age of 13 he knew he wanted to make his mark in life as an image maker. On the heels of awards and scholarships for his artistic talents, Steve earned a BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio before embarking on a career in graphic design, photography, and fine art that is well known in the San Antonio and the South Texas region. His work hangs in the private collections of well- known clients, corporations, and institutions across the nation. Over the years he’s been commissioned for art (water color and oil mediums), graphic design, photography - even high profile courtroom renderings and celebrity portraiture. As a young artist, he studied printmaking in Europe before opening his own art gallery and frame shop and creating hallmark icons for the celebrated Fiesta San Antonio. Steve recently retired from a well-established design career and, with a loyal client base in south Texas, permanently relocated to Colorado Springs with the intent of returning to the mountains and pursuing his love for image making full time. In his art, it is Steve’s hope that you will accept his invitation to see the world as he sees it through paint and print… and that you will enjoy the results of his efforts.
Sherry Rogers
Sherry Rogers' passion for painting shows in her impressionistic style reflecting the subtleties of color and the play of light and shadow. She captures the joy of nature in a sparkling landscape, the delicate beauty of a flower, a quaint cottage, or a moody seascape - whether painting plein air or from a photograph taken during her many travels. She expresses much emotion and passion in her painting. Sherry originally studied art in Manhattan Beach, California, where she was awarded 1st and 2nd Places in the Manhattan Beach Annual Art Show. She then set her paints aside until she began painting again after a 20-year hiatus. 
Gene Van Essen
A statement from the artist: "I was born in 1954 in a small Dutch town in Southwest Minnesota. My childhood was surrounded by daffodils and tulips, a sea of colors and textures. And I could see the landscape changing with the seasons and the lighting would change as days got shorter. At the age of sixteen I started painting with oils. I found a way of expression myself, a wonderful way of communication of what I was seeing. Years later I attended the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver. This laid the foundation for my color theory and compositional design. Years of life class helped to fine tune my skills in anatomy, and I also have attended many workshops around the country. As an Artist, the process of painting is more joyful than the finished art work, for me the excitement is in the journey, more than the destination. I paint with bold brush strokes and contrasting values, this gives life and drama to the artwork. My work is an illusion of color and texture, hoping to create an emotional response from the viewer. I would like the viewer to be drawn into my painting with the high saturation of hues, and thick colors. I enjoy watching the viewer step back to see the art work, only to step close to see the brushwork; this tells me the painting has energy. In painting Plein-Air, I try to allow nature to be the teacher. As a student... painting out-doors forces me to study the light and values with my eyes instead of my mind. Plein-Air breaks down my pre-conceived ideas, and shows me only truth."
Phil Lear
Phil Lear has always striven to bring an emotional charge to his work that intends to stick with the viewer long after the viewing. As a narrative figurative painter, it is his mission to create work that embodies a classical ideal, and speaks to the universal and timeless aspects of the human experience. Murky grays, browns, and strokes of sky blue pile on the canvas to form a barrage of colour that both intrigues and gratifies the eye in a fresh painterly realism. As a story-teller, his canvases are peopled, like a zoo, with a band of remarkable characters whose entrance on the scene can be at once inspiring and disquieting -- wild-eyed youth, brooding poets, defiant downtrodden martyrs, spellbinding vixens and fallen angels, tragic heroes and the criminally bent. They are strangers, but with a deep connection to the distant song of reality and life. 
Mary Giacomini
Mary Giacomini is a Colorado professional artist whose love of color shines throughout her artwork. She works in oil, pastel, watercolor and some acrylic. Her award winning artwork has been juried into national shows and she is represented by several galleries. Her artwork is collected by corporate and private patrons. Mary earned her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in studio arts from the University of Minnesota. She continues to further her education by working with her peers, attending workshops and has been participating in a weekly portrait and figure painting sessions since 2007. She has been teaching art to both adults and children since 2003. 