'Body' of work: Deborah Allison brings Parisian inspiration to New Mexico Art League exhibit

After a life spent on computers, a decade in Paris inspired Deborah Allison to turn to canvas.

The Santa Fe-based painter is one of 55 New Mexico artists showing their work in an exhibition of portraits and figure work at the New Mexico Art League in “Body Language,” through Aug. 17.

Allison and her husband nailed a computer contract for the French national railroad.

'Body' of work: Deborah Allison brings Parisian inspiration to New Mexico Art League exhibit

“That was where I really got the hunger to paint,” she said. “(It was) the history and being around it. You have these incredible art supply stores that still smell of linseed oil.”

She even discovered the shop where the great post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne bought his supplies.

Allison began by studying privately, starting at the beginning with drawing and learning how to look. Ten years later, she was in Alpine, Texas, living in an RV and restoring a building. A friend launched a gallery in Santa Fe and she came to visit, taking workshops. The couple returned to Texas.

By the height of the pandemic in 2020, they moved to Santa Fe.

“We just kind of made it our home,” Allison said. “Let’s go back to Santa Fe, where my muse is.”

As a former military brat, Allison was accustomed to frequent moves.

Her portrait “Inner Peace” evolved from photographs of a Texas model named Dezi.

“She’s a beautiful soul,” Allison said. “She was posing for some painting sketches.”

The relaxed figure assumes a meditative pose, contrasting before a splash of orange in the background.

“It’s not a color I’ve thought about a lot,” Allison said. “I was in a gallery downtown here that was a co-op. My colleagues in the co-op were using a lot of orange. They were using it so beautifully and successfully that I decided to try it.”

Allison prefers the vast color range of oils, as well as its ability to produce a visual representation of texture. She cites the classics such as Rembrandt, Jean Siméon Chardin and John Singer Sargent as major influences.

Art was not a family emphasis when she was a child.

“I wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t driven until Paris,” she said. “In Paris, I realized I had to do it.”