"By putting myself in situations where I can observe people from overhead, I find inspiration."

Artist Warren Keating paints figures from an aerial perspective, capturing the immediacy of the moment using an approach he describes as Pixel Impressionism. Born in New Orleans, he began drawing at a young age and later studied art before building a career as an editorial art director in Los Angeles. After years of working in design while painting on the side, he transitioned to a full-time painting career after finding success in selling art on the internet. He became part of the early wave of artists selling work online. He paints in a spacious, slightly cluttered studio next to his house. When not making art, Warren enjoys spending time with his family and traveling to gather new experiences and references for his compositions. His paintings have earned features on CNN, the LA Times, and the Huffington Post.

In this interview, Warren talks about his wife, the animals on their farm, and his journey and process as an artist.

What’s your home life like?

I live about 30 minutes from Santa Fe, close to the Pecos River, on a couple of acres that my wife, Lisa, and I refer to as hummingbird house and a "micro-homestead," as we have a well and some solar; we grow some vegetables that we trade for protein (local elk). This is in contrast to most of my life, where Lisa and I lived in Los Angeles and had a very urban lifestyle. In addition to our dogs, Talulla and Toby, Blue Heeler and Terrier, respectively, we also have two female goats, fraternal twins, Lucy and Daisy, at the hummingbird house that we have had for almost three years, since they were one-day-old. We recently hosted a male goat, and we hope that the ladies will deliver in May. Ultimately, we hope to end up with a small herd of females.

Do you have personal projects or activities that keep you busy?

I spend the rest of the time exploring New Mexico, hiking in the BLM land that is adjacent to my property, building farm structures and planting trees on my acreage, walking and caring for my goats, refurbishing an 80s Toyota 4wd truck and hosting get togethers at my north New Mexico style house, complete with post and beam interior and log cabin exterior, coved vigas ceiling, diamond plaster walls and second-floor studio with incredible views of the mountains on one side and the mesa on the other.

I also have an art side project that I am developing that is very different than my figurative painting and more for exhibition in pubic spaces, but I can't be more specific about it. I feel that at my age, it's easier to do that kind of experimental thing as an artist, so why not? I spend some of my time developing that project.

How are you involved in the local art community?

I co-own a gallery, ViVO Contemporary, on famous Canyon Road in Santa Fe, with 8 other artists. I have been the director of the gallery for six years and have been its owner for ten years. The current nine artists have been together for more than 5 years, but the gallery has been in existence for 24 years. The gallery is a museum-like two-level space, featuring contemporary art from local artists. There is a mixture of abstract, figurative, and non-objective two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. ViVO hosts several community-oriented events that feature talks and demos by ViVO artists.

In Santa Fe, I serve as the president of the Santa Fe Gallery Association, so I am very active in the gallery scene in the four art districts in the city of Santa Fe, advocating for the membership, helping with the curation of the SFGA exhibition at the Santa Fe Airport, and attending board meetings. As a ViVO artist, I exhibit at Art Santa Fe in the ViVO Contemporary booth in the summer.

What are you most proud of—whether in art or another part of your life?

I am most proud of my 35-year marriage to my wife, Lisa, and my 24-year-old daughter, Lisette. I have received a lot of gratification as president of the Santa Fe Gallery Association, where, alongside the board and executive director, I have managed to create positive change for the local art community. I am also proud of the advances we have made and the work our current partners have done for ViVO Contemporary in the last several years, which has enabled it to thrive more financially and increase its standing in the community.

A couple of recent proud “art moments”:

• The state of New Mexico purchased a painting for a new senior center in Rio Rancho;

• ViVO won Best New exhibitor at Art Santa Fe 2024;

• I exhibited alongside John Nieto, an indigenous artist who has been my hero for decades;

• Several times, my work was selected for exhibition in the Santa Fe Community Gallery.

Do you have any studio rituals that help you get into a creative flow?

I have been painting for over 40 years, so the ritual has changed many times, depending on outside factors. For many decades, I painted alla prima, immediate, aggressive with no drawing, just big blocking in with a big brush and refining with a smaller brush, overlaying marks that were inaccurate, the wrong viscosity, or lacked emotion with new marks. This was a frenetic event that lasted 8-12 hours and started up the next morning in the hopes of finishing the painting while the surface was still malleable.

However, a year or so ago, I started drawing the image on the canvas with some detail and accuracy, made by erasing and pushing the graphite around on the canvas, before I started the painting. In this new process, when I get to the painting part, I spend more time making dynamic and cohesive mark-making that is in harmony with the overall form and less time finding the image. It has made me more relaxed and takes away a bit of the monumental feeling of beginning a large painting.

I also have a yoga room downstairs that I do yoga in, so I can keep my body in good enough shape to stand up in front of a large canvas and paint for 8 hours with focus and energy.

How do you structure your day?

The only structure that I have is that I get up early to walk, feed, and clean up after my goats. Otherwise, it varies, whether I decide to stay on the farm or go into town, so there’s not a lot of structure. It keeps my life free and open to live as an artist.

Where do you find inspiration for your art?

A big part of my process starts before I pick up a pencil or a paintbrush, it is when I capture aerial references of people in everyday life for future paintings. By putting myself in situations where I can observe people from overhead, I find inspiration.

I also live my life as an artist to keep the inspiration coming. I have been doing this so long that I can dial in the rest of my life to support it.

The goats inspire me. Three years ago, I had only dogs, but spending time with smarter animals (goats have the intelligence of a 7-year-old human), that are herd animals who act like prey, is a completely different experience from a dog or a cat. How will that experience result in inspiration? This is something I can't put into words, and hasn't yielded concrete results, yet. But when I do something crazy and non-productive like that, it usually ends up in a breakthrough in my journey as a painter.

Tell us about your evolution as an artist.

Born in New Orleans, I have been drawing and storytelling since I was a child, and started painting when I was crippled by an adolescent hip disorder that left me unable to walk for several years in my youth. I have always wanted to be an artist and loved drawing, and it was my respite during that time. I moved to Los Angeles to get my bachelor's degree at Otis College of Art and Design. I was working in graphic design and fashion design to support myself through art school and ended up spending 15 years as an editorial art director in Los Angeles, where I became heavily involved in photography and video, but kept a garage studio the entire time to make paintings at night.

I was able to become a full-time artist as a result of being a part of the first wave of artists who were selling work at reasonable prices on the internet. After having a child and continuing to live in Los Angeles, my wife and I decided to move to Santa Fe as my daughter was going into high school. As they say in Santa Fe, the mountain welcomed us, and it proved to be one of the best decisions Lisa and I made for ourselves and our daughter. Soon after we moved to Santa Fe, I met the director of ViVO Contemporary during the first Friday night art walk on Canyon Road, and I was accepted as a member.

Through my associations, I became an effective contributor to the Santa Fe art community, which in turn has brought some opportunities to exhibit in public spaces in Santa Fe, including being a part of an exhibit at the Santa Fe Airport alongside the work of an artist that I have been in awe of since childhood, indigenous artist John Nieto.

How do you decide when an artwork is finished?

For decades, I would answer that question with “my wife, Lisa, would tell me”, but over the last decade I developed that skill to a sufficient degree, and I don't worry about ruining a piece by over-processing it, because I can destroy it and try again.

What is the most interesting observation someone has made about your work?

There have been a lot of interesting observations about my work, because I have exhibited in galleries a lot and have given artist talks, but the one that stands out is when someone who sees my work for the first time says that it is the most unique painting style they have seen or that they have not seen anything like it before. That to me resonates the most with what I am trying to do as an artist.

What’s your favorite museum?

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris, because I love studying impressionism, and it is the beginning of pictorial modernism, in my opinion. Since moving to New Mexico, I have become fascinated by its long history and the beautiful blending of indigenous, Hispanic, and Caucasian cultures, and the local art history that has resulted. I love visiting the New Mexico Museum of Art, the new Vladem Contemporary, and SITE Santa Fe.

Is there an artwork from another artist that has had a significant impact on you?

Willem de Kooning has always inspired me with his ability to combine abstract and figurative painting. Others who also inspire me are Chuck Close for mark-making and Gerhard Richter for his use of motion, blur, and variety of subject matter.

Is there anything else you’d like to share to help viewers better understand your work?

Ultimately, I am fueled by the deep connections collectors bring to my work.

Discover more artist features on UGallery

If you enjoyed this article about Warren Keating's life and artwork, we recommend reading our interviews with David Forks and Elizabeth Garat, and their impressionist landscape paintings.