Wellll.. no, one must admit that Ray Vinella does not look like Anthony Quinn. He's a bit more er, ah shall we say portly, and his hair is a bit..um...thinner. But the joie de vivre that radiates from him immediately reminds me of a Zorba the Greek. Expansive and warm, this is a man at ease with himself and his art.

Confident, that's the word. Assured, seasoned, fluent, but never slick. That, in a nutshell, is the painting of Ray Vinella. Walking the well-trodden path of the landscape painting that is so ubiquitous in northern New Mexico, he nevertheless has his own view to express. Firmly rooted in tradition and craft, he has the courage to take a chance, leap off a cliff as it were. Vinella can experiment, take risks, accepting that everything doesn't necessarily work. But also knowing there is a deep reservoir inside into which he can always dip, and always find the way to make his statement fresh, arresting. He is constantly seeking that "yes!" we feel when we face a painting we want to know, to live with, to make part of our own experience.

Vinella was born in Bari, Italy, a busy, unromantic port city on the east coast of the peninsula, but was brought to the United States when he was two years old. He’s one of the last generation to grow up on the Lower East Side of New York City, that community which seems as remote as ancient Rome to us today, but which was a vibrant atmosphere for a boy who had his eyes open.

He remember, while still very small, sitting on the floor of his tenement apartment with crayons and a coloring book. "Somebody patted me on the head and said it was nice- and I've been looking for strokes ever since," he laughs.

We compared stories of playing hooky in high school. In Vinella's case it was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, probably the greatest Mecca in the United States for exploring the history of art, from Babylon if ancient times to the trendiest tidbits of today. Once caught, his high school teacher didn’t believe him and said that, naw, he must have gone to the Paramount to see Frank Sinatra. Ray bridled indignantly while insisting that he actually went to the Met. Then he described the museum’s layout to the astonished teacher, who said, "okay, draw me." And Vinella did.

As with so many kids from the world of the less than well-off, the military was Vinella's ticket. He had previously worked his way through advertising design at a special high school in New York City, and after being mustered out of the service acquired two art degrees. "I wanted to become a medical illustrator at first," he reminisces. But his own talents took him in an entirely different direction. In 1969, he found himself in Taos.

In 1983, Vinella was moseying through the Stables Art Gallery when he saw the work of a young abstract artist, Leslie Crespin, with which he became immediately enamored. Shortly after, he established an art school and called to ask if she would teach. They met, fell in love, and firmly agreed, "we are not going to be married!"

Two years later, they were married. And still are. Each is artistic support for the other, bringing an alternative perspective to the process of evaluation. Leslie's work is entirely different than Ray's, she creates elegant, sensuous abstractions that radiate vibrancy.

Vinella has proven to be an influential teacher whose abilities as an instructor can be measured by the successful career's of his students including Alyce Frank, Miguel Martines, Barbara Zaring, Judy Gentry and Francis Donald, to name a few. Vinella says, " I teach them the alphabet…. But none of their work looks like mine; that's as it should be."

In his contemporary work, Vinella has had the enormous courage to be simple- that " condition of great simplicity costing not less than everything," with the canniness, the fluency, the insight that only experience brings. These distant views are " landscapes" at it's very essence. The extraordinary light, for instance, of a late winter afternoon, is something one could look at every day and never take for granted.

"I love Taos," concludes Vinella. " It's been good to me."

And he's certainly been good to the ongoing saga of expressing this valley, these mountains, these trees and meadows, sun and streams, sky and snow, in his own special way.

Ray Vinella's traditional landscape paintings can be viewed at Brazos Fine Art (505/758-0767) on bent Street.Vinella's contemporary landscapes are exhibited at Lumina of New Mexico (505/758-7282) at the top of the hill at the end of Morada Lane.