Ghost Pony Gallery, High Road to Taos

Ghost Pony Gallery
by Trish Booth

Trish Booth and Leonardo Pieterse re-located to New Mexico from Oakland, California over 5 years ago, searching for a studio with a view. They not only found their view on the edge of Canada Hondo in Truchas, New Mexico, they also discovered it was the perfect location to open a gallery. After a long year of renovation the Ghost Pony Gallery found its permanent home.

The Artists

Trish Booth

I grew up the eldest child on a ranch in Montana so I learned early on how to entertain myself. I also learned the things a typical farm girl of that era would learn: how to sew, knit, crochet. I always loved to make things. I learned to knit after finding my late great-grandmother’s unfinished knitting on top of the armoire in what had been her bedroom, now mine.

A long and winding road took me to the San Francisco Art Institute where all those creative tendencies found form and at least some semblance of structure. I graduated with a BFA in Painting. After years of creating installation and assemblage art I returned to a focus on painting in 2003.
 
My first  trip to New Mexico, in the early ’90s, shaped the paintings to come. The moment I stepped off the plane and took in a deep breath of New Mexico air I knew I belonged here. Many visits later, in 2007, that became a reality.

We opened Ghost Pony Gallery our first summer here and haven’t slowed down since. A new series in mixed-media hints at my love for all things assemblage while maintaining formal sensibilities. My deerskin capes and medicine bags speak to a love of garment creation and old west tradition.
 

Leonardo Pieterse

I’m from Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. I moved with my entire family to Connecticut in 1970, making the long journey on the MS Achille Lauro. From there I made my way to the University of Connecticut, where I earned my BA, and then on to Central Missouri where I finished an MA in Fine Art.
 

Leaving the cold Northeast behind I rode my motorcycle to the West Coast, living in an apartment right on Venice Beach and working in the rare book collection at UCLA. Then I meandered up to the San Francisco Bay area, where I taught art in Oakland Public Schools until our move to New Mexico.
 
I work in many media including drawing, oil painting, mixed media, carving, and cabinetry.