Great art created in Capitan country

Maria Hamilton is a very talented fine artist living on a ranch near Capitan with her husband, Rusty; son, Scout, and various animals which includes many horses.

The horses are prevalent in many of Hamilton's paintings as well as other animals, but Hamilton doesn't stop there, she is also a portrait artist of people and can do portraits using many different art mediums.

Hamilton said she began producing art when she was only three years old. She said, "I kept doing whales with watercolors--I don't know where that came from." She continued to have a natural desire to produce art and she used different mediums continuing her art without any formal education until she reached high school.

She even produced a mural with a horse on the wall of her bedroom when she was a small girl. She began riding horses at age 6.

Hamilton was born in Kansas and her family moved to El Paso, Texas where she attended high school and began her first formal art classes. She said during that time, there was a professional portrait artist who would come to the high school intermittently and select some students proficient in art and had them get sketch books and fill them with portrait art mostly using pencil.

“Filling those sketch books was a valuable experience,” Hamilton said. Through the years, Hamilton continued to produce art using various art mediums such as pencil, charcoal, acrylic paint, pastel, and watercolor.

More recently, Hamilton has taught drawing, painting and design at the Eastern New Mexico University in Ruidoso and currently teaches art classes on an ongoing basis at the Ruidoso Community Center, 501 Sudderth Dr. "I teach whatever art medium people wish to use from 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays. There are usually from four to eight people attending these classes. A donation is requested," Hamilton said.

“Due to my chiropractic work on horses, it is easier to draw and paint them since I am well versed regarding their muscles and bone structure,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton does all types of art on a commission basis which also includes murals. "In Ruidoso, if you would like to see a few of my murals," Hamilton said, there is one at the Ruidoso convention center and one at the Ruidoso Downs race track." Acrylic paint was the art medium used for these murals.

Several of Hamilton's artworks are currently on display at the Capitan Public Library, 101 E. 2nd St.

“My artwork is realistic, sometimes going a little toward impressionistic,” Hamilton said. She works in her home studio and sells her art through her website: www.artwithmaria.com.  For more information, she may be reached at 575 937-7826.

Hamilton has been donating a piece of her artwork to the Lincoln County Fair for the past five years.

Four years back, Hamilton became a cancer survivor after major surgery. Then she returned to her art mediums and her canvases and she continues to produce great works of art.