In Episode 109 of the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast, host Leroy Garcia welcomes painter Tony De Luz for an intimate studio conversation exploring the creative journey behind his upcoming show "66 and Beyond," an inspired body of work, and his evolving relationship with Blue Rain Gallery.

De Luz reflects on the cultural power of America’s historic highway, sharing how its vintage signage, neon-lit motels, and small-town storefronts have become central motifs in his paintings. From Flagstaff to Albuquerque and Durango, the landscapes and communities of the Southwest provide both visual language and emotional grounding for his art, celebrating nostalgia while reimagining it through a contemporary lens.

The episode also traces Tony’s path from commercial illustration to fine art, highlighting the persistence required to build a meaningful career in today’s creative economy. In a candid moment, he discusses his participation in the docuseries Glitter & Greed: The Lisa Frank Story, speaking openly about workplace culture, artistic integrity, and the importance of advocating for fair treatment in creative industries.

Throughout the conversation, Garcia and De Luz explore themes of mentorship, artistic growth, and the quiet power of community, whether found in a small gallery town, along a winding railroad track, or through the enduring stories embedded in America’s roadsides.

This episode offers listeners a thoughtful look at how place, memory, and perseverance shape an artist’s voice, and why Tony De Luz’s work continues to resonate with collectors and audiences across the Southwest.

Find original artwork by Tony De Luz available at Blue Rain Gallery: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/tony-de-luz

Subscribe to the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast for more artist interviews, cultural insights, and contemporary art discussions.

This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.

Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

In Episode 108, host Leroy Garcia sits down with Australian artist Lew Brennan, a self-taught master of oil and charcoal whose work bridges the ranching worlds of Australia and the American Southwest. Brennan—who traveled across the globe to join us in the studio—shares his personal story, his lifelong connection to horses, and how ranch life shaped both his eye and his artistic language.Together, Leroy and Lew discuss hyper-realism, the power of monumental scale, and the technical precision behind charcoal and oil. From the life and spirit inside the veins of a horse, to the challenge of painting “white on black,” to the hidden self-portrait within a chrome-finished Harley-Davidson, Brennan’s storytelling is as rich as his paintings. The episode also explores the cultural kinship between Australia and the Southwest, the role of tradition, and how music and lived experience influence the names behind his work.If you collect Western art, equine art, or hyper-realism, this is a must-listen introduction to an exciting new voice at Blue Rain Gallery.View Lew Brennan's work here: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/lew-brennanSubscribe to the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast for more artist interviews, cultural insights, and contemporary art discussions.This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

In this episode of the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast, host Leroy Garcia speaks with painter Robin Jones about her newest exhibition, Nos Galan Gaeaf—a series inspired by Celtic ancestry, animism, and the thin veil between the spiritual and physical worlds. Jones discusses how researching her Welsh, Irish, and Scottish roots shaped this collection, and how her portraits of adolescent girls exist at a powerful threshold—between childhood and adulthood, the modern world and the ancestral, the living world and spirit. Nature becomes an active presence in the work: dragonflies, birds, stone cathedrals, ocean winds, and crumbling architecture all carry energy and symbolism. Throughout the conversation, Robin explains her animistic worldview, her process of creating environments alive with “personhood,” and why she uses architecture and sacred sites from Celtic lands to deepen the storytelling in her paintings. Leroy and Robin also explore themes of environmental stewardship, cultural inheritance, and how young people—especially young women—embody the future. 
View available work by Robin Jones: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/robin-jones/view-allSubscribe to the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast for more artist interviews, cultural insights, and contemporary art discussions.This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

In this episode of the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast, host Leroy Garcia speaks with renowned figurative painter Mark Pugh, whose surreal and psychological works explore the human condition through symbolism, storytelling, and emotional depth. From his background in psychology to his breakthrough moment of artistic authenticity, Pugh discusses how curiosity about the human mind drives his art, merging technical mastery with narrative imagination.

About Mark PughMark Pugh is an award-winning figurative painter from Utah whose works blend realism, surrealism, and psychological narrative. Known for their emotional resonance and dreamlike quality, his paintings invite reflection on identity, connection, and the unseen layers of human experience. Pugh’s art has received multiple awards from the Portrait Society of America and is represented by Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Find his available artwork here: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/surrealism-showSubscribe to the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast for more artist interviews, cultural insights, and contemporary art discussions.This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

Join Blue Rain Gallery owner Leroy Garcia as he sits down with acclaimed Hopi Katsina (Kachina) carvers Stetson Honyumptewa and his son Aaron Honyumptewa for an intimate conversation on tradition, innovation, and legacy in contemporary Katsina carving.In this special episode, the Honyumptewas share stories of their family lineage, the evolution of Katsina dolls from early materials to advanced woodburning techniques, and the influence of legendary carvers who paved the way for today’s artists. Together, they discuss the spiritual and cultural significance of Katsina figures, the role of cottonwood root in carving, and the delicate balance between honoring tradition and creating new expressions.
Whether you’re a collector, an art enthusiast, or new to Katsina culture, this conversation offers rare behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most respected Hopi art traditions, carried forward by two master carvers.

Explore Katsina Dolls at Blue Rain Gallery: https://blueraingallery.com/search?q=%2Fsearch&search=kachina🔔 Subscribe to the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast for more artist interviews, cultural insights, and contemporary art discussions.This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

In this episode, we sit down with legendary Western Pop artist Billy Schenck to explore the stories, inspirations, and cinematic constructs behind his latest body of work. Known as one of the most influential painters of the Southwest, Schenck shares how he layers photography, memory, and imagination to create dynamic compositions that blur the line between realism and myth.From rodeo cowboys suspended mid-air to Navajo jewelers, Pueblo women with pottery, and sweeping Monument Valley horizons, Billy reveals how he constructs scenes using multiple photographic negatives, prehistoric pottery motifs, and a cinematic approach to light and shadow. His paintings capture the drama of Canyonlands, Cedar Mesa, and the San Juan River—infused with both historical reverence and contemporary vision.Hear about Schenck’s deep fascination with prehistoric Southwest pottery, his process of integrating cottonwood trees and mesas into iconic Western landscapes, and his perspective as a former rodeo champion and cultural historian. The episode highlights signature works like "Shortcut" and portraits inspired by friends, neighbors, and fellow artists, while unpacking the balance of design, narrative, and authenticity in his art.Whether you are an art collector, student of Southwestern history, or admirer of Western iconography, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into the mind of “the most interesting man in the West.”

Explore Billy Schenck at Blue Rain Gallery: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/billy-schenckThis episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

Join us for an intimate episode of the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast featuring acclaimed painter Sean Diediker in conversation with gallery owner Leroy Garcia. Together, they walk through Diediker’s exhibition New Directions, offering a rare glimpse into the artist’s evolving process, his ties to the Southwest, and his search for emotional depth in contemporary painting .Diediker shares how his roots in the Salt Lake Valley and his family’s connection to Southwestern trading posts shaped his artistic vision, while also reflecting on how memory, heritage, and personal relationships continue to inspire his work. In this new body of paintings, he embraces a radical shift in technique—trading controlled brushwork for experimental underpaintings, palette knives, bold mark-making, and spontaneous gestures that bring his canvases to life. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Maynard Dixon, and Jeremy Mann, Diediker explores the tension between abstraction and representation, creating work that feels both raw and refined.Throughout the conversation, Diediker discusses themes of sacred spaces, intimacy, and contentment, alongside landscapes that capture the quiet beauty of the natural world. His New Directions exhibition represents a turning point in his career, balancing technical mastery with intuitive expression and offering collectors striking works of emotional resonance.Explore Sean Diediker’s New Directions exhibition and discover more artists from Blue Rain Gallery at https://blueraingallery.com/artists/sean-diedikerThis episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.Discover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.

In this episode of the Blue Rain Gallery Podcast, host Leroy Garcia sits down with three leading contemporary Native artists, Chris Pappan, Thomas “Breeze” Marcus, and Jesse Littlebird, for an in-depth panel discussion on tradition, innovation, and the creative journey. The conversation explores early influences, heritage, navigating cultural protocols, overcoming creative blocks, and the biggest artistic risks they’ve taken. From childhood memories and desert landscapes to graffiti walls and ledger art, each artist reveals how their personal history and community ties shape their work. This candid exchange offers insight into the evolving landscape of Indigenous art today.Part of Blue Rain Gallery's Annual Celebration of Native American ArtChris Pappan: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/chris-pappanThomas Breeze Marcus: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/thomas-breeze-marcusJesse Littlebird: https://blueraingallery.com/artists/jesse-littlebirdDiscover curated home goods and fine art prints by Blue Rain Gallery artists — only at BlueRainPrintShop.com. Bring the art you love into your everyday life.This episode was hosted by gallery owner and founder Leroy Garcia, produced and edited by Leah Garcia, with original music by Mozart Gabriel Abeyta.