Vertu Fine Art Gallery
102 Plaza Street, Socorro, NM 87801 (575) 835-4487, www.vertuarts.com
Socorro, home to Vertu Fine Art Gallery, is a small city surrounded by an abundance of unforgettable treasures. Vertu is French for “a love or knowledge of, or taste for, fine art,” and true to its name, the gallery hosts a collection of works that appeals to those looking for fine originals. Owner Georgette Evans Grey is a prolific watercolorist whose paintings alone could fill the gallery. She has tastefully interspersed a few of her own works with acrylics, oils and pastels as well as sculpture, jewelry, woodwork and textiles by local and nationally known artists.
Launched in 1995 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and selling art continuously online since 1996, Vertu reinvented itself in Socorro in late 2012. The location on Socorro's plaza is the fourth storefront they have occupied since their original opening in Massachusetts.
Intermingled throughout the gallery you'll find works by many renowned artists. Sharon Fullingim, an officer of the annual Indiana Limestone Symposium, is well known for her sculptures in bronze, limestone or Colorado Yule marble. Skeeter Leard's pastel and acrylic renderings of desert plants, animals and birds, and her magnificent horse portraits, bring nature to life. Anyone who has driven the back roads of New Mexico will appreciate the detail in watercolorist Grey's landscapes and florals. Michael Goettee's acrylics astound with their clarity and occasional whimsy. Linda Giesen's tapestries tell stories of New Mexico as they abstract their subjects.
In the spring and summer, the gallery will host The Garden in Bloom, featuring floral portraits, birds, butterflies and plantscapes.