Best of Show Artists Honored at La Posada de Santa Fe

La Posada de Santa Fe, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa will host cocktail party receptions in honor of Darlene Olivia McElroy, 2010 and 2012 contemporary Spanish Market best of show winner and Native American artist, Patrick Dean Hubbell, the 2013 Indian Market best of show contemporary painter award winner, during the city's world famous Spanish and Indian markets this summer. Both receptions are complimentary and open to the public.

The 2014 Spanish Market, slated for July 21 - 27, is a celebration of the Spanish culture that shaped the city's past and continues to influence its art, music, architecture and cuisine. A Santa Fe mixed media narrative artist, McElroy will be the guest of honor at this complimentary curator's reception and chef's tasting event on Saturday, July 26, starting at 5:30 p.m. in the hotel's library where her work is on display.

More than 175,000 people are expected to take to the Plaza August 18 - 24 for the 93rd annual Santa Fe Indian Market where more than 1,000 world-renowned Native American artists and artisans meet for the largest gathering of its kind. Hubbell, originally from Navajo, New Mexico and now working on the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona, exhibits extensively in the Southwest and in recent years has mounted shows in Italy, Spain and the UK, where his following is growing. In Santa Fe, Hubbell's work is available exclusively at La Posada, where he will meet fans and collectors at a complimentary reception starting at 5:30 p.m. on August 23.

"Patrick Dean Hubbell and Darlene Olivia McElroy are accomplished American artists, and both have been part of La Posada's Gallery Collection for many years," said Sara Eyestone, curator of La Posada's collection of more than 40 contemporary American artists. "We wanted them to have the chance to meet with fans and collectors in a setting that is more intimate than the market itself.

"Long before Santa Fe became known as an art destination or had any galleries, La Posada de Santa Fe was providing work space, accommodations and exhibit space for artists who were drawn here by the extraordinary light and ever changing landscape," Eyestone added. "This hotel is as much a part of the city's artistic heritage as the artists themselves, and that is why for decades we have been known as 'the art hotel of New Mexico'." Eyestone paints in the hotel lobby Thursdays from 4 - 5 p.m.

This summer, the hotel will launch Breakfast with Painters, Saturdays from 8:30 -10 a.m. giving the public an opportunity to meet and interact with the artists whose work is featured at the hotel. Artists will discuss technique and style while they work on a piece near the hotel's patio. Each Saturday's featured artist also will join in the weekly Curator's Reception and Chef's Tasting on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m.