Our Neighborhood Gallery charity silent auction

The charity auction announced by local artist, Paul Maxwell, of the Our Neighborhood Gallery located in Picacho Hills is down to its last days. 

The outdoor Gallery consists of 11 large paintings created by Paul and three other Artists of Picacho Hills, Rosemary McKeown, Donna Popky and Marie Siegrist.  The paintings feature primarily original art focused on various themes of each of the artists.  

The weather-proofed, sealed paintings are on public display in front of Maxwell’s house on Vista Hermosa.  A special “Pet Portrait” was created for a lucky pet owner whose pet photo was selected at random by Paul’s dog, Scout.  The auction began Sunday, August 28^th and runs to Sunday, September 18th. 

Proceeds will go to Casa de Peregrinos of Las Cruces food bank and homeless shelter.  Friends, neighbors, residents from within and outside our area are invited to participate and bid on the paintings.  Bidding can be done in person, by email or by text.  A minimum opening bid ranging from $150 to $300, depending on the painting, is requested with minimum $10 over-bids asked on each piece.  Bids and over-bids will be shown on each painting at the Gallery as well as running tallies on Maxwell’s website (www.maxnewmexart.com).  Bidders will also be notified by email or text as the bidding proceeds. 

Maxwell and his fellow artists hope all lovers of art will respond to this event and donate generously to help the less fortunate of us needing support during these difficult times.  Their goal is to raise at least $2,000 for Casa de Peregrinos.  A similar event in 2020 raised over $2100 for the Road Runner Food Bank of New Mexico.  To date the auction has bids of just over $1,100 so there is more to do to achieve their goal.