Southwestern art with its vivid color, tactile surfaces and striking imagery tends toward high drama. Works can be wonderful--or not. It's a tightrope walk and even the best artists cannot always perform the feat. Whatever your aesthetic preferences, you have to admire their audacity.

In most Southwestern galleries the viewer can expect to see many genres of art. Real estate prices haven't eliminated the opportunity for showing a range of work, and dealers seem to enjoy giving new artists an opportunity to develop a following. Also, Southwestern dealers put a lot of art on the walls; they have a casual attitude about the work and don't act the part of a mini-museum. So, galleries typically show a variety of work in various price ranges cheek-to-jowl. Prices for original works-on-paper start around $300 and prices for a medium-size paintings on canvas start in the low thousands.