Gerald Peters says art galleries are becoming passé and that the bloom is off Santa Fe.

Tonya Turner Carroll says the last three years were the best she's ever had and that Canyon Road is booming.

Ask a different Santa Fe art dealer about the state of the art market, get a different opinion.

That was the upshot of a dozen interviews with dealers and others in the art business last week.

"If it was this slow and it was July, I'd be very scared," said Deborah Fritz, vice president of the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

"There was a little surge there at the end of the year where people had a little more confidence and were spending more money on themselves. Right now, it's pretty slow. But we are gearing up for the Art Feast weekend, [Feb. 24-26] which is usually a pretty good weekend for us."

Foreigners reportedly have been buying high-end art in some markets, and Fritz reported shipping art to Brazil, Mexico City and Brussels. Another dealer is working on a commission from China for an oil painting of horses. One local artist is working on a multi-year commission from an unknown patron who sends checks from a Middle East bank.

But Peters, arguably Santa Fe's most successful art dealer, with considerable holdings in real estate, restaurants and banking, said Santa Fe has never been an international art market and isn't likely to become one in the future.

"The bloom is off Santa Fe a little," he said through a spokeswoman. "It isn't as popular as it once was. Santa Fe took its tourists for granted, while other communities became more attentive and competitive."

As for art, Peters -- who began dealing in works by Georgia O'Keeffe more than 40 years ago, and now handles a stable of historic and contemporary artists from the largest gallery in Santa Fe plus another in New York City -- predicted Santa Fe's future will see fewer galleries.

"The gallery model does not work as well as it used to because the marketplace has changed with auction houses and the Internet playing expanded roles," he said. "At the same time, there is a generational shift in taste."

Tonya Turner Carroll disagreed with that assessment. She said the last three years have been the best in the 22 years she and her husband have run Turner Carroll Gallery, which represents international art stars such as Hung Liu, Rex Ray and Squeak Carnwath.

Commercial real estate might be struggling in the Santa Fe Railyard and downtown, but Turner Carroll said there are no vacancies on Canyon Road, which remains a must-visit for well-heeled art aficionados.

"They just love Santa Fe and, when they're here, they like being low-key, but they come in and they buy -- they buy a lot of art," she said.

"Across the board, the collectors I talk to, they all have fond thoughts of Santa Fe and wanting to come back here. So I don't think the bloom is off Santa Fe at all. I think it has a mystique that is unsurpassable. To say Santa Fe doesn't have its pizzazz anymore, I don't think that's right."

Peter de La Fuente, who sells his family's artworks as well as his own at the Wyeth Hurd Gallery, said he's never seen it slower.

"If you go out on Palace Avenue, you can look down and there's nobody in that portal going down to the Plaza. It's almost in a vacuum right now," he said. "There are times in the year that I feel like I've got a very nice office with very excellent art on the wall."

De La Fuente, the grandson of Peter Hurd and the great-grandson of M.C. Wyeth, was among several dealers to use the language of the Occupy movement.

"I hate to be a snob, but what we're getting now is a bunch of 99 percenters, and they're very appreciative, but they're not collectors," he said. "The people who are collectors, my clients, are the 1 percent, people who can afford art and fine art and expensive art. ...

"We [need] to get rid of Obama and let the people make money again. Profit is not a bad thing. It's what makes this country go."

De La Fuente later called a reporter back to say he had been too negative in the interview because he was working on a particularly difficult part of a painting.

Fritz, the SFGA vice president, said the down economy has created some opportunities, like allowing her, the owner of Giacobbe-Fritz Fine Art, to purchase GF Contemporary two years ago.

She said some in the local Occupy movement have suggested Canyon Road is "the Wall Street of Santa Fe" -- "shaming our clients into not purchasing artwork because it is a luxury" -- when most Santa Fe art galleries are "mom and pops" staffed by their owners.

"If anything, we give to the poor and take from the rich by employing our artists," she said.

Alex Betts at Windsor Betts Art Brokerage House said her art-brokerage business has boomed because wealthy collectors, who trade in "used" art made by well-known artists, both living and dead, are not as affected by the depressed economy as others. But lately, she said, even the wealthiest are becoming cautious about art.

"The economy is giving people a feeling that they ought to hold onto their money right now," she said. "This is an election year and they're not sure which way the country's going to go, so they don't want to just go out and buy art. They feel like, 'We don't have to have art. We have to have money in the bank right now because who knows what's going to happen.' "

Despite the success of her business, Betts said she is dropping her lease on her location at 136 Grant Ave. (the Oliver P. Hovey House, previously known as the Pinckney R. Tully House, owned by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation) to consolidate into the building she owns at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Marcy Street. She said she would sell her business if she could find the right buyer.

Nedra Matteucci has been trying to sell her 20,000-square-foot gallery on Paseo de Peralta -- second only in size to the 33,500-square-foot Gerald Peters Gallery next door -- for four years.

Dustin Belyeu, director of the Nedra Matteucci Galleries, said he saw a "nice uptick" in sales during the final months of 2011.

High-end work by the Taos Society of Artists, especially Taos' Russian painters Leon Gaspard and Nicolai Fechin, continued to sell well at prices more than $100,000 even after the economy took a dive in 2008, he said, while art priced from $5,000 to $10,000 languished.

But during September, October and November, even the "middle-ground stuff" was moving, Belyeu said. "It just seemed like more people in town, more people able or wanting to spend money," he said.

Connie Axton at Ventana Fine Art said she gave up her downtown location last year and is concentrating on her Canyon Road gallery.

"It's rough -- I'm not going to kid you -- but the doors are still open and we're still standing and we are encouraged," she said. "I have seen some flickers of new hope, I guess, and we have to stay positive."

Axton said her website brings in customers, and about half of those who bought art recently have been new customers.

Bonnie French at the Waxlander Gallery said 2011 was better than 2010, and 2012 has started out strong.

"You have to work harder than you ever have before," she said. "Advertising has been a real plus for us. You can't pull back on your marketing."

Elizabeth Hahn at the Hahn Ross Gallery said she's heard reports of an upturn in art sales, but hasn't seen it herself.

"I have heard people say, 'Well, some people are selling,' but, you know, it's hard to see the serious evidence of that," she said. "So far, this has not been reflected at the Hahn Ross Gallery."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.