Fine Art Connoisseur September/October 2024

“Express yourself,” said my first serious painting instructor. “Just let it flow.” “But I want to learn to paint realistically, to depict objects and people,” I replied. “Those days are gone,” my teacher retorted. “No one wants that kind of art anymore, Eric. It went out with the Victorians.” I had always wanted to paint, so on my 40th birthday, my wife bought me some lessons. After two sessions of being told to slap my brush around, I got discouraged and quit. It was not until a few years later that I discovered a class in copying the Old Masters that reinvigorated my interest. Sadly, this story has been repeated to me hundreds of times by people who wanted to master realism but were told instead, “You can’t learn that…

Every issue of Fine Art Connoisseur reminds me how exciting the field of contemporary realist art has become, across the United States and among practitioners of every age. A key marker of this vitality will go viral on September 13, when all eyes turn to Washington, D.C., for the installation and illumination of the National World War I Memorial in Pershing Park, two blocks from the White House. More than 4 million American men and women served in uniform during the “War to End All Wars” (1914–18), and 116,000 of them gave their lives, a figure especially shocking when we consider that the U.S. did not join the conflict until 1917, three years after it started. The memorial’s focal point is A Soldier’s Journey, the 60-foot-wide bronze relief encompassing 38…

“THE AMERICAN WEST” means many different things to many different people, and that fact should make us all glad. At Fine Art Connoisseur we have long been keenly aware of how art of the West differs from — and overlaps with — art made in or about the rest of this remarkable country. That’s one reason every issue of this magazine contains a separate section called “Art in the West” — to underscore that very point. Its existence does not mean we have passed on a comparable section titled, say, “Art in the Northeast.” Rather, it’s recognition of the fact that Western vitality in the fields of historic and contemporary realism is so noticeably strong that it shouldn’t be overlooked or made to wait on the sidelines. It makes perfect…

DUSTIN ADAMSON (b. 1987) has come full circle. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he spent years studying in San Diego and then New Jersey, but has returned home to paint and teach. “Growing up in Silicon Valley,” he recalls, “I wasn’t exposed to much visual art beyond movies and videogames. The closest I got was doodling scenes from Star Wars and The Simpsons.” Pixar films were popular during Adamson’s youth, so at San Diego State University he majored in multimedia arts and planned to work for an animation studio. Yet his favorite classes were not digital at all: printmaking and bookbinding required working with his hands, which chimed happily with the summer construction jobs he took alongside his floor-layer father. After graduation, Adamson enrolled at the Bay…

TODAY’S MASTERS As fellow residents of Earth, wild animals have always fascinated humans, especially the artists among us. Thus many creatures appear in prehistoric cave paintings, and today the desire to depict them endures, stronger than ever. The artworks illustrated here confirm this ongoing enthusiasm, and it’s easy to learn more thanks to a host of activities happening across North America. For example, in Charleston next February, the annual Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (sewe.com) will again delight animal lovers with exhibitions, demos, and other activities highlighting the importance of conservation. Touring the country are the annual Art and the Animal exhibitions organized by the Society of Animal Artists (societyofanimalartists.com), and then there is the annual festival hosted by Artists for Conservation (artistsforconservation.org), which features an exhibition by leading international artists, screenings,…

TODAY’S MASTERS “My goal always is to tell a story through my perspective,” Dustin Van Wechel (b. 1974) declares as he surveys the 12 paintings he’s finishing for his solo show this season at the Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, the town where he also lives. “My work is largely narrative. You seldom see me painting portraiture or even what you might consider wildlife figurative work. I am literally telling stories, and those stories come from being outdoors, seeing these things happen.” Yes, stories, of course, but wait a second. A solo show with only 12 paintings, I ask? Van Wechel pauses to consider before answering in the calm, thoughtful manner that makes it easy for me to imagine how he can spend days high in the Rocky Mountains observing…