Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017/ No.118 i Western Art Collector

Before America was obsessed with cowboys and the adventure that beckoned from the West, it found great wonder out over the ocean, where ships moved up and down the East Coast and across the Atlantic, ferrying commerce, culture and people across the horizon to new destinations. Sailing among them was another force, a feared and malevolent scourge “dimly, half hidden by the glamouring mists of legend and tradition.” There be pirates! “…[W]hen the seventeenth century was fairly packed away with its lavender in the store chest of the past, a score or more bands of freebooters were cruising along the Atlantic seaboard in armed vessels, each with a black flag with its skull and cross-bones at the fore, and with a nondescript crew made of the tags and remnants of…

Nicknamed the Sooner State because of overeager settlers in the late 1800s, Oklahoma is a bastion of Western culture. The state is home to more than 300 art museums, with countless more art and cultural festivals throughout the year. In the capital of Oklahoma City, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum preserves the history and culture of the American West. Its annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale opens this year on June 9. During the opening weekend, visitors can enjoy seminars, receptions and a live auction. Future exhibitions at the museum include We the People: A Portrait of Early Oklahoma and Life and Legacy: The Art of Jerome Tiger. Home to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Gaylord-Pickens Museum hosts the work of the state’s most prestigious…

UPCOMING SHOW Up to 30 works June 24-July 22, 2017 Nedra Matteucci Galleries 1075 Paso de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 982-4631 New Mexico painter William Berra was inspired for his latest show by just looking out the window. “I never really work toward a theme with my work,” he says, “but I remember looking out over the foothills near Santa Fe. It was August and it had rained every day. I ended up painting these intimate and huge thunderclouds. I realized that nature was the motif that was really tying all my work together. I would investigate, observe, imagine and paint, and I found that inspiration could come from anywhere, any place or any time.” Two of those storm pieces, September Cloud Study and Late Afternoon, Rio Grande…

UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 25 works June 1-August 31, 2017 Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery 6872 E. Sunrise Drive, Suite 130 Tucson, AZ 85750 (520) 722-7798 The Sonoran Desert is a lush environment considering its arid habitat. A major component of the desert flora is the iconic saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), which only grows in Sonora Mexico, Arizona and a small section of far eastern California. These gigantic cacti can reach heights of 40 feet by 10 feet wide, living for over 150 years. Their importance to the wildlife and Native American tribes of the Southwest cannot be underestimated. For centuries the O’odham tribes of Arizona and Mexico have collected saguaro fruit and used their skeletons for construction. Arizona’s state flower the saguaro blooms April through June and draws…

With nearly all of the exhibiting artists in attendance, as well as more than 1,000 museum patrons, Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West kicked off March 24 at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona. This year’s exhibition of top women artists in the West included 58 artists, 51 of which were in attendance to mingle with collectors, show their work and answer questions about their artwork, which included bronze, ceramic, pastels, oil and acrylic paint, watercolor, pencil and charcoal, and glass. This year’s show, the 12th year of the popular exhibition and sale, once again included the full spectrum of artwork created by women, from traditional representational images of cowboys and cattle to highly contemporary works that represent the cutting edge of Western art.…

You just never know what will turn up in one of Brian Lebel’s sales. He’s had Little Bighorn rifles, buffalo hide war shirts that date to the early 1800s, pistols used in Old West gunfights, items worn by Gene Autry and John Wayne, paintings and bronzes from many of the Western greats, carvings, vintage bar bottles, sheriff’s badges and, famously, the iconic photo of Billy the Kid. All of it is authentic, rare and often important. “It’s always fun seeing what comes in. I just never know what to expect,” Lebel says. “Every show and sale is exciting.” To illustrate this point, Lebel relates a story: Amid preparation for his next event—the Old West Show & Auction on June 10 and 11 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort…

Although I have always had a keen interest in taking photographs, it wasn’t until three years ago, after visiting the national parks in Utah, that I became completely consumed with photography. Soon afterwards, I decided to upgrade my camera equipment and I also made a conscious effort to begin learning as much as possible about all aspects of photography. As an avid photographer, I am always looking for new and interesting subjects or scenes to capture with my camera; and, although just about anything interests me, my favorite subject, by far, is Mother Nature—especially the stunning landscapes of the western United States. Now, because of my interest in photography, all the trips that my wife and I plan include scheduled time for interesting photo opportunities. That was the case this…

A 1931 edition of the Albuquerque Journal introduced one of the city’s most prolific architects. “After driving around the country for a place to ‘settle down’ as he put it, Leon H. Watson, after spending one day in Albuquerque on his way to California, decided this was the city he had been looking for…” In 1929 he had built a pueblo-inspired home in what is now the Huning Castle neighborhood of the city. Only the third owners of the home, John Strong and Carlos Acosta have furnished it with their collections from New Mexico WPA furniture to contemporary paintings. Acosta is from Hobbs, New Mexico, and was ombudsman in the office of the Lieutenant Governor before he and Strong opened Acosta Strong Fine Art in Santa Fe and, later, a…

Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) had been an illustrator for the San Francisco Examiner when his mentor, Charles Lummis, encouraged him to “travel East to see the real West.” In June 1900, Dixon gathered his drawing and painting paraphernalia and crossed over the Colorado River into the wilds of Arizona. He stopped at Fort Mojave where he would sit under the portal and draw the Mojave Indians who would come to the trading post. One of his first drawings was The Centre of Creation at 122 Degrees in the Shade—Fort Mojave, Arizona. As a young boy Dixon had sent original work to Frederick Remington who encouraged him to “draw, draw, draw.” Mark Sublette of Medicine Man Gallery and the Maynard Dixon Museum in Tucson, Arizona, writes, “There are probably over a thousand…

UPCOMING SHOW Up to 24 works June 23-July 5, 2017 Ventana Fine Art 400 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 983-8815 When it comes to painter Doug Dawson’s technique, he approaches each painting from an interesting perspective as both an oil and pastel painter. “I was a pastel painter before I was an oil painter. With pastels you can’t take two colors and mix them together, although you can lay one color down and lay another color over it,” Dawson says from his Colorado studio. “It was natural for me to do that same kind of technique with oil paintings. Gradually, I would lay colors down intending to lay over them with other colors, but more and more I would let some of the color shine through. My color…

UPCOMING SHOW Up to 15 works June 14-20, 2017 Mountain Trails Gallery 155 Center Street Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 734-8150 By the time January rolled around, Colorado wildlife painter Edward Aldrich was more than ready to turn the page on 2016. “I had a hard time saying no to things,” Aldrich says of the many commitments he couldn’t turn down when offered. “It was fun, but exhausting.” His work was selected as the catalog cover for the Western Visions show at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, he was the poster artist at the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, and he had three separate solo shows—and that was just September. So when 2017 started, he was happy to take a break, regroup and set off again at a gentler pace.…

UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 30 works June 2-23, 2017 InSight Gallery 214 W. Main Street Fredericksburg, TX 78624 (830) 997-9920 This June, InSight Gallery will present a three-artist exhibition titled Nature’s Whimsy focusing on birds and farm animals. The show, featuring work by Cheri Christensen, Jhenna Quinn Lewis and Jim Eppler, is filled with bronzes and paintings that breathe life, energy and beauty into these dynamic creatures. The gallery explains, “Christensen’s signature use of saturated color and radiant light draws in the viewer and evokes the joy of farm life. Lewis’ detailed rendering of birds amongst the beautiful found objects reminds of the Japanese masters she so reveres…[and Eppler’s] bronze sculptures of woodland creatures take the world around us and re-create it for our participation.” On view will be…

As you walk into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City just past the entrance you will find yourself at the feet of one of the greatest Western monuments ever created, James Earle Fraser’s plaster cast of End of the Trail. Now look down the hall to your right and there is Gerald Balciar’s 31-ton marble piece Canyon Princess. To your left, down another long hall, is Fraser’s sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln. Behind you, if you can find the right angle, you can see an enormous Buffalo Bill bronze out front with his rifle raised. This noteworthy intersection is like the museum itself as artists and collectors come from all directions—north, south, east and west—to meet in Oklahoma every June for the Prix de West,…

History and culture collide at every turn when attending History Meets the Arts at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It begins with the city itself with its ties to the American Revolution and is explored further in the historical-themed artwork and accoutrements. The show and sale, hosted by Lord Nelson’s Gallery, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2017. It will include pieces by more than 30 artists; there will be many of whom have exhibited in the show since it first opened as well as a handful of newcomers. History Meets the Arts takes place June 9 to 11 at the John F. Jaeger Center for Athletics Recreation and Fitness on the Gettysburg College campus. It kicks off with a ticketed preview party June 9 from 5 to 9 p.m., and…

JUNE June 2-Jan. 31, 2018 BUFALLO BILL CENTER OF THE WEST Cody to the World! Celebrating 100 Years at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Cody, WY – (307) 587-4771 www.centerofthewest.org June 2-23 INSIGHT GALLERY Nature’s Whimsy Fredericksburg, TX – (830) 997-9920 www.insightgallery.com Ending June 4 NEBRASKA HISTORY MUSEUM The Legacy of Nebraska Lincoln, NE – (800) 833-6747 www.nebraskahistory.org June 9-Aug. 6 NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM Prix de West Oklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 www.nationalcowboymuseum.org June 9-11 GETTYSBURG COLLEGE History Meets the Arts Show and Sale Gettysburg, PA – (800) 664-9797 www.historymeetsthearts.com June 10-11 WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL CENTER Brian Lebel’s Old West Show Fort Worth, TX – (480) 779-9378 www.oldwestevents.com June 24-July 22 NEDRA MATTEUCCI GALLERIES William Berra: Inspired by Nature Santa Fe, NM…

The California Gold Rush of the 1840s and 1850s ushered in a boom that made San Francisco an instant financial and cultural mecca, attracting many artists. In 1858, the second art fair held by San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute had works by nearly 50 women artists. The Mechanics’ Institute was founded in 1854 “to serve the educational and social needs of mechanics—artisans, craftsmen, and inventors—and their families.” Edith Hamlin (1902-1992) was born in nearby Oakland and, after her art schooling, set up a studio in San Francisco. She met Maynard Dixon (1875-1946) while working on a WPA mural project in the 1930s and the two later married. She had paid a visit to Taos, New Mexico, on the way back to California from New York and was inspired by the landscape…

UPCOMING SHOW Up to 30 works May 26-June 16, 2017 Manitou Galleries 225 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 986-9833 New Mexico painter Robert Highsmith has always been drawn to the lands of the Southwest where he grew up. The canyons and streams, the winding roadways and the open terrain all have found their way on his canvases, highlighting the diverse forms of the region. On May 26, a solo exhibition for Highsmith will open at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with approximately 30 of these breathtaking views on display Highsmith, who takes canyon road trips, draws inspiration from the places he has visited. While some of his favorite locales are repeatedly the centerpieces for his watercolor and acrylic paintings, there is always a fresh perspective. “I…

UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 35 works June 17-29, 2017 Maxwell Alexander Gallery Los Angeles, CA (310) 839-9242 The 9-by-12-inch works on display at Maxwell Alexander Gallery’s Small Works Show might be compact, but there’s nothing modest about them. The exhibition, which runs from June 17 to 29, features works from 35 artists, including Danny Galieote, Tim Solliday, Brett Allen Johnson, Kim Wiggins and Eric Bowman. With Twilight on the Pinta, Wiggins captures the history of his mother, Roynel Wiggins, a rodeo cowgirl who defied the traditional gender roles of her time. “Later she owned and operated a nightclub and two large ranches in Northeastern Arizona, the Pinta and Black Rock ranches. This painting pays homage to the story of her life,” he says. Galieote’s Make My Day combines the…

The slogan for the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos, New Mexico, is simple and effective: “Two painters. One place.” The painters, Eanger Irving Couse and Joseph Henry Sharp, will be celebrated on June 10 and 11 during the site’s Couse Foundation Biennial Gala Fundraiser & Art Auction, an event designed to raise funds for the historic site and draw attention to its importance to Taos and the Taos Society of Artists, of which both painters were founding members. The event begins on June 10 at 10 a.m. with a lecture by Peter Hassrick, director emeritus and senior scholar at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Hassrick, one of the most prominent authorities on Western art, will speak on the studios of Joseph Henry Sharp. The lecture will take place…

Of the many events held throughout the country every year, a handful standout as unique. The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina, without question tops this list. If you have never been to Charleston during SEWE, you have missed a wonderful experience. The charm of historic Charleston elevates this event to one of the most impressive shows nationwide In its 35th year, SEWE is a citywide event consisting of five venues with much to see and do. Everything is centered around the art show located downtown in the elegant Charleston Place hotel. This year, 109 of the nation’s finest artists presented more than 3,000 works for show and sale. With sales breaking the $1 million mark and attendance over 40,000, the show was an outstanding success. Throughout the three-day…