Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017/ No.121 i Western Art Collector

On June 29 the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, presented the Rungius Medal to National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore in recognition of a lifetime of exceptional contribution to the awareness of wildlife and the habitat necessary for its survival. Sartore, who is also speaker, author, teacher, conservationist and 24-year contributor to National Geographic magazine has traveled to every continent and specializes in documenting the biodiversity of the planet. His photographs were recently on exhibit at the museum in the exhibition National Geographic Photo Ark: Photographs by Joel Sartore. “To say that this is an honor would be an understatement. My deepest thanks to the museum, and the fine work they have done for decades,” Sartore says. “The mission of the National Geographic Photo Ark and the…

SEPTEMBER Ending Sept. 1 MANITOU GALLERIES Kim Wiggins Santa Fe, NM – (505) 986-0440 www.manitougalleries.com Ending Sept. 2 THE OWINGS GALLERY Ed Mell Santa Fe, NM – (505) 982-6244 www.theowingsgallery.com Sept. 2-30 MUSEUM OF NORTHERN ARIZONA 26th annual Trappings of the American West Flagstaff, AZ – (928) 774-5213, www.musnaz.org Sept. 2-Oct. 29 HIRAM BLAUVELT ART MUSEUM Society of Animal Artists’ 57th annual Exhibition and Art and the Animal Tour Oradell, NJ – (414) 212-6878 www.societyofanimalartists.com Ending Sept. 3 JOE WADE FINE ART Roger Williams Santa Fe, NM – (505) 988-2727 www.joewadefineart.com Ending Sept. 4 BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUM Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio San Antonio, TX – (210) 299-4499 www.briscoemuseum.org Sept. 7-17 Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival Jackson, WY – (307) 733-3316 www.jacksonholechamber.com Sept. 8-Oct. 8 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE…

This past May, I traveled to Yellowstone with three wildlife artists: Greg Beecham, Pete Zaluzec, Lyn St. Clair and animator artist Manu Carrasco to photograph grizzly bears. According to the park literature, there are currently between 700 and 1,200 grizzly bears in Yellowstone and one of the best times of the year to spot a grizzly is in the spring. At this time of the year, you have a very good chance of seeing a sow and cubs alongside the roads eating away at the plentiful grass Although we were in Yellowstone during the latter part of May, there still was a significant amount of winter snow in most areas of the park. In fact, on the day that I arrived in Jackson Hole, the south entrance road to Yellowstone…

In the early 1950s, artists in the New York area would meet and paint at the Bronx Zoo. Their common interest lead them to stage a show titled Animals in the Bronx Zoo at the Burr Gallery, and the experience inspired Patricia Allen Bott and Guido Borghi to form the organization that we now know at the Society of Animal Artists. Early members included John Clymer, Robert Lougheed, Gifford Cochran and Elizabeth Rungius Felda, sister to wildlife painter Carl Rungius. Current members of the Society include Amélie Bonin, Elizabeth Nicholls, Raymond Gibby, Karen Laurence-Rowe and Kendra Haste. Members of the Society of Animal Artists capture the wild and domestic creatures in a wide range of artistic expression, pursuing artistic excellence and broadening their fellow man’s appreciation for fine art subjects…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 36 works September 1-30, 2017 Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186 Artists and friends John DeMott, Alfredo Rodriguez and Mian Situ are the subject of a new three-artist show titled Tour de Force at Trailside Galleries’ location in Jackson, Wyoming. In his most recent paintings, Rodriguez has concentrated on relationships. A Fanciful Voyage with Grandpa portrays a sea captain, reading a book to his grandchildren. “My grandpa used to say, ‘A book is a journey of the imagination,’” Rodriguez says. “The book transports these children to adventure, and they are really interested in the stories their grandpa is telling them.” His largest piece is Unaware, which depicts a mountain man oblivious to the danger that is in…

SHOW LOCATION BOZEMAN, MT UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 18 works September 8-17, 2017 The Legacy Gallery 7 W. Main Street, Suite 102 Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 577-2810 While the West is often portrayed as a vast open wilderness, it’s easy to forget that it was lived in, trekked through and explored from end to end. And it was often home to early trappers, pioneers and settlers, Native American tribes, ranchers and farmers, and an assortment of other people who were beckoned to the open spaces and majestic beauty. Many of these Western figures will be shown in a new three-artist show opening September 8 at the Legacy Gallery in Bozeman, Montana. The exhibition will feature new works by Brett Smith, David Mann and Lee Teter. Smith will be bringing…

Michelle Osman grew up in Costa Rica surrounded by the everchanging ocean, where she saw waves crashing and tides ebbing, constant movement all around. Ten years ago, she moved to Montana, a place where she says the skies are reminiscent of the ocean. “Every second the sky is changing, the feel of it, it’s really dramatic,” she explains. “It sort of has a life of its own.” These clouds—or fleeting moments, as she describes—are the primary focus in her paintings of the region. Her latest series, on view in the solo show I Saw Above Me That Endless Skyway at Sundog Fine Art in Bozeman, Montana, through August 22, is an evolution of the theme. The paintings add man-made structures and scenes with grander expanses of land that she had…

Moving in 2015 from the verdant Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania to the warm, sun-drenched panoramas of southwestern Colorado, Annette LeMaire not only changed locales but palettes and markets as well. “I thrill to the challenge of adapting my palette to the amazing bounty of landscapes and colors reflected in the Four Corners region,” she says. By embracing her new home in Durango, Colorado, and the West more broadly, she paints and exhibits in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Her work, which she describes as realistic impressionism, strives to capture the warm, earthy tones of the region but with enough contrasting hues to bring a refreshing coolness to the canvas. LeMaire is currently working and selling out of her own studio and gallery in Durango. Want to See More? LeMaire Fine…

For the past 35 years, the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale has taken place in Cody, Wyoming, as part of the famed Rendezvous Royale celebration of art in the city. Since the early 1990s the exhibition, produced by the Cody Chamber of Commerce, has been held at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West with profits going toward the center. This year, in lieu of a featured artist, the 100-year-old center will be the honored partner of the show. Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale takes place September 18 to 23 and boasts a week of festivities that attract attendees from all over the country. As the show explains, “The red carpet you see around town is for our special guests who come to support this wonderful week in…

The National Museum of Wildlife Art is celebrating their 30th anniversary with some new programming, new artists and a few twists to the Western Visions show and sale, which takes place September 14 and 15 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and features over 110 artists who specialize in all mediums of the wildlife genre. To celebrate the milestone, the museum has come up with a special Sealed Auction that will include 30 works of art from artists who have participated in the exhibition since the early days and who have won awards at past shows. These artists include longtime favorites such as Len Chmiel, Jim Morgan, Michael Coleman, Clyde Aspevig, Scott L. Christensen, Tucker Smith, Greg Beacham, Daniel Smith, Thomas Quinn, Lindsay Scott, September Vhay, Ralph Oberg and Ewoud de Groot.…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON HOLE, WY UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 30 works September 8-18, 2017 Astoria Fine Art 35 E. Deloney Avenue Jackson Hole, WY 83001 (307) 733-4016 One of the wonderful aspects of large citywide shows like the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival is how whole communities rally around the celebration to offer a host of activities that enrich the atmosphere and offer an endless array of things to do. One of the highlights of this year’s Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival is the annual fall group show at Astoria Fine Art. This year’s show will feature four unique artists, each offering exceptional work that will exemplify Wyoming’s natural attributes, including its rich variety of wildlife and its sublime views of the landscape. The artists are painters Ewoud de…

SHOW LOCATION COEUR D’ALENE, ID UPCOMING SHOW Up to 150 works On view now Art Spirit Gallery 415 E. Sherman Avenue Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 (208) 765-6006 Eight years after founding the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Steve Gibbs was interviewed by the Idaho Arts Quarterly. He said, “Being an artist, and for 15 years a commercial graphic designer, gives you a different level of expertise that you can recognize good art. Good art goes to the core of the person. The actual form that their art takes—realism, sculpture, drawing, painting—there’s always a level of intensity and commitment that shows through.” This summer the gallery celebrates its 20th anniversary. Unfortunately, the anniversary takes place without its founder, who died in December from ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The gallery’s…

Artist Michele Usibelli finds herself drawn to subject matter with rich colors or intriguing light. These are typically vignettes of everyday life that inspire her to paint landscapes, cityscapes, figures and portraits. “It is my primary goal to have each artwork I create resonate with energy and the poetry of light,” she says. “I follow my own ‘rule’ of painting what is truly important to me and feel very fortunate to be able to share that with all those who support and appreciate my work. There is nothing more gratifying than knowing that my work, which is so important to me, is appreciated by others.” Usibelli will participate in the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale this September in Cody, Wyoming; the 19th annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational in…

At 10 a.m. on September 23, Cincinnati-based Cowan’s Auctions will host its fall sale of American Indian and Western art. Crossing the block with be around 500 lots, with approximately 100 being prehistoric artifacts, along with Western paintings and drawings and historic and contemporary Native American art “The second portion of The Jan Sorgenfrei Collection will be offered, which will include 12 Birdstones, and numerous Bannerstones, Gorgets, pendants and pipes. The majority of these objects, which are generally dated to be 4,000 to 6,500 years old, were found in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana,” says Danica Farnand, head of Cowan’s American Indian Art department. “In addition, we are offering artifacts from the Old Copper Culture, collected by Roger ‘Buzzy’ Mussatti of Michigan. The Copper Culture dates to 4000 BC and was…

The majesty of the Grand Canyon has captivated artists for centuries, as they are inspired to paint its dramatic vantage points, its expansive horizon line and its unique striations. Since 2009, the Grand Canyon Association has brought together around two dozen artists each year for a plein air event honoring the famed national park. The artists who participate in the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art set up around the North and South rims for a week to paint. “One of the fun things about the Celebration of Art—and one of the things we strive to do— is people are out exploring the canyon at the rim and they come upon an artist capturing it on canvas,” says Kathy Duley, coordinator of the show. “It’s a fun experience for them to…

Every great Western town has a time of year that seems to exemplify why it is a beacon to the arts. Museums host exhibitions, auction houses put on sales, galleries present solo and group shows, artists set up easels for live demos, and even the restaurants and other non-art destinations get involved with events and activities. Scottsdale, Arizona, has April; Santa Fe, New Mexico, draws crowds in August; and March is for Great Falls, Montana. But September is for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, an iconic Western town that, for the past 33 years, has hosted the citywide Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival. The massive, multifaceted event returns once again, this year from September 6 through 17. During those 12 days, events around town will bring in more than 30,000 visitors who…

Cowboys ride a fine line between success and failure, prosperity and poverty, and even life and death. Sometimes their fate rests solely in a piece of leather or steel— riders are often only as good as their gear. In celebration of top-quality cowboy gear, the Museum of Northern Arizona will present the 26th annual Trappings of the American West Exhibition & Sale, which will examine the beauty and importance of items such as saddles, boots, hats, bits and spurs, musical instruments, pistols, quirts and many other finely crafted objects. The event, presented in partnership with Dry Creek Arts Fellowship, will feature new work from 80 of the country’s top artists. They come from 15 Western states and include members of the Cowboy Artists of America, Traditional Cowboy Arts Association and…

On September 15 and 16, the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas, will host Charlie Russell Heads West and the Fourth Annual Heritage Dinner at the Western museum. The dinner, designed to honor supporters of the museum, will also serve as the formal opening reception for Charlie Russell Heads West, a new exhibition that will examine one of the West’s most famous and authentic cowboy artists. “The Heritage Dinner is special to the Museum of the Big Bend as we recognize those who have contributed to and supported the Museum of the Big Bend. These folks help to honor and preserve our special slice of Texas,” says museum interim director Mary Bones. “Charlie Russell Heads West bookends the treasures from the Frederic Remington exhibit the museum hosted four…

There is a verse in Psalm 46 that suggests a way of life for those who believe as well as for those who don’t. It begins, “Be still and know that I am God.” Dropping successive words beginning with “God,” the phrase is shortened, eventually, to “Be still” and then, simply, “Be.” To “be” in nature is to feel its creative energy as well as its calm. Cross-country skiing, hiking, fishing or just plain sitting can be extraordinarily rewarding experiences. Artists have been inspired by the landscape for millennia. The word inspire comes from the Latin, “to breath in.” David Grossmann says, “Most of my inspiration begins with actual places, I spend a lot of time painting on location. There’s something about being in the landscape that causes me to…

The California grizzly first appeared on a flag in 1846 that flew over the California Republic that held Mexican lands for 25 days. The symbol was adopted as the official state flag of California in 1911. In the 19th century, grizzlies were a major threat to livestock and were hunted down with high-powered rifles. Spanish vaqueros, however, used their skills as horsemen to lasso them and take them off. Albert S. Evans (1831-1872) was an explorer and writer whose Á La California: Sketches of Life in the Golden State was published posthumously in 1873 with illustrations by Ernest Etienne Narjot (1826-1898). Narjot was born in France and was lured by the California Gold Rush. He is known for his highly realistic paintings of California and created 24 sketches for Evans’…

In 1960, the Society of Animal Artists held its first exhibition at the Burr Gallery in New York. Since then, the exhibition has grown from a gallery show to a multi-museum yearlong tour. The first museum venue was in 1981 at Philadelphia’s Academy of Sciences, and since then, more than 100 different institutions across the United States and Canada have hosted the annual show. This year, the Society celebrates its 57th exhibition, and the show includes work from Anne London of Arts for Animals, Michelle Kondos, Pokey Park, and Robbie Fitzpatrick. Kondos’ oil painting Melting depicts a polar bear treading water. “Looking into a polar bear’s deep, alien eyes, I can only wonder what he or she must be thinking faced with a melting world,” Kondos says. “I wanted no snowy…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 10 works September 1-30, 2017 Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186 Michigan painter Bonnie Marris has only dreamt about two of her paintings and Storm Chasers, done for her new exhibition, is one of them. “It was so bizarre to just dream about a painting like that. The last time it happened was with this piece Ice Princess, about a mountain lion coming down from the ice,” she says. “With Storm Chasers, though, I had the dream about five days before and it was about this gray horse we have that is very old, but she doesn’t give up for anything—she’s like a sports car. We’d been having these storms and she was running through the storms.…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON, WY UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 50 works September 6-17, 2017 Mountain Trails Gallery 155 Center Street Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 734-8150 The Western art genre is filled with images of everything from dynamic landscapes to cowboys to wildlife to Native Americans. In its 33rd annual Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival exhibition, Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming, will present a broad selection of artwork from some of the leading artists working in those subjects. The show will run September 6 through 17 during the city’s famed art week that brings thousands of collectors to the city each year. Vic Payne will exhibit his sculpture Train Wreck that showcases a “gripping moment of this cowboy’s unexpected encounter with a mama grizzly and her cub.” There is determination…

SHOW LOCATION FREDERICKSBURG, TX UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 60 works September 1-22, 2017 InSight Gallery 214 W. Main Street Fredericksburg, TX 78624 (830) 997-9920 As summer begins to wane, InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas, hosts its annual Fall Group Show with new works from all 60 of its gallery artists. This year’s exhibition, happening September 1 to 22, will feature Hsin-Yao Tseng, who has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career. “Hsin-Yao’s technique in oil is brilliant and sure; he paints in a romantic, expressive manner that honors the Western tradition while signaling an edgy, contemporary complexity,” the gallery says. “Hsin-Yao works in a range of genres: from lush evocations of San Francisco and other cities to expressive portraits and finally to lustrous interiors and exteriors in which…

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a place of diverse interests. It’s a cowboy town, with ranches and cattle; a town of natural wonders, with Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks nearby; a wildlife town, with moose and bears that wander right into yards and public spaces; and it’s a sporting town, with hunting, fishing and other adventurous activities all easily within reach. Uniting all of them is Western art. Reflecting the diverse variety of Western subjects in Jackson Hole is the Jackson Hole Art Auction, which returns to the Wyoming destination from September 15 to 16. The sale, now in its 11th year, will take place at the Center for the Arts, where more than 350 works of art will be sold over two sessions. The sale will once again bring…

Bringing together nearly 50 artists and 200 works of fine art, the Quest for the West returns to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis on September 8 to once again bring the West and Southwest to the Midwest. The exhibition and sale, one of several key museum exhibitions that exhibit the highest quality Western art around the country, kicks off with an opening weekend celebration beginning September 8 with a reception and miniature art sale, followed by demonstrations, art sale and banquet on September 9. Although far removed from the typical boundaries of the West, the museum is routinely praised by artists for its devotion to Western art, as well as this annual show, which regularly draws large crowds of collectors. “We’re thrilled by the popularity of the Quest show among…