Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2018/ No.132 i Western Art Collector

Blame Daniel Keys. He’s the linchpin in this story. In 2012, Tyler Murphy, a young aspiring artist and gallery owner, signed up for one of Daniel Keys’ painting workshops. After the workshop a friendship took hold and before long the two artists were taking painting trips together. Keys had also become friends with several other artists, many of whom had also been friends with Murphy and had taken the workshops. “They all like to tease me, sort of an inside joke, that you have to pay a fee to be my friend,” Keys says, laughing at the optics of this dynamic. “But that’s just how we all met, and once we had that in common, we started introducing everyone to everyone else. I might have been the person who led…

Bozeman, Montana, is buzzing. Nestled in the idyllic Gallatin Valley about an hour north of Yellowstone National Park and less than 50 miles from Big Sky Resort, Bozeman has quickly become one of the most desirable cities in the northern Rockies. The spectacular beauty of rural southwest Montana and its outdoor amenities, from fly-fishing to downhill skiing, is attracting an increasing number of residents and seasonal visitors. Yellowstone alone draws four million tourists annually and its prestigious Yellowstone Club resort is located less than an hour from Bozeman. Bozeman’s desirability isn’t just speculation; according to the 2018 economic profile commissioned by the city’s chamber of commerce, Bozeman is the number one micropolitan area in the country—meaning it’s the fastest growing city of less than 50,000 in the entire United States.…

In 1997, Artists for Conservation was founded as a nonprofit group of artists who share in the mission for supporting the environment. In the past 21 years, the organization has expanded to five continents, 30 countries and 500 gifted nature artists. To support the goal of conservation, the organization hosts the AFC Festival Exhibit and Sale, now in its eighth year. This year’s show takes place August 22 through 25 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. More than 90 original artworks by leading AFC nature and wildlife artists, including Anne Peyton, Cher Anderson, Joyce Trygg, Mary Jane Jessen, Neil Hamelin, Patricia Banks, Rachel Ivanyi, Rick Wheeler, Rob Dreyer, Sandi Lear, Sandra Temple, Serena Bates and Tammy L. Taylor, will be on view at the live exhibit. “It really does represent the…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM Beginning August 3, Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will host a unique series of events that include a Charles M. Russell bronze exhibition, a talk by Western scholar B. Byron Price and a film screening of Fort Apache. The centerpiece of the programming is the exhibition, Charles M. Russell: Storyteller in Bronze, which opens August 3 and continues through September 30. The special gallery exhibition will feature several dozen small bronzes by the famous Western artist. The reception for the exhibition will take place August 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. The following day, August 25, will feature an 11 a.m. presentation by Price, the director of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM Beginning August 3 the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will present Westering, a new group exhibition that will focus on contemporary Western art. Artists in the exhibition include Arturo Chavez, Aaron Morgan Brown, Michael Cassidy, Steve Kestrel and Theodore Waddell, who will be signing copies of his book, My Montana, Painting and Sculpture, 1959-2016, during the August 24 reception that runs from 5 to 7 p.m. Works in the show include Waddell’s abstracted snow and cattle scenes, including Rapelje #3 and Red Willow Angus #14, both of which feature dabs of black paint against fields of white. The work is painted loosely and with a raw energy in every brushstroke, but the shapes of the land and the cattle remain powerful forms…

Now in its fourth year, the Hockaday Museum of Art’s A Timeless Legacy exhibition is crossing international borders. In 1932, Glacier National Park became a partner in the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park with its neighbor to the north, Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. The participants in this year’s A Timeless Legacy, which include Deborah Berniklau, Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey, Brent Cotton, Paul Kratter, Lori Putnam, Kathryn Stats, Linda Tippetts, Jean Pilch and more, hail from both the United States and Canada were required to visit both parks. In addition to being a major fundraiser for the Hockaday, the work in the exhibition celebrates the beauty and splendor of both parks. “Last summer we had wildfires that affected both parks, and you can really feel the aftermath of that in…

In 1939, painter Maynard Dixon and his third wife, Edith Hamlin, built a home on property in Mount Carmel, Utah. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places, an important destination for visiting artists who wish to partake in the beauty of southern Utah, and has been maintained by the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts since 1999. To ensure the preservation of the property, the Thunderbird Foundation hosts the yearly Maynard Dixon Country event, a four-day celebration of art that includes symposiums and art demonstrations at the Old Rock Church, and poetry readings and musical performances at the Maynard Dixon Property. Artist participants in the event include G. Russell Case, Glenn Renell, Louis Escobedo, Brett Allen Johnson, Ray Roberts, Denise LaRue Mahlke, Dilleen Marsh and Lorenzo Chavez, among…

If you’re a familiar with Mark Sublette and his Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, then you’ll likely already know Sublette is not camera shy. His YouTube channel—which has nearly 100 posted videos on paintings and sculpture, as well as Native weavings, pottery and jewelry—not only has 2,800 subscribers, but his videos have a combined 838,000 views. His picture also appears inside all seven of his Charles Bloom Murder Mystery Series books. Sublette is now branching out with a new podcast, Art Dealer Diaries, which brings artists, industry experts and art dealers into his new studio space for long-form interviews in the same vein as many of the top podcasters working today. “I’m a fan of Marc Maron and Joe Rogan…those more interview-type podcasts and I just really love the…

In 1951, a young 11-year-old Robert Griffing was sitting in school when his teacher Sara Egan told the class a story. “She was a fascinating teacher because she would always tell these amazing stories,” Griffing says, adding that it was this teacher who would spark his interest in art. “The story she told really hooked me, and I never let go.” Sixty-seven years later and Griffing is still not ready to let go of the obscure piece of history—part myth, part local legend—related to a mysterious boat wreck within the Pymatuning Reservoir, a man-made lake that straddles the Ohio-Pennsylvania line northwest of Pittsburgh. The story, at least a variation of it, has worked its way into Griffing’s newest work, What Happened in the Pymatuning Swamp? “We grew up with this…

The first owner of record of Nedra and Richard Matteucci’s home on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was Juan José Prada, a descendant of a soldier in the Santa Fe regiment of the Spanish army. Parts of it date back to the 18th century. By the time the Matteuccis purchased the property in 1990 it had become accustomed to being a home for art. Margretta Stewart Dietrich, widow of Nebraska governor and U.S. Sen. Charles Henry Dietrich, purchased the property and assembled what is now a large compound in the 1920s and ’30s. She became an advocate for the Pueblo and Navajo and was a patron of Native art. Her sister, Dorothy Stewart, was an artist who painted a mural that still graces a breezeway. Done in 1935,…

1 A. BANKS GALLERY 127 E. Main Street, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 586-1000, www.abanksgallery.com 2 ALTITUDE GALLERY 3 D’ARDENNE PHOTOGRAPHY AT BLEND 4 EMERSON CENTER FOR ARTS & CULTURE 5 INDIKOI 6 MONTANA SILVERSMITHS 7 MONTANA TRAILS GALLERY 7 W. Main Street, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 586-2166, www.montanatrails.com 8 OLD MAIN GALLERY & FRAMING 129 E. Main Street, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 587-8860, www.oldmaingallery.com 9 SUNDOG FINE ART 17 E. Main Street, Bozeman, MT, 59715 (406) 431-7812, www.sundogfineart.com 10 THOMAS NYGARD GALLERY 133 E. Main Street, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 586-3636, www.nygardgallery.com 11 VISIONS WEST CONTEMPORARY 34 W. Main Street, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 522-9946, www.visionswestcontemporary.com…

Chris Morel grew up in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in rural Maryland and drew its farms and barns from an early age. Today he lives in Taos, New Mexico, still fascinated by farms and barns and by the vastness of the New Mexico landscape. Referring to farm structures he says, “The older the better. I want to capture the buildings before they’re gone.” Late September Canyon Plaza depicts a typical scene to be found in the area with the house and farm buildings possibly still in use—you can’t always be sure. The rusting, peeling and sagging metal roofs are typical of northern New Mexico. The yellow chamisa is at its height complementing the blue green sage. Dinah Worman, who also lives in Taos, literally takes a different view…

SHOW LOCATION SANTA FE, NM Billy Schenck is a world champion ranch sorter and lives in the real West—on a ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, with horses and cows. His home is full of art and artifacts of the Old West as well as prehistoric Native pottery. He prefers the early work of the Taos and Santa Fe painters before they were influenced by modernism. His sprawling adobe house is furnished with the finest examples of the carved ranch furniture of Thomas Molesworth (1890-1977) who revolutionized furniture design in the West. Schenck calls Molesworth’s look “explosive.” Schenck’s paintings, however, seem to be in contradiction to the exquisite Western classicism of his home. His paintings and serigraphs are, in their own way “explosive.” He says, “I live on the ‘Double…

Greg Clibon was born in 1959. Growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he graduated with a degree in commercial illustration and worked as a freelance illustrator for several years. He found himself always drawn to the beautiful places of the Colorado landscape. He started painting full time 10 years ago, and taking workshops from other artists has been instrumental in his continued growth. His studio is at the foothills of Pikes Peak, Colorado, the gateway to the Rockies. “I am grateful to be so close to all the inspiration around me,” says Clibon. “[There are] varied landscapes from snowcapped peaks and rushing mountain streams, to lonely homesteads, an old weathered barn on the Eastern Plains or fall colors by old mining towns. Every season is so full of opportunities.” Clibon…

Every year, the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona, holds an invitational exhibition and sale honoring the loyal, hardworking nature of the horse. Throughout history, these equine beasts have provided unwavering and undeniable support to mankind, from the workhorses of the West to race horses shooting for the Triple Crown, to warhorses assisting militaries through countless battles. This year, Phippen Museum’s fifth annual Hold Your Horses!, which Western Art Collector is a proud sponsor, will take place on August 4 through September 23 in the museum’s massive Marley Gallery. The event showcases equine artwork from the nation’s leading Western artists. Specifically chosen for their outstanding “horse sense,” more than 30 artists are participating this year, including Sherry Blanchard Stuart, Barbara Meikle Fine Art, Suzanne Baker, Rox Corbett, Tim Harmon, Alvin Marshall, Wei…

Nearly 200 works of art will be on display during the annual Bighorn Rendezvous Art Show & Sale at the Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming. The exhibition, which features artwork by 37 members of the Northwest Rendezvous Group of Artists and seven guests, kicks off July 22 with its sales happening August 3 and 4. Now in its third year, the show has become a tradition for the museum and the group, offering work in an array of mediums, subjects and styles. Kenneth L. Schuster, director and chief curator of the museum, explains the show “culminates with the sale of fine art on Friday night and Saturday morning’s Quick Draw followed by an auction of the newly produced work beginning at 12:30 p.m. It’s a great opportunity to meet…

Painter Morgan Weistling’s works tell stories big and small. The small ones are right there on the canvas as his pioneer and Western figures go about their daily lives amid wholesome scenes on country farms or small Old West towns. The big stories take place elsewhere, on other paintings, and when assembled together reveal larger narratives as characters grow up, take on new responsibilities and find themselves in new settings. These two storytelling aspects of Weistling’s paintings can be clearly seen in a new book about his career, his work and his long history with art. The book, A Brush With History: The Paintings of Morgan Weistling, is available now and features 182 full-color plates of his works, as well as looks into his early illustration career, his inspirations and…

AUGUST Aug. 1-10 ASTORIA FINE ART Eric Bowman & Jill Soukup Jackson, WY – (307) 733-4106 www.astoriafineart.com Aug. 3-4 THE BRINTON MUSEUM Bighorn Rendezvous Art Show & Sale Big Horn, WY – (307) 672-3173 www.thebrintonmuseum.org Through Aug. 4 HOCKADAY MUSEUM OF ART Fitz Maurice: A Series of National Park Paintings Kalispell, MT – (406) 755-5268 www.hockadaymuseum.org Aug. 4-Sept. 23 PHIPPEN MUSEUM 5th annual Hold Your Horses! Invitational Exhibition and Sale Prescott, AZ – (928) 778-1285 www.phippenartmusuem.org Through Aug. 5 NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM Prix de West Oklahoma City, OK – (405) 478-2250 www.nationalcowboymusuem.org Through Aug. 5 QUARTERMASTER BUILDING American Plains Artists 33rd annual Juried Exhibit & Sale San Angelo, TX – (308) 249-1488 www.americanplainsartists.com Aug. 9-12 EL MUSEO CULTURAL DE SANTA FE Objects of Art Santa Fe Santa…

Maryvonne Leshe remembers joining Trailside Galleries in October of 1977. It was four days before the Cowboy Artists of America show, which was at that time held in Phoenix. “Talk about being thrown into things. I didn’t have much training on anything, and the gallery was so busy I didn’t have time for training,” she says of her debut in the Western art world. “At that time Trailside represented about 80 percent of the CA, so we had everyone coming in—Joe Beeler, John Clymer, Melvin Warren, Johnny Hampton, Fred Fellows…it felt like Christmas. It was a great way to start in the business. I had moved out from the East Coast and was suddenly right in the middle of a marvelous stretch of Western art in the 1970s.” They have…

Known as Big Sky Country, the diverse landscapes of Montana have been attracting artists and art lovers for centuries. After arriving in Montana at 16, Charles M. Russell eventually settled in the town of Great Falls, which is now a haven for Western art. The C.M. Russell Museum houses the artist’s paintings and sculptures of wildlife, American Indians and cowboys, along with work by other notable Western artists. In March, the museum draws thousands of visitors when it hosts The Russell: An Exhibition and Sale to Benefit the C.M. Russell Museum. During the same week, Great Falls also plays host to the March in Montana auction, as well as the Out West Art Show. This cluster of events is now known as Western Art Week, and the 2019 dates are…

In China, Japan and Korea the crane is honored for its longevity, alleged to live 1,000 years. With the introduction of paper and the art of folding it in origami, it has been thought that a person folding 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. With their powerful wings they were also thought to carry souls to heaven and to higher levels of enlightenment. The Qing dynasty (1644–1911) in China adopted the Ming dynasty tradition of elaborate rank badges sewn onto the silk garments of civil officials. The bird depicted designated the official’s rank. The birds ranged from the quail at the eighth rank to the crane at the first rank. An extraordinary woven Rank Badge with Crane at the Met is an example of the veneration…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON HOLE, WY Opening concurrently alongside Trailside Galleries’ 55th anniversary celebration is A Step Into the Wild, a new exhibition featuring the work of Montana wildlife painter Kyle Sims. The show will feature subject matter that includes grizzly bear, bull elk, cougar and bobcat, as well as other wildlife that makes its home in the West and Northwest. For A Meeting in the Woods, Sims painted a magnificent elk in a tranquil forest setting with deep green conifer trees in the background and a carpet of dense thimbleberry leaves turning golden yellow in the fall air. “I was sort of obsessed with a Carl Rungius painting at the Museum of Wildlife art. I love the gesture of the bull elk in the Rungius piece and I couldn’t find…

SHOW LOCATION JACKSON HOLE, WY For Montana painter Gary Lynn Roberts it always come down two things: faith and family. “Those are the driving forces behind my work. They are what define me,” the Hamilton-based painter and father of four says. “With my art, I believe it all comes from God, and one thing God has blessed me with is an imagination. I’ll just be driving down the road and see a painting. I never have a shortage of ideas. I’ll need 15 lives to paint everything in my head.” Roberts has a new show opening August 23 at Legacy Gallery’s location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The show will present nearly a dozen new works that exemplify Roberts’ unmistakable paintings: large works with multiple figures within expansive landscapes, compositions that…

VARIOUS LOCATIONS In 2015, Lee Alban embarked on his Silk and Steel series after a photographer friend told him about a photo charter he was setting up at a railroad. On site were women workers and reenactors dressed in Rosie the Riveter-style attire. “It was a really successful shoot, and I came away with a series of photos that would make great paintings celebrating the role of women working with steam locomotives and in railroad workshops,” Alban shares. “I wanted these paintings to provide a strong contrast between the feminine characteristics of the workers and the rugged, powerful machinery that they operated and repaired.” Since his initial series, Alban has received attention from around the world, particularly from women who work on steam engines and steam farm equipment. They have…

Several key Western museums come up over and over again when discussing the works of Charles M. Russell, among them the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Texas, the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma and the museum that bears the artist’s name, the C.M. Russell Museum in Montana. With 26 works by Russell, the Wichita Art Museum in Wichita, Kansas, certainly can’t compete with the major Russell museums, but the quality and variety of the works prove it holds some important works by the famous cowboy artist. Many of the museum’s Russell works are now on display in Heritage of the West: Charles M. Russell, a semi-permanent exhibition that features a number of key pieces from the museum collection. “We have quite a cache,” says museum curator Tera Hedrick. “It’s…