With previews of gallery exhibitions, museum shows and auctions, Western Art Collector is the premier monthly magazine for collectors searching for works by talented living and past artists who depict the West in paintings and sculptures.
You learn a lot about people when you see how they cope with adversity. Do people rise to the occasion or submit to fear? These thoughts have been going through my mind since we started dealing with this pandemic in March. I have spent this time visiting (albeit virtually or by phone) with artists and galleries across the country. And what I’ve heard has really been inspiring. We all know what’s been happening. And I understand the stress and anxiety that this uncertainty can create and I also know how this is the complete antithesis to the mindset needed to create art. However, despite all this, I’ve seen artists enduring and continuing to create fearlessly. I’ve seen artists create whole new bodies of work in subject matters they’ve never shown…
Artist Johnson Yazzie, creates what he feels is in his heart and mind. He paints and sculpts what he’s envisioned or imagined before a formation is created. “My painting style is realistic, expressionist and abstract, all followed by layers of paint,” Yazzie explains. “I begin each canvas with heavy washes of dark colors, and slowly bring the figures forward out of that darkness. As the individuality of each subject establishes itself, the mood, the background colors and the details fall into place. I also use pastel chalks in the same manner.” Yazzie believes that doing what you love is the key to discovering oneself. “I am always growing, spiritually, artistically and mentally,” he says. “Authenticity is in the culture of the Indian artist. How authentic can art be if not…
On May 6, a life-size bison weighing nearly 3,000 pounds was installed at the Golden Spike National Historical Park in Promontory, Utah, at the site where the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad connected the first transcontinental rail line on May 10, 1869. The bronze work, created by Utah artist Michael Coleman, is titled Distant Thunder and is meant to represent the sound of the wild bison that once roamed the area, and the locomotives that united the coasts. The piece was commissioned by Naoma Tate and the Family of Hal Tate, who donated it the Golden Spike National Historical Park. It was unveiled at a low-key ceremony, due to the ongoing health restrictions just days prior to the 151st anniversary of the Golden Spike event, which was…
In 2019, the Cowboy Artists of America took a huge gamble—and won big—by hosting their own show at a venue in Fort Worth, Texas. For the 2020 show, they are returning to Texas, but with a twist: This year’s sale and exhibition will take place on a historic ranch. “The Cowboy Artists of America have decided to do something a little different this year; we are going back to our roots, and headed to the country,” CAA president Teal Blake says. “This year marks the 55th anniversary and sale for the CAA and what better way to celebrate the event than to dust off the walls of an old barn and hang some art. John and Charlotte Kimberlins’ ranch lays on the banks of the Brazos River, just west of…
Emmy-award winning costume designer Cathy Smith has worked on Hollywood projects for decades and was shocked to discover there was no museum solely dedicated to film and television costumes. So she started her own. Smith opened the Museum of Western Film & Costume within the Nambe Trading Post, which she owns, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The grand opening was March 1, but it promptly closed again on March 10 after the ongoing health crisis kicked into gear. But now with travel once again resuming for many, the museum is back open and ready to show off its collection. “Everything is from my personal collection. When we were starting to get everything together we went through a 28-foot trailer packed with costumes. We picked the cream of the crop,” Smith…
New Mexico jeweler Jennifer Jesse Smith says her career as an artist was started thanks to a Lakota medicine bag. “As a child growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, I was fortunate to be surrounded by Lakota culture and spirituality. My mother and Lakota grandmother made me a sacred Lakota beaded medicine bag, instructing me to wear it every day for protection,” she says. “My grandmother, Darlene YoungBear, was one of the last old-time traditional Lakota healers. My mother, Cathy Smith, was her apprentice and they taught me everything I value in life, living, healing and art. They blessed my little medicine bag with sage and put sacred things inside.” She adds that the bag was a “source of endless wonder, mystery and spiritual power. It validated…
