Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021/ No. 170 i Western Art Collector

Two large events are keeping the excitement high for members of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, just in time for gorgeous fall weather in the Land of Enchantment. The first event is the Taos Plein Air event that begins September 20 and continues through October 12. The event will begin with a paintout from September 19 to 24 in the areas of Taos, Questa, Eagles Nest and Angel Fire areas. Following that portion, events will move indoors to Wilder Nightingale Fine Art in Taos starting September 25, with a special reception held from 5 to 7 p.m. that night. The juried event will also include an artist workshop with Bill Gallen on September 18 and 19. “This is a cooperative effort between the Couse-Sharp Site, the E.L. Blumenschein…

After hosting a successful 2021 show, the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona, is looking for artists for the next Western Art Show & Sale, the event that takes place on the plaza around the Yavapai County Courthouse every Memorial Day weekend. The 2022 event will take place May 28 through May 30. Interested artists are encouraged to contact the museum for the application form. Applications must be received no later than January 1, 2022, and juried artists will be notified by February 7. Prescott has a deep history in Western art, partly because of the abundance of bronze foundries in the area, but also because of the number of artists who have settled there. Prescott is also home to one of the oldest rodeos in the country, so the West…

400 13th Street North, Great Falls, MT 59401 • (406) 727-8787 • cmrussell.org The award-winning C.M. Russell Museum contains more than 3,000 pieces of Western art in a complex that covers an entire city block. It encompasses 16 exhibition galleries, educational programming spaces, a dedicated research center and an impressive outdoor sculpture garden. With nearly 1,000 Charles M. Russell creations in their collection, the museum presents Russell’s comprehensive, very personal and authentic reflection on Western history. Also showcased are Russell’s contemporaries who have captured the traditions of North Plains Indian life, Montana wildlife, and landscapes and cowboy culture. You will discover important work by O.C. Seltzer, Winold Reiss, Joseph Henry Sharp, E. E. Heikka, Maynard Dixon, Eanger Irving Couse, Olaf Wieghorst, Henry Farny, Frank Tenney Johnson and more. “We welcome visitors…

21 N. Frontier Street, Wickenburg, AZ 85390 (928) 684-2272 • www.westernmuseum.org The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and is known as Arizona’s most Western museum, serving 50,000 visitors a year. The museum preserves and exhibits the art and history of the Southwest and the desert frontier, and is well-known for its innovative exhibitions and programming including the annual Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West exhibition and sale. Its world-renowned collection of American Western fine art, American Indian art and artifacts and captivating interactive exhibits, together create an unforgettable experience for visitors. The museum’s entire lower level is devoted to a re-creation of life in late territorial Wickenburg. The museum also has two stores; the Museum Store and Ranch Dressing.…

4701 Highway 89 North, Prescott AZ 86301 (928) 778-1385 • www.phippenartmuseum.org The Phippen Museum focuses on the art and heritage of the American West and features many pieces by its namesake, George Phippen, co-founder and first president of the Cowboy Artists of America. In addition to studio replicas, a Western heritage gallery and more than 14,000 square feet of gallery space, the museum also includes the Ray Swanson Gallery and the Solon H. Borglum Collection. Award-winning artists Marlin Rotach and Don Weller have collaborated to create a special exhibition that includes fascinating pieces of fine art by 14 of America’s most talented watercolor artists. Titled The River Flows: Watercolors of the American West, this traveling exhibition will premiere at the Phippen and be on display starting October 2, 2021. Patrons…

Two-artist shows often provide unique opportunities to recontextualize artists in fresh and exciting ways, and nowhere is that more evident than in a new show at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas, in which the up-and-coming phenom Jeremy Winborg is paired with the Western pop icon Billy Schenck. The two artists have several similarities: They both use vivid color and don’t shy away from saturated, even exaggerated, paint hues. They both work in contemporary styles, with Schenck’s paint-by-numbers iconography pairing perfectly with Winborg’s deconstructed realism. And both have a subversive streak in their subject matter, with Winborg painting his “badass women” of the desert, and Schenck skewering the myths of the West in some work while celebrating it in others. What becomes clear, though, especially in this new two-artist show, is…

For Santa Fe-based artist Ethelinda, it’s all about horses. She’s had a lifetime love of the sturdy, yet swift beasts, having both owned them and admired them from afar. “They’re so animated,” she says. “Horses are afraid of everything moving or not moving, so they are so fun to paint because they’re always ready to take off…I think they’re one of the most mystical animals in the world.” An upcoming exhibition at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will showcase new oil paintings by Ethelinda that capture the form of the horse, static and in motion. Horses have always inspired her, and though she’s painted many different subjects—cows, burros, still lifes—they always come first. The artist explains that she is currently working on a variance of one of her…

The annual EnPleinAirTEXAS competition returns to San Angelo, Texas, from October 23 to 30 for a week of painting the city’s surrounding ranchlands, rivers and diverse landscapes. This year the event celebrates a century of plein air painting history in the region. In 1921 artists gathered along the South Concho River, just south of San Angelo. The annual event, which grew to be quite popular, ran for eight years. The 2021 event features 35 juried artists across 17 states from a pool of applicants from 28 states and two countries. They will compete for $35,000 in cash and awards. Among the artists is Jacalyn Beam. The event juror is Michael Obermeyer, who is the president of the prestigious California Art Club and is a Signature Member of both the California…

Western Art Collector magazine has changed the way artists, galleries and collectors connect, and it has closed the gap that previously existed in the Western art market. Our SOLD! section is where we highlight these connections, as well as other sales occuring within the market. Within this monthly section you can read just some of the feedback pouring into our office from coast to coast about art sales, including some made directly from the pages of the magazine. You never know—your next art purchase could be in this issue. 1. Galloping Through On August 6, the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona, held an opening reception for the annual equine-themed show Hold Your Horses!, which was celebrating its eighth year. Western Art Collector was on hand as a media sponsor as…

When the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, received a stunning Thomas Moran work for its permanent collection, it could have put it on display and called it a day. But the work had such a fascinating story that it was turned into an exhibition. The Moran work is the rare watercolor Mount Superior, as viewed from Alta, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, and the exhibition it spawned is Thomas Moran’s Mount Superior, now on view at the Texas museum. The exhibition will highlight the major Moran painting (see it in our museum section starting on Page 68), but it will also draw attention to work that Moran created around that time. The exhibition loosely follows the story of the artist’s westward journey along the transcontinental railroad.…

The African Community & Conservation Foundation and Tusk coordinated with a group Tof artists to promote wildlife conservation related to African big cats such as lions. The groups, led by curator Chris Westbrook, teamed up to create U.S. Tusk Lion Trail, a series of 12 lifesize lion sculptures that were on display around the Hamptons in New York throughout the month of August. The lions were on display along a specific path so visitors could follow a map to “collect” all of the lions on the route. Each lion was designed or painted by prominent wildlife artists, including Roberto Dutesco, Elizabeth Jordan, Kevin McEvoy, Beth O’Donnell, Jeremy Penn and others. Western art’s very own John Banovich, a well-known wildlife artist who promotes conservation, did the very first lion, a piece…

Martin Grelle has one of the storied careers in Western art: Born in Texas amid humble beginnings. Inspired by artists like Melvin Warren and mentored by the great James Boren. Cowboy Artists of America member in 1995. Auction records at every turn, including his current record of $575,000. A hit show in 2017 that produced $1.7 million in sales. Collected at the highest level of Western art. Awards and gold medals from all the top shows. Fame and fortune, and then more fame and more fortune. So what’s next? For Grelle, the answer is the same as when he started painting: “There are still more stories to be told,” he says. “That’s what I’ve been focusing on is storytelling. There are great stories everywhere, you just have to find them,”…

Arizona-based painter Brian Cote must put a smile on the face of the person who sells him his paints. The artist, who paints landscapes of the Southwest, uses a thick impasto technique that he achieves using brushes, trowels, palette knives and even his fingers. “A 30-by-40-inch painting could easily weigh 15 or 20 pounds,” he says, adding that he also paints larger works. Of course, paintings are not measured by weight, but they certainly can be measured by light and form, elements that Cote—pronounced “co-tay”—brings to life in his chunky paint and immense texture. “[I work]in these thick tapestries of oil paint, and they teeter on the edge, back and forth, between realism and abstraction,” he says. “So there’s a real dynamic going on between the textures and rhythms, and…

2820 Rungius Road, Jackson, WY 83001 • (307) 733-5771 • www.wildlifeart.org Founded in 1987, the National Museum of Wildlife Art is a world-class museum and nonprofit located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The museum’s collection boasts more than 5,000 artworks representing wild animals from around the world. Featuring work by prominent artists such as N.C. Wyeth, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Bob Kuhn, Albert Bierstadt and Carl Rungius, the museum’s unsurpassed permanent collection chronicles much of the history of wildlife in art, from 2500 B.C. to the present. Built into a hillside overlooking the National Elk Refuge, the museum received the designation “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States” by order of Congress in 2008. In addition to the impressive galleries, the museum also includes a museum shop, interactive children’s…

239 Brinton Road, Big Horn, WY 82833 • (307) 672-3173 info@thebrintonmuseum.org • www.thebrintonmuseum.org The Brinton Museum is located on the 620-acre Quarter Circle A Ranch just outside of Big Horn, Wyoming. The property, originally owned by Bradford Brinton, was dedicated as a memorial and museum by Brinton’s sister, Helen Brinton, upon her death in 1960. A personal friend of many artists, Bradford Brinton amassed a collection of Western art, Native American art, books and other fine items during his lifetime. Much of his collection is on display in the historic ranch house. In 2015, the Forrest E. Mars Jr. Building was opened to display the Gallatin Collection of Indian Art and pieces from Bradford Brinton’s collection, including works by Ed Borein, Bill Gollings, Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran, John Mix Stanley…

Three years ago, renowned landscape painter Doug West started meditating. The artist, now based in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, notes that the act of painting is also a form of meditation, especially when working on one small area. This mentality has given rise to a new collection of work in Time and Space, a show of large-scale landscape paintings to be featured at Blue Rain Gallery. “There’s a serenity to the work that I attribute to what I enjoy when I get a clear mind space from all the internal chatter,” says West. “That’s always been my signature, and this [series] shows that to a greater degree.” West’s intention is to depict moments of solitude, timelessness and a meditative state while capturing the spirit of a given place. The majority…

Many of the Western museum exhibitions and sales often use a popular format: new works only. This is great for a sale, but it usually offers only a snapshot of the artist’s career. The Woolaroc Museum has found a way to liven up the format by offering new works from top artists, but also showing a retrospective component that allows viewers more context for an artist’s career and growth as an artist. The museum’s hit show, the Woolaroc Retrospective Exhibit & Sale, is returning to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on October 16 with nine artists: Bill Acheff, Scott L. Christensen, Josh Elliott, Sherrie McGraw, Paul Moore, John Moyers, Peregrine O’Gormley, Grant Redden and Matt Smith. The show, held every other year, encountered a stroke of luck by having the event in odd-numbered…

The day most of the bidders arrived in Reno, Nevada, for the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction also happened to be the first day of a new mask mandate issued by the governor of Nevada. If there are bad omens in the auction world, this wasn’t one of them. Bidders simply masked up and soldiered on, and the festive mood that the organizers were aiming for spilled onto the auction floor, to the tune of $17.5 million. Not only was the sales total the highest in seven years, it was also the tenth-highest total in more than 35 years as an auction. Partner Mike Overby was overjoyed. “We’re super happy with the results,” he says. “It was better than we were expecting across all categories.” Bidding was strong in the room,…

SEPTEMBER Through September 24 INSIGHT GALLERY Fall Group Show Fredericksburg, TX – (830) 997-9920 www.insightgallery.com Through September 25 COEUR D’ALENE GALLERIES Miniatures by the Lake Coeur d’Alene, ID – (208) 667-7732 www.cdagalleries.com OCTOBER October 1-22 INSIGHT GALLERY Billy Schenck & Jeremy Winborg Fredericksburg, Texas – (830) 997-9920 www.insightgallery.com October 1-29 MANITOU GALLERIES Ethelinda Santa Fe, NM – (505) 986-0440 www.manitougalleries.com October 1-31 CLOUD TREE GALLERY Landry McMeans Austin, TX – Book Visit Online www.cloudtreestudiosandgallery.com October 1-31 MOCKINGBIRD GALLERY Beyond the Surface Bend, OR – (541) 388-2107 www.mockingbird-gallery.com Through October 1 TURNER FINE ART Kathryn Mapes Turner Jackson Hole, WY – (307) 734-4444 www.turnerfineart.com October 2-January 8 COUSE-SHARP HISTORIC SITE Mark Maggiori’s Sharp Paintings Taos, NM – (575) 751-0369 www.couse-sharp.org Oct. 16-Dec. 31: The Woolaroc Retrospective Exhibit & Sale Bartlesville, OK |…

The thrilling, spontaneous and dangerous aspects of the wilderness are explored at great length in a new book on the art of John Seerey-Lester, the beloved wildlife painter who died in 2020. The book, Legendary Hunters and Explorers, is tribute to the artist, but it is also his last words to his many fans and collectors—he died during the final writing of the book. In addition to hundreds of works of art by the gifted artist, Legendary Hunters and Explorers also offers a picture into the life and career of Seerey-Lester, who had a sense of humor about the predicaments he found himself in. He tells a story about camping with his father and growing bored with cans of stew the two of them had packed. At one point they…

Born and raised in Utah, Brett Allen Johnson began to fall in love with the vastness of the western landscape on family trips to Sedona, Arizona, to visit his grandparents. “My family valued the natural world,” he says. “I’ve always been inquisitive about the nature of our world and the universe. Those trips to Sedona were a formative experience and imprinted the Southwest on my mind. In the big spaces of the West you can stand and contemplate the vastness. There are parts of life that we can’t understand or fathom but what you can’t know is there.” He recalls a passage in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in which Ishmael “takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and…

Eccles Fine Art Center • 225 South University Avenue, St. George, UT 84770 • (435) 652-7909 • www.searsart.com The Sears Art Museum is located 50 minutes from Zion National Park. The beauty of this area is awe inspiring, and the museum reflects this in its wonderful space and exciting exhibits. People are attracted and appreciate their visits to the Sears to discover meaningful connections with artistic expressions and to enjoy opportunities for conversation, contemplation and a cooperative experience. This year they’re celebrating the 35th annual Robert N. and Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale, open every President’s Day weekend. The Gala and preview will be held February 18 and opens February 19 to patrons and the public through April 2, 2022. Tickets to enjoy dinner and to have…

1550 Bandera Highway, Kerrville, TX 78028 (830) 896-2553 • www.museumofwesternart.com The Museum of Western Art’s permanent collection is a treasure trove of works from both historic and contemporary masters. Historic works in the collection include those from George Phippen, Fred Harman, Will James, Henry Farney, G. Harvey and Oscar Berninghaus. Contemporary artists include Oreland Joe, Bill Owen, Roy Andersen, Robert Pummill and many more. An onsite Western research library includes 6,000 volumes and periodicals, and the Journey West Children’s Gallery features an interactive display of life on the Western trail. “The Museum of Western Art is looking forward to a very exciting 2022,” says executive director Darrell Beauchamp. “We will have exceptional exhibitions, along with workshops and special events throughout the year. We encourage all Western art lovers to visit…

Utah’s landscape is undeniably stunning. From national parks like Zion, Canyonlands, Arches and Bryce Canyon, to the majesty of the Wasatch Mountains, the Great Salt Lake and Rainbow Bridge, the state has captivated artists for centuries. And with beautiful downtown Salt Lake City and outlandish, artsy Park City (home of the iconic Sundance Film Festival), among other locales, there’s plenty to write home about in the Beehive State. On the last Friday of every month, check out the Last Friday Gallery Stroll, where collectors can explore local artists, special exhibitions and art galleries throughout town. Hosted by the Park City Gallery Association, the free monthly event sees 19 of the organization’s art galleries “open their doors for visitors and locals alike to enjoy light refreshments and to admire their latest…

California-based painter S.C. Mummert has a sweet spot he likes to focus on from the 20th century. “Oh yeah, it’s that 1930s, 1940s and 1950s period. Right there, that’s my zone,” he says. “It’s the fashion, the old cars and trucks, the cowboy gear, the high-wasted jeans…it all speaks to a fascinating period for me.” The artist will be highlighting that era with a new batch of work that will be on view starting in September at Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He admits that making that period come to life means he has to do a lot of wrangling of props, as well as research. He was recently in Arizona at Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West admiring all the bits and spurs, saddles, gauntlets…

At first thought one might not think of the West has a vivid and colorful landscape, but it has everything from desert terrain with saguaro cactus blooms and bright sunsets to the striking canyons and waterways. In the annual Colors of the West show at Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona, Arizona, 20 artists will present new works that highlight the beauty of the region. Julie R. Williams, director of the gallery, explains, “Mountain Trails Gallery has been a destination for compelling landscapes, and we are proud to present one of the favorite exhibitions for our collectors. Each autumn season our award-winning artists create paintings that go beyond the colors the eye perceives. Each unique work captures the beauty that makes the colors of the West so vibrant and alive.” In…

Australia-based realist painter Lew Brennan hopes that each painting A he completes touches the viewer in a special way. “My ultimate goal with each creation is to capture and transfer emotion,” he says. “My subjects vary but rarely stray too far from respecting small-town country values, remote spaces and the living things within them that I love.” The painter specializes mainly in rural themes using charcoal and oils, and he regularly exhibits his work around the globe, as well as in significant private collections. Born with a pencil in his hand, Brennan’s technical and detailed work belies his lack of formal training. His personal connection to his subject is evident in the care taken in each aspect of his work, whether in charcoal or oil paint. “We have lived this…