Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022/ No. 178 i Western Art Collector

Donna Howell-Sickles grew up on a farm and ranch in Sivells Bend, Texas, not far from where she lives today. Partaking in the many demands that came with that lifestyle instilled in her a sense of hard work, independence and, most importantly, community—all elements that have helped forge her career as an artist. “We didn’t think of ourselves as cowgirls or cowboys,” she notes, “it was just what we did.” Howell-Sickles’ family moved to New Mexico, where she graduated from high school, and then studied to be an elementary school teacher at Texas Tech. It was there that she discovered her true passion, or rather, her destiny. “After signing up for a drawing class my junior year,” she says, “I realized for the first time in my life that people…

Barbara Latham (1896-1989) studied at Pratt Institute in New York and later with the modernist painter Andrew Dasburg (1887-1979). She arrived in Taos, New Mexico, for the first time in 1925 to gather material for her work with a greeting card company. While there, she met her future husband, Howard Cook (1901-1980), a painter and printmaker who was working on illustrations for Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop. While attending the Art Students League in New York, he had also studied with Dasburg. The couple settled in Taos in 1933. Dasburg wrote, “In my use of color I aim to reinforce the sensation of light and dark, to develop the rhythm to and from the eye by placing on the canvas the colors which, by their depressive or stimulating…

Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona, Arizona, is widely known for artworks that capture the complexities of the American West. In the gallery’s June sale, Doing What They Do Best, the gallery presents a mix of contemporary and traditional pieces, many by esteemed female artists committed to “telling their truth.” Through a varied selection of paintings and sculptures depicting still lifes, landscapes, portraits and wildlife works, the show upholds the telling of the female perspective of the West. “More than half our artists have always been women who bring their own experiences with various cultures of the American West to their work,” explains gallery director Julie R. Williams. "[This] highlights the nature of fierce determination, doing what they do best, making it all look unsentimental and, at the same time, realistic,…

In celebration of the 200th birthday of French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899), one of the most popular and esteemed women artists of the 19th century, the National Museum of Wildlife Art presents Bonheur & Beyond: Celebrating Women in Wildlife Art, which coincides with the museums 35th anniversary. The museum will showcase more than 50 pieces by more than 40 female artists from the musuem’s permanent collection, including a six-piece acquisition of Bonheur’s wildlife depictions. The museum press release notes that “the goal of this exhibit is to bring awareness to the excellence and importance of female artists.” “We want to recognize women artists as artists and show that their work is valued,” remarks Tammi Hanawalt, the museum’s curator of art. “The works in this exhibit are remarkable and are significant…

On April 8 and 9, the Scottsdale Art Auction offered 446 lots of Western art to bidders. After the final hammer drop, the auction would realize $14.7 million in sales and achieve an astonishing 99 percent sell-through rate. “We are very, very pleased. It’s always fun when we have so little left. This year we had just five unsold pieces out of 445 lots. It’s our second year with a 99 percent sell-through rate,” says Brad Richardson, one of the three partners of the sale. “I think it shows the strength of the Western market and also that the market is very healthy. As usual, some bidders walked away with some great deals and some sellers walked away with record prices for their works.” The top lot was Howard Terpning’s…

Top women artists from throughout the West descended on Wickenburg, Arizona, on March 25 to open Cowgirl Up! Art From the Other Half of the West at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. The annual event highlights some of the best women artists working today. The museum show kicks off with a series of events, including a miniature sale, the main sale of the larger works and a hugely popular paint-out event that ends with a live auction of the work that was created in front of live audiences. This year’s top award, the best in show, went to Mejo Okon for her large work Glow, featuring a portrait-like presentation of a longhorn cow. Other award winners were Lisa Danielle in the painting category, Stephanie Campos in the works on paper…

The worst part of my month is eliminating artwork from the magazine. It hurts. There is just so much great artwork on the market—making cuts to any of it is painful. (That’s why I’ve been adding artwork to this page. One more opportunity to show some art!) It’s especially hard making cuts in the June issue, which has had our Prix de West coverage in it since the magazine started. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum sends some great early material, and then I reach out to a number of Prix artists to try to sneak peeks from their studio. Then the images start flooding in. And this year, with the museum marking 50 years of the exhibition, the artwork that the artists are finishing is truly on another…

Now open at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, is Living Large: Bob Wade’s Cowgirls, a new exhibition dedicated to the large-scale photography of Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, who spent decades experimenting with photographic techniques to capture images of Western subjects. “Wade’s work resonates with people for a variety of reasons,” says Diana Vela, the museum’s associate executive director. “In his work, we see women in camaraderie, women who have perhaps just finished competing, or are about to compete in varying horsemanship activities…There is freedom in being with a like-minded group of women. Every woman at some point in her life wants to be one of these women in the lineup, even if just for an hour.” One of the works in the exhibition is…

The tourists tend to stop at the James Earle Fraser sculpture and linger a bit. Some pose for photos. Others snap selfies. Fraser’s immense 18-foot, 7,500-pound plaster version of The End of the Trail, which had to be craned into the building nearly 50 years ago, is one of those showstoppers that makes visitors to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum stop in their tracks. The natural path through the museum is to then take a right, down the great hall and into the main galleries, where visitors will see works by Charles M. Russell, Frederic Remington, N.C. Wyeth, William R. Leigh, Albert Bierstadt, Alfred Jacob Miller, E. Martin Hennings, Walter Ufer and many others. But glance left from The End of the Trail. Down the hall is another…

Born in rural Tennessee, Lori Putnam finds herself at home wherever she is at the moment, traveling extensively to paint all over the world, and visiting certain areas over and over again. Gathering information about a place’s specific flora and fauna, atmosphere and light, as well as harmonic color palettes, provides her the resource material she needs to create large paintings in her studio. “Everywhere I go to paint is my favorite place. It is as if it becomes part of me and me of it. For instance, because I have painted in many different deserts, I take great care to interpret cactus primarily found in Arizona, differently than cactus primarily found in New Mexico,” says Putnam. “Looking at the light quality as it lands [on] the Eastern Sierra’s white…

Two huge names in Western art are coming together for a phenomenal exhibition at the Booth Western Art Museum. The large-scale landscape paintings of Arturo Chá vez and the cowboy/ranching scenes of Cowboy Artists of America member Grant Redden are placed center stage during Western Vistas: Arturo Chá vez and Grant Redden. From sprawling wilderness panoramas to intimate scenes of ranching life, each artist captures in stunning detail the myriad elements that make the West what it is. Chá vez has been drawing and painting since kindergarten, but began to focus seriously on his art at age 30. “I was trained in concert and classical guitar, but unfortunately at the end of the day when I put my guitar down, I didn’t feel like it was still making music,” he…

More than three decades ago, leather artist James Jackson encountered Japanese leather artist Taka Otsuka. Although an ocean separated them and their work, they struck up a friendship that grew closer when Otsuka visited Wyoming, Jackson’s home, or when Jackson would visit Japan. “Way back then I was going to Japan because the tool companies would have me go out to give seminars to talk about leather carving. At that time, a few guys like Otsuka were really interested. But each time I went out, there were more and more people. It really turned into an interesting thing,” Jackson says. “The Japanese leather industry started catching on, and what was so interesting about it was they were doing that really high-end, Sheridan-style carving that had played such a big role…

March in Montana has a long history of presenting a large cross section of the whole West. Not just paintings and bronzes, but also weavings, pottery, leather and silverwork, and so much more. The 2022 edition of the annual sale lived up to, and exceeded, those expectations when it returned to Great Falls, Montana, on March 18 and 19. Realizing more than $2.75 million, the sale saw steady and, at times, furious bidding as 97 percent of the lots sold. Most auctions hope to be in the 90s with their sell-through rates, but 97 percent is especially noteworthy with March in Montana’s 755 lots spread across two sessions. The top lot was a pair of Edward H. Bohlin silver parade saddles with silver-mounted breastcollars, bridles and bits, coronas and saddle…

Western Art Collector magazine has changed the way artists, galleries and collectors connect. It has closed the gap that previously existed in the Western art market. Spectacular and instant SOLD! stories keep rolling in. On this page you can read just some of the feedback pouring into our office from coast to coast on sales and connections achieved. And now that the Virtual Version of the magazine launches up to 10 days before the Printed edition arrives, collectors can find new art even faster. 1. Mark Haworth has strong showing at InSight Gallery On April 1, painter Mark Haworth opened his newest solo show, Big Bend Unplugged, at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas. Not only were the works warmly received, but the show performed strongly with a number of sales…

JUNE 2-AUGUST 7: Prix de West NATIONAL COWBOY AND WESTERN HERITAGE WEST MUSEUM | Oklahoma City, OK | (405) 478-2250 | www.nationalcowboymuseum.org May MAY 27-28 SANTA FE ART AUCTION Art of the West Santa Fe, NM – (505) 954-5858 www.santafeartauction.com MAY 28-30 PHIPPEN MUSEUM Western Art Show & Sale Prescott, AZ – (928) 778-1385 www.phippenartmuseum.org June JUNE 2-28 ANN KOROLOGOS GALLERY Lightness of Spirit Basalt, CO – (970) 927-9668 www.korologosgallery.com JUNE 3 SORREL SKY GALLERY Sorrel Sky 20th Anniversary Celebration Durango, CO – (970) 247-3555 www.sorrelsky.com JUNE 3 HINDMAN AUCTIONS The Wildlife Experience Collection Sale, Sold to Benefit the Denver Museum of Nature & Sciences Denver, CO – (312) 447-3271 www.hindmanauctions.com JUNE 3 HERITAGE AUCTIONS Western Art Sale Dallas, TX – (214) 528-3500 www.ha.com JUNE 3-27 MANITOU GALLERIES The Gilded…

1 DUSTIN VAN WECHEL’S NEWEST WILDLIFE WORK IS NOW UP AT TRAILSIDE GALLERIES Five wolves running through snow amid early-morning light is the subject of Dustin Van Wechel’s newest work, Winter Warriors, now on display at Trailside Galleries. “This latest painting clearly expresses his exceptional comprehension of design, brushwork and color usage,” the gallery notes. “Van Wechel’s contemporary interpretations stem from firsthand experiences or personal observations. His paintings are always intimate, presenting the viewer with a portrayal of the subject matter and ideas in each painting that they can connect with emotionally.” To see more or inquire about this work visit www.trailsidegalleries.com. 2 GRAND CANYON SCENE FROM DELADIER ALMEIDA NOW AVAILABLE AT BLUE RAIN GALLERY One of the most iconic viewing areas at the Grand Canyon is the South Rim’s…

If Darcie Peet were to put a pin in every part of the country she’s painted, she would have a worthless map and a very nice pin collection. The Rockies, Texas Hill Country, Canyon de Chelly, California Wine Country, Monument Valley, the Wind River Range, Glacier National Park, Alaska, the Canadian Rockies—her list of painting destinations is vast. The list even goes east, to places few Western artists venture. Places like Grand Marais, Minnesota. “What keeps me going? I think it’s my love of exploring the outdoors,” she says. “If I can be outdoors it changes everything completely. It’s the adventure, the journey, the finding of those quintessential moments in these wonderful places.” Peet has been a steady force in the art world for many years. Her subjects are as…

Currier and Ives published a hand-colored lithograph of Frances Flora Bond Palmer’s painting Across the Continent: “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way” in 1868, the year before the “golden spike” completed the last link in the transcontinental railroad. The subtitle is taken from the title of a 20-by-30-foot mural by Emanuel Leutze in the U.S. Capitol extolling the virtues of Manifest Destiny—the 19th century concept that the United States was destined to expand democracy and capitalism across the North American continent. Leutze painted the far-better-known Washington Crossing the Delaware now at the Met in New York. Palmer (1812-1876) divides her composition with a long diagonal occupied by train tracks with “civilization” on the left and “the wild” on the right. The lithographs were hand-colored with watercolor and vary…

Beginning June 3, Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be presenting a two-artist show featuring the paintings of Alvin Gill-Tapia and the sculpture of John Maisano. The works, although vastly different in medium and style, evoke the contemporary side of the West with Gill-Tapia’s use of shimmering gold and silver leaf, and Maisano’s traditional wildlife subjects marked by modern design elements. “Alvin Gill-Tapia celebrates the architectural traditions of the Southwest emphasizing the distinctive shapes and shadows with color and metal leaf,” notes gallery director Cyndi Hall. “John Maisano’s designs of animals and figures are influenced by his appreciation of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and he uses his brilliantly colored patinas to highlight the work. These two artists come together in a celebration of shape and color which…

Shirley Quaid is an award-winning artist who developed an interest in the Old West at an early age. The internet and social media did not exist when she was growing up, so she became a voracious reader. Now her mind meanders to the character and fortitude of the past as she concentrates her paintings on the late 1800s. “I am an Oklahoma artist who is living the dream. Western art is where my passion resides,” says Quaid. “I find inspiration in many things but when the light is just right, the expression is just so, or the beauty is compelling, then I have found my subject.” Rather than the traditional Western art of cowboys on horseback, she often offers impeccable depictions in portrait form showing the interplay of light and…

A new exhibition at the Museum of the Big Bend, featuring the work of esteemed Western painter Fred Darge (1900-1978), was first inspired by a book project started in 2017. During the beginning stages of research, husband and wife team Bonnie and Robert McKee III realized that there was minimal information available about the artist’s life. After consulting many art dealers and historians, the result is a deeply comprehensive book containing 24 chapters of incredible Darge imagery and writing that coincides with an exhibition of approximately 40 oil paintings of the same title—Fred Darge Paints the Big Bend and Beyond. The McKee’s are also collectors of Darge’s work, which has grown from their initial purchase of two pieces in 2000, to their current ownership of 10. Robert notes that he’s…

Doel Reed (1894-1985) was chair of the department of art at Oklahoma State University for nearly 30 years. A painter and a print maker, he retired to Talpa, outside Taos, New Mexico, in 1959 where he concentrated on perfecting the aquatint printing process. His home and studio in Talpa now house the Doel Reed Center of OSU. “I have been in the Southwest for so many years that I feel definitely part of the region,” he wrote. “The feeling of endless space of the great plains, the high mountains, the unlimited sky and clouds have been a great source of inspiration for the development of my own style which might not have materialized elsewhere.” He became interested in aquatints when he saw the work of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), who did…

Throughout 2021 and the first part of 2022, the Santa Fe Art Auction experienced strong sales and continued growth. The response from bidders was so powerful, they were emboldened to add a brand new sale, the Signature Summer Sale on June 24 and 25 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “We had such a strong season last year despite the pandemic, and we’ve been looking for ways to connect with international visitors who come to Santa Fe in late June and stay throughout the summer,” says Gillian Blitch, president and CEO of Santa Fe Art Auction. “We decided another signature sale, this one in the summer, would be perfect to reach out to this very active collector demographic.” The highly anticipated summer sale will feature the expansive collection of Georgia and…