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.
Welcome to the December issue of Western Art Collector! Around these parts, in Scottsdale, Arizona, we study the West every day at work and play. We are surrounded by experts giving us insight, via phone conversations, studio visits, podcast episodes, interviews and email exchanges. We are at the epicenter of Western art. Whether it’s an artist relating the story of their painting or a collector telling the story of why they bought the painting—this is history we absorb and appreciate daily. A cowboy is a cowboy is a cowboy, whether painted far in the past or just yesterday with a clear vision of the role these present-day figures play in our culture. The work can be painted in geometric abstraction, or in an illustrative style with bright colors, or as…
I was recently in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for a small family trip. My wife and I are suckers for bookstores in new cities, and right away we found one that seemed to stretch for a whole city block. I judge a bookstore by the quality of its art section, and this one was superb—shoutout to COAS Books, which had books I never knew existed. One of my purchases that day was Contemporary Western Artists by Peggy and Harold Samuels. The book is essentially an encyclopedia of living Western artists from 1982, the year the book was published. Nearly 1,000 artists are represented: each has a small biography, a headshot, one artwork image and, my favorite part, an example of their signature. Skimming through, there are many artists in the…
Nov. 28, 2025-Oct. 18, 2026 Ed Mell: In the Studio PHOENIX ART MUSEUM Phoenix, AZ – (602) 257-1880 www.phxart.org November Nov. 16, 2025-Oct. 26, 2026 Wagon Road to Mother Road MUSEUM OF NORTHERN ARIZONA Flagstaff, AZ – (928) 774-5213 www.musnaz.org Nov. 22, 2025-Jan. 10, 2026 Silver Saddles and the Silver Screen: The Golden Age of Hollywood MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART Kerrville, TX – (830) 896-2553 www.museumofwesternart.com Nov. 28, 2025-Oct. 18, 2026 Ed Mell: In the Studio PHOENIX ART MUSEUM Phoenix, AZ – (602) 257-1880 www.phxart.org December On View Now Ben Steele: A POP of Art! JAMES MUSEUM OF WESTERN & WILDLIFE ART St. Petersburg, FL – (727) 892-4200 www.thejamesmuseum.org December 12-31 Small Works Holiday Show PARSONS GALLERY OF THE WEST Taos, NM – (575) 737-9200 www.parsonsart.com December 4-24 Kathryn Stedham:…
Award-winning photographer Jay Dusard, who shot timeless images of working cowboys and Western landscapes, took great pride in his hometown of St. Louis, which was also the birthplace of one of his heroes, Charles M. Russell. Although the two men worked a century apart and in very different mediums, their works reverberated throughout the West. Dusard died on September 20. He was 88 years old. In an interview with Western Art Collector in 2018, the photographer revealed how carefully he planned his career as he chased down a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship. “[A friend] told me the best advice he could offer was to pick something I was truly interested in because if I got the award I was stuck with that subject,” Dusard said. “The moment I got off the…
Mikel Donahue is the new president of Cowboy Artists of America, which has a concise mission to authentically preserve the culture of Western life in fine art as all his predecessors have done. The CAA held its first exhibition in 1967. Next year the group will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Donahue has been a member since 2016. “I didn’t know I was up for nomination,” he recalls. “I got a phone call telling me I had been voted in. I hung up the phone and sat in disbelief. It’s by far the highest honor I’ve ever had.” One of the CAA’s objectives is to perpetuate the memory and culture of the Old West as typified by the late Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, and others. Donahue was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma,…
Note: This is an excerpt from Sage Vogel’s new book of stories, Dichos en Nichos. It was made possible by the author and the book’s publisher, University of New Mexico Press. The book is now available. “Pick up your feet, Elique,” Guadalupe Fernández told her son, pulling him by the hand toward the church. “I don’t want you getting your shoes all covered in dust. You need to look presentable.” “Ay mamá, I won’t get them dirty. Let me go, suéltame,” Elique said, struggling to pull himself free. “If you don’t start behaving I’m going to have you spend another Saturday with Padre Pablo,” she said, holding firm. “Leave the boy alone, Lupe,” Guadalupe’s husband Ramón told her, his tone leaving no room for debate. She let go of their son,…
