Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Southwest Art

IF YOU WERE to view the diverse oeuvre of Aron Belka in person, one of the first things you’d immediately notice is the sheer size of most pieces. The New Orleans, LA, artist has portrayed everything from racehorses and their jockeys to shrimpers and their workboats, and some of these oil paintings measure more than 7 feet tall. In groups like the Portrait Society of America, Belka is making waves with his unusually large works; last year he garnered an exceptional merit award in the esteemed organization’s international competition. “I’m very open to experimenting and changing it up,” he explains, “because creatively, that’s what keeps me going.” And his work is about more than portraits. For his recent solo exhibition at LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans, Belka completed a series…

WHILE SOME people beyond the state’s borders may not be aware of it, “lowrider” culture thrives in northern New Mexico, where vintage sedans, convertibles, and pickups customized with modified suspensions and deluxe paint jobs cruise the streets and highways—especially in and around the town of Española, long known as the Lowrider Capital of the World. So, in anticipation of warmer days that are ideal for taking to the streets, the Palace Avenue location of Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe presents a group show called Four Wheelin’ Flashback, featuring works from six artists: Michael Baum, William Haskell, Colt Idol, Arthur Lopez, Tim Prythero, and Curtis Wade. With all the artists planning to attend, the opening reception on Friday, May 1, from 5 to 7:30 p.m., promises a fully immersive lowrider experience.…

“IF YOU CAN ever get into the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction,” a friend of Bruce K. Lawes suggested to him about seven years ago, “that will be a turning point for your career.” The auction, held each July in Reno, NV, has a strong reputation among collectors of western art for consistently offering stellar works by both masters of the Old West and top contemporary western artists. So Lawes acted on his friend’s advice almost immediately: He composed an email to Peter Stremmel, one of the auction’s three business partners. “I’m working on a General Custer painting that I think would do well in your auction,” Lawes recalls writing, referring to a historical work he’d been planning on Custer’s early military success at the age of 23 in the Battle…

BRYCE CAMERON LISTON, A CHILD’S SUMMER, OIL, 16 X 20. Paintings of children aren’t usually my personal favorites, but this one is so masterful that it won me over immediately. It feels, to me, both real and dreamlike at the same time. Everything about the girl is honest and believable, from the texture of her hair to the color of her skin to her hand wrapped around the basket’s handle. Her facial expression, too, is perfection, with her focus and concentration on the flowers. And oh, the flowers—a riotous combination of description and suggestion that is beautiful to look at. The longer you examine this painting, the more rewards you’ll find. —KH “The loose, painterly effects here perfectly suit this breezy summer scene. I’m pulled in by the billowing linens,…

“I HAVE A really hard time finishing my pieces,” confesses artist Mikela Cameron. “It’s hard for me to walk away. I literally make a connection with my subjects; it’s like a heart connection. I don’t want it to stop.” In fact, after spending so many hours perfecting each of her drawings—lovingly rendered in colored pencil—they can feel like members of her own family, says the Willits, CA, artist. Cameron enjoys portraying her subjects realistically while creating “softer” backgrounds with impressionistic undertones. And because she works in thick, saturated layers of color, she thinks of her drawings as paintings. “It’s almost a sculptural effect,” she says of her process. “You just watch the images rise up out of the paper.” The Colorado native grew up riding horses and drawing animals, so…

EVEN BEFORE SHE started painting the landscape, longtime Mount Vernon, WA, resident Christine Troyer studied the beauty of her region with an artist’s eye, captivated by what she saw. It’s a world she came to know intimately as a rural postal worker in the nearby town of Arlington. Located about 50 miles northeast of Seattle, Arlington is nestled in the scenic western foothills of the Cascade Range. Says Troyer, “My biggest treat was getting outdoors and delivering the mail. It allowed me to observe what was happening, the seasons and the changing sunlight. I would think how beautifully light affected nature.” Troyer, who had enjoyed decorative-painting projects in her 20s, also started to think seriously about how she could capture her observations in paint. Then one day she passed by…

ONE OF Cody S. Brothers’ many passionate photography projects centers on one of the most basic yet tricky picture-making machines around: the pinhole camera. With its tiny aperture, the lightproof box requires prolonged exposure times at precise calculations to achieve a successful shot, but for Brothers—a seasoned photographer with a keen devotion to analog film—the pains required are worth it. After spending a decade perfecting his pinhole-photography craft, he recently produced a striking tour de force in LAMY, DISAPPEARING TRAIN, a pinhole image he captured at an Amtrak station near his Santa Fe, NM, hometown. “That’s part of the art about shooting film,” says the New Mexico native. “You’re evolving as an artist by getting better and better with your camera and understanding what the film does.” A wide collection…

STEP INSIDE the Little Wonder Café in Richfield, UT, and one enters a bygone world. Vintage clocks hang on the walls, and comfy blue-leather booths line the perimeter. It’s a pork-chops-and-applesauce kind of place where locals convene to exchange the latest news and wash it down with a cup of joe for just $1.75. On occasion a celebrity may stop in, and the café’s owners post a funky sign afterwards at the anointed table, announcing to customers, “Stephen King sat here.” Utah artist Doug Braithwaite has enjoyed the café on many occasions. Braithwaite is as fond of the Little Wonder as he is of the town of Richfield, two places where time stands still. “Richfield is from another era—old buildings, very Americana, like Mayberry, USA,” he says, referring to the…

EVER SINCE Cynthia Neill was 5 years old, when her tiny hand could ably grip a pencil and draw the shapes of animals, she has never looked beyond animals for inspiration. Besides their beauty, the wildlife artist appreciates their ability to live in the present. “They aren’t worried about what happened yesterday or what’s next,” she says. “They relish the moment.” Throughout her fine-art career, Neill has portrayed a variety of North American wildlife using oils as well as pen and ink. She has also been depicting African fauna in oils since around 2007, when she and her husband, photographer Stephen McClung, made their first of many excursions to Africa to photograph the exotic beasts she later paints back at home in Heath, TX. During the couple’s recent trek to…

WHILE NOTICEABLY design-driven, Peggy Trigg’s striking landscape paintings are also a tacit revelation of her lifelong connection with nature and the Southwest. She grew up on a ranch in north-central New Mexico and spent much of her youth exploring the same mesas and chamisa-dotted countryside she compellingly portrays in oils and acrylics today. “I paint locally most of the time,” says Trigg, who resides in Questa, a historic village just north of Taos near the scenic Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. But the artist is quick to add that her paintings, completed both on location and in her studio, are not exact representations of the places she depicts. “If it’s a hot day, I might accentuate the reds and the oranges,” she says, describing her style as contemporary impressionism.…

WHILE PHOENIX, AZ, painter Anton Nowels wouldn’t describe himself as a landscape artist, he certainly exudes as much enthusiasm for his homeland’s sunlit deserts and turquoise skies as a landscape artist would. Likewise, if you ask the artist about his key influences, he’ll mention landscape painters whose works eloquently capture the dramatic light and monumental spirit of the West, from G. Russell Case to Maynard Dixon. “I come from an experimental background,” says Nowels, “so I wanted to find a way to set up that landscape experience on a microscale.” Enter the artist’s outdoor still lifes, which feature classic motifs like fruits, flowers, pottery, and vases. Nowels’ oil paintings, however, are not an homage to these objects so much as a vibrant tribute to the dynamic color relationships they display…

OVER THE past decade, Logan Maxwell Hagege has solidified a reputation as one of the most compelling, sought-after artists working in the genre of western art today. His vivid, stylized paintings have found permanent homes in the collections of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, and the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio. Top awards, meanwhile, have been bestowed upon him from premier events including the Autry’s Masters of the American West, the Eiteljorg’s Quest for the West, and the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale in Denver. And so Hagege’s major solo show opening at Maxwell Alexander Gallery with a reception on the evening…

FOR NEARLY TWO decades, Angus has been breathing new life into the centuries-old genre of still-life painting with his briskly modern compositions. Now, in his latest solo show at Ventana Fine Art in Santa Fe, NM, the California artist continues to chart new territory within the art form while building upon his signature style and classic motifs. “I’m primarily producing still-life paintings that have their origins in post-Impressionism, but they are far more contemporary than that,” notes Angus, whose works reveal influences ranging from Paul Gauguin to Richard Diebenkorn. “None of that has changed about the ethos of my painting, but I always try to grow and explore new ideas within that framework.” Take, for example, HYACINTH WITH PAPAYA ON BLUE, one of around two dozen acrylic paintings the gallery…

IN THE DARKNESS of early morning, a teenage Grant Redden was charged with rounding up horses to move a sheep camp on his father’s southwest Wyoming ranch. He climbed bareback onto a horse he’d never ridden before and, by the faint light of the setting moon, headed off without hesitation on an unfamiliar trail. For a boy who was fascinated with the romance of the Old West and had a taste for the dramatic, the danger and unknown of that ride meant excitement. Years later Redden translates such firsthand experiences, along with stories of his pioneer ancestors, into paintings steeped in authenticity and rendered with skill. These qualities earned him six Gold Medal awards in his first seven years as a member of the Cowboy Artists of America, into which…

ANNE SPOON What inspires you to create art? The way light can transform an object is wonderfully exciting. How would you describe your style? It depends on the day and the kind of idea I want to express. I don’t like the idea of being pigeonholed to one style of art—37 years as an oil painter have seen me experiment with all manner of expressions. How did you first get interested in art? My elementary-school art teacher, Mr. McGuire, helped me draw a well pump. It was amazing watching him draw. Something clicked in me; even though I was just a kid, I knew what I wanted to be. Where did you study art? I earned a Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York…

MANY ARTISTS celebrate the grandeurs of nature in their work, and justifiably so. But there is also something to be said for portraying nature’s less magnificent and seemingly unremarkable views—spaces where beauty exists yet silently goes unnoticed. It’s these humble places that most often inspire artist Joel R. Edwards, who views his works as quiet meditations on nature. “You wouldn’t call it grand,” he says of his Waco, TX, surroundings. “But living here, that’s what I see most, and that’s what I experience. And maybe that’s where the idea of finding beauty in unexpected places germinated.” An accomplished artist in oil, watercolor, charcoal, and pencil, Edwards has received accolades for his work in all of these mediums. Last fall he garnered Best Landscape in the respected Best of America exhibition…