Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Southwest Art

FOR ALMOST half a century, the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale has been one of the premier annual events in the western art world. Presented by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK, it features paintings, drawings, and sculpture by nearly 100 respected artists from the West and beyond. Its traditional opening weekend in early June—featuring lectures, demonstrations, a fixed-price sale, and lots of camaraderie—has been a mainstay of the western art scene for collectors and art-lovers alike. This year, of course, many things changed: The works went on view in August, rather than June. The festive gathering was shifted from the show’s kickoff weekend to its closing weekend, then moved to an online experience; the sale was conducted purely by proxy bidding…

MUCH THE SAME way old Dutch still lifes of fish, fowl, and other game reflect the culinary fare of the era, Karen Barton’s vibrant portrayals of contemporary foods help tell a story about the way we live today. The Washington artist’s edible subjects range from popular snacks and candies to everyday cooking ingredients found in the pantries and refrigerators of homes across America—all captured in bright, vivacious colors for our viewing pleasure now, and for posterity. “I do think of it as a history,” Barton says of her food-inspired art. “It’s documenting the era we live in.” Barton, a retired school teacher, has drawn and painted for most of her life. While working toward her degree in education, she minored in art, and she continued drawing and painting throughout her…

BRIGHT PRIMARY colors, visceral drips of paint, layers of stimulating texture: Chuck Middlekauff’s vibrant water-media paintings of cowboys, movie stars, vintage signs, classic snacks, and other Americana-inspired subjects bespeak the sheer fun he has while creating them. The prolific artist has been busy working on a new collection of paintings for his solo show this month at Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango, CO, that combine his love for cowboy motifs and the pop-art style. The exhibition, fittingly entitled The West Goes Pop!, kicks off with a reception on Friday, October 2, at 5 p.m. Gallery owner Shanan Campbell urges prospective visitors to check Sorrel Sky’s website for event updates, since plans may change due to public health concerns. If the reception continues as scheduled, however, it promises to be as…

THIS YEAR’S Sedona Plein Air Festival, taking place completely on the web and featuring an all-women roster of artists, promises to be unlike any other edition in its 16-year history. Like so many other plein-air shows held in recent months, the Sedona Arts Center was challenged to host its signature event while being mindful of the safety of all involved, including the hundreds of visitors who attend the festival each fall in the stunning desert town of Sedona, AZ. In normal times, says the center’s marketing director, Kelli Klymenko, “People come for the celebration of Sedona.” Now, when the virtual, eight-day festival kicks off on Saturday, October 24, as many as 26 participating artists are painting en plein air in their local environs around the country. Many of them plan…

The widely recognized landscape artist Wilson Hurley (1924-2008) is the subject of a new coffee-table book titled The Life and Art of Wilson Hurley: Celebrating the Richness of Reality. Written by Hurley’s wife, Rosalyn Roembke Hurley, it chronicles the artist’s journey through careers as a pilot and a lawyer before his commitment to painting at the age of 40. The book’s foreword by the late Peter H. Hassrick, director emeritus of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, is reproduced here with permission from the publisher. For more information, visit www.wilson-hurley.com. WILSON HURLEY lived and looked and loved larger than life. From his perch on the west side of the massive Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, he set as his stage a view of the New Mexican skyline that spread beyond…

PICTURE, FOR A moment, a free-spirited young girl riding her horse bareback in the mountains and along beaches, untethered and utterly in tune with the power of her four-legged companion. For Santa Fe, NM, artist Ethelinda, the scene paints a vivid picture of her own childhood growing up in Hawaii. Her memories of riding without a saddle, of watching her horse wade in the ocean tides, make her smile even now, decades later. “It was so freeing and fabulous,” she says. It’s with that same love for freedom that Ethelinda approaches her large-scale oil paintings of the horse today, depicting the creature’s power and grace on canvases that immediately greet viewers with both their immensity and beauty. As many as two dozen new paintings of this nature go on view…

FOR MANY event organizers around the country, lately the mantra has been “the show must go on,” whether that entails hosting it in a physical location with precautions in place, or entirely online. Some events, like the American Impressionist Society’s 21st annual National Juried Exhibition, are being presented as a combination of virtual and in-person offerings for art lovers. Starting on Thursday, October 22, the AIS show hangs at Illume Gallery in St. George, UT, and its two sister galleries located next door, The Mission Gallery and Authentique Gallery. Opening-night activities include an awards presentation at the Electric Theater at 5 p.m. that’s also being live-streamed. Then, from 6 to 9 p.m., the festivities continue with a reception at the galleries. Gracing this year’s show are around 20 paintings by…

Carmen Drake Where do you live and work? I live and work on our farm located in the small town of Carthage, NC. We have 15 acres here at Oak Hollow Farm and Studios, where we remodeled an original 1901 homestead that serves as my studio and a space for hosting workshops with nationally recognized instructors. What are your favorite subjects to paint? My favorite subjects to paint are currently flowers from my gardens, treasures found in nature, and antiques that I have collected over the years. How would you describe your style? Classical realism with impressionistic influences. Some of my inspirations come from Emil Carlsen, William Merritt Chase, Henri Fantin-Latour, and Henk Helmantel, just to name a few. Where did you study art? I was awarded the Special Operations…

representation Jace Romick Gallery, Steamboat Springs, CO; Israel Holloway Studio and Gallery, Craig, CO; www.israelhollowayfineart.com. upcoming shows Solo show, Museum of Northwest Colorado, Craig, CO, December 4-17. Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale, Denver, CO, January 5, 2021. The Russell, Great Falls, MT, March 22-23, 2021. THE FIRST THING to know about paintings by Israel Holloway is that they tell the story of his life, as well as the lives of other folks who call Colorado’s Yampa Valley home. For Holloway, the art of painting is all about inner responses to the outer world, whether it’s his world or his subject’s world. “More often than not, I see how my painting reflects my life after it is finished,” he says. Take his recent work CLOSE AT HEART. A young woman…

COLLECTING FINE ART IS AN ART FORM IN AND OF ITSELF. THE PIECES WE CHOOSE TO ACQUIRE AND DISPLAY IN OUR HOMES REFLECT OUR UNIQUE TASTES AND INTERESTS. IN TURN, OUR collections can deeply personalize our living spaces. As the late actor and art collector Burt Reynolds put it in a 1983 Architectural Digest article, “The more the art dominated my life and my house, the more the house became a home.” In the diverse sampling of painters and sculptors on the following pages, we hope you’ll find both inspiration and new artworks to add to your collection. Discover original paintings and sculptures Josh LaBenne Josh LaBenne has a passion that shows in his inspired paintings of Wyoming wildlife. Every piece created comes from his personal interaction with the animals…