Recently in ART AND ARCHITECTURE
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, December 29, 2012
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Three of the Nation's Top Western Artists Under 40, Glenn Dean, Josh Elliott and Logan Maxwell Hagege, will be featured at the Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, December 25, 2012
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Merry Christmas from My-West.com |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, September 22, 2012
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“Balkanski has created a narrative that engages the viewer in an anecdotal moment. The barn tells the story of an accumulated past, and as with anything or anyone who is a little worse for the wear, the barn is still up, still functioning, but is fairly worn. With his painterly strokes, the artist went to extraordinary lengths to create this piece for this particular show.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, August 14, 2012
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For the next few days we’ll be featuring paintings that will be exhibited at Maynard Dixon Country 2012, home of the extraordinary Maynard Dixon cabin and ground, beautifully preserved by Susan and Paul Bingham and the Bingham Gallery in Mt. Carmel. This event gets bigger and better each year, featuring many of the most talented artists in the country. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, August 12, 2012
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Even if you think you don’t know the artist Maxfield Frederick Parrish, (1870-1966) you’ll probably recognize prints that hung in your great aunt’s home or that of some elderly friend or relative. The most famous of the prints was titled “Daybreak,” (1922). The actual painting, from which the prints were copied, sold not long ago for $5,234,500. Before Parrish painted his iconic neo-classical paintings full of atmosphere, languid youth and the famous ‘Parrish blue’ he was illustrating western scenes for the covers of McClure’s, Colliers and other popular turn-of-the-century magazines. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, August 11, 2012
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Bill Gollings grew up in Pierce City, Idaho, worked on a ranch in Rosebud County, Montana and eventually settled in Sheridan, Wyoming where he painted for the remainder of his life. His contemporaries were Russell, Remington, Koerner and other artists of the authentic American West. Their work is highly desired because of the genre element, telling stories that can no longer be told. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, August 8, 2012
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Image by Skip Douglas created in charcoal. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, July 24, 2012
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“The Conversation” by Barbara Pence received the “People’s Choice” award and the jurors’ award of merit at the recent 2012 Spring Salon and the Springville Museum of Art in Utah. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, July 21, 2012
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Offered at the Jackson Hole Art Auction, September 15, 2012, Jackson Hole, Wyoming |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, June 16, 2012
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In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, June 14, 2012
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For every illustration that ever graced the cover of magazines like Harper’s, Field and Stream, Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post, there is an original work of art in a collection or museum attesting to the veracity and story telling capacity of the artist. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, June 2, 2012
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Passionate Kisses, 1930s. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 29, 2012
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Get real. The best fashion statement — authenticity. Handmade in New York, these bags epitomize a true western aesthetic. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, May 23, 2012
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The Photographer, 1938. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 18, 2012
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Demand for paintings by Henry Farny’s (1847-1916) best work is consistently driving prices at auction beyond the high estimate...way beyond. On May 1st Farny’s Southern Plans Indian Warrior (1894) sold for $362,500, a surprising $162,500 above estimate. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, May 15, 2012
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Howard, c. 1940s. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 10, 2012
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Photographed by David F. Barry (1854-1934), “Sitting Bull,” mounted albumen print. Lakota chief and holy man, Sitting Bull (1831-1890) was famous for his 1876 victory over George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana. The cabinet card of Sitting Bull, photographed in the 1880s is for sale at Bonhams, Auction in San Francisco, June 5th 2012 at 10:00 a.m. (although the web site reads June 4th and 12:00). |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 7, 2012
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Before the 1960s (and color TV), most television stations turned off all programming at midnight. After 12:00 p.m., and until early in the morning, the only image you could tune into was the test pattern. The dominant and most famous test pattern was the grey scale pattern known as the “Indian Head.” It was introduced by RCA in 1939 and became “an important icon in the 1940s.” It was such a popular image that it was also used in Canada, Rhodesia, Venezuela and Sweden…and Poland. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 5, 2012
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While Jeff Pugh’s interest in agrarian scenes echoes that of his famous mentor, Gary Ernest Smith, he has created his own unique feel and style. While Smith’s Post-Regionalist work evokes nostalgia for a lifestyle that is rapidly fading from rural America, Pugh’s work is pre-reflective. His minimal forms and reductive colors place one in the immediacy of the scene. When I see his depiction of cows on a field, I feel like yelling “Moo.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 4, 2012
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Road trip through New Mexico, 1923. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, May 1, 2012
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“…always a new horizon—but always back to the deserts of America.” - Ed Ainsworth writing about the artist Don Louis Perceval |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 29, 2012
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“I decided very early that I would be an American painter. I travelled the county over, and the West appealed to me. There is no phase of landscape in which we are not richer, more varied and interesting… ” – Thomas Moran |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, April 27, 2012
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Cowboy coffee, c. 1920. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, April 24, 2012
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This photograph is spooky. Initially, we thought we had added a nice photograph depicting two women fishing to our My-West collection. After scanning it, however, the eerie silhouette of a man in the upper right corner of the photograph was revealed. Any ideas? |
ARCHITECTURE: Lodges of the American West (Repost - January 27, 2011)
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Gilbert Stanley Underwood crafted a uniquely western brand of architecture whose grandeur derives from its perfect harmony with the most stunning natural landscapes the west has to offer. Underwood designed many of the west's most memorable lodges, including Timberline Lodge, featured as the first installment in our series on Lodges of the American West. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 22, 2012
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While evidence of human endeavor is obvious, Cobble’s images are unpopulated; an edgy silence and sober clarity pervade the small town scenes. In “Prom Nite,” the mannequins act on layers of shared memory of small town life, holding the promise of youth suggested by the title, but also evoking tension and ambiguity inherent in a plastic model of perfection and its connotation for the persona of a community. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day - Vintage Photo, April 17, 2012
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Brilliant accidents…the double exposure, 1938. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 16, 2012
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Chief Joseph (1840-1904), Beaded War Shirt, mixed media, variable inches. Estimated to sell at auction for between $800,000 – 1,200,000. Chief of the Nez Perce tribe, Chief Joseph’s given name was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, translated as Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain. In 1877, this great man whose very name made men tremble, gave his now famous surrender speech,“Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 9, 2012
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In celebration of Edward Muybridge's 182nd birthday, Google took Muybridge's famous stopgap photography for their logo. Check out the Google video… |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 7, 2012
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Another fascinating painting from Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen-- not only does he offer this detailed work, but also lists the species of every image in the painting! “Incidental species in this painting include Field Mushrooms (Agaricus sp.), Milfoil Yarrow (Achilles millifolium), Northern Sweetvetch (Hedysarum boreale), Tapertip Onions (Allium acuminatum), Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), Curlycup Gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa) Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officianale), Early Paintbrush (Castilleja chromosa), Oregon Grape (Berberis repens), …” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, April 6, 2012
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“I will start out with an idea in mind, but the piece will evolve into something I didn’t picture in the beginning. The process can be very frustrating when it’s not working and thrilling when it does.” — Rob Colvin |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 31, 2012
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“Every image he sees, every photograph he takes, becomes in a sense a self-portrait. The portrait is made more meaningful by intimacy - an intimacy shared not only by the photographer with his subject but by the audience.” - Dorothea Lange Both Lange’s photography and Dixon’s minimalist painting of the West have become highly collectable. In this photograph, Lange captured Dixon’s contemplative and introverted nature. Lange’s portrait of Dixon is for sale at Sotheby’s on April 3, 2012 for between 7000 and 10,000 dollars. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 29, 2012
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“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied-it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.” — Ansel Adams |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 23, 2012
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“Though a living cannot be made at art, art makes life worth living. It makes living, living. It makes starving, living. It makes worry, it makes trouble, it makes a life that would be barren of everything — living. It brings life to life.” — John Sloan |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 21, 2012
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While living in Chicago, Walter Ufer’s patron, Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, sent Ufer to Taos to paint the land and the indigenous people, but cautioned him not to romanticize them, but to paint them as they lived and worked in the landscape. To heighten the realism he was searching for, Ufer often painted at mid-day when the sun bleached the greasewood and sage and the only color to be found was in the bright clothing of the Pueblo Indians and in the arroyos carved by flash floods. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 20, 2012
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Beyond actual form and color Jay has a wider and richer frame of reference. He responds to the magnitude and scale of the western landscape by depicting his subject in large-scale paintings—often using bodies of water to orient the viewer’s eye horizontally through the canvas. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 14, 2012
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Two Impressionist paintings worth watching at the Scottsdale Art Auction are Frank W. Benson’s A Northwest Day and William R. Leigh’s The Great Spirit. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 11, 2012
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“The long hours of life on the range composed Frank Tenney Johnson’s palette. The night is azure, the night is indigo, the night is aqua, the night is cerulean, the night is a deep, deep turquoise, the night is ultramarine, the night is Prussian blue. Blue … blue … blue. Blue was the lullaby of the night that sung Frank Tenney Johnson to sleep.” – Scottsdale Art Auction, 2012 |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 9, 2012
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Art historian Peter Hassrick said that Ernest Blumenschein “was, indisputably, the most creatively brilliant, intellectually curious and artistically innovative of the famous Taos Society of Artists.” Homeward Bound is being sold at the Scottsdale Art Auction March 31, 2012 and is estimated to fetch between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 7, 2012
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“And there were the trees, clumped together in patches of woods left standing between stretches of fields—the sunlight, broken and spotted, streaming through tangled branches, illuminating trunks, bent, twisted and straight, that cast shadows across the … ground.” -- Bonnie Posselli |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 5, 2012
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“What has remained constant throughout Schenck’s career is his individuality in dealing with the subject matter of the west. Using the artistic formula of classic western film direction and the photographically reliant systems of contemporary art, he has bridged two genres that resonate with the American experience.” – Julie Sasse |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 3, 2012
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March 5, 2012 is the anniversary of Dean Cornwell’s 120th birthday (1892-1960). Cornwell turned to illustration in 1914 and his illustrations appear in books by Ernest Hemingway, W. Somerset Maugham, Pearl S. Buck and dozens of American magazines. His painting The Man You Plan to Hang reveals his loose painterly style and his flair for composing dynamic genre scenes. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, March 1, 2012
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Jimmy Swinnerton painted in every kind of weather, the most dramatic being when dark-clouded thunderstorms loomed over the large buttes. In Desert Clouds, Utah, the vertically developed cumulus clouds, common in the West during hot summer months, seem to emerge audaciously from terra firma. In reality, cumulus clouds can hover as low as 300 feet above the desert landscape. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 29, 2012
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The old mining town of Park City, now a skiing and Sundance Film Festival destination, is a recurring theme in Steve Songer’s beautifully textured paintings. The colorful charm of the homes that scatter the snow-filled mountain side creates a mosaic of color buried in the deep snow that area is famous for. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 28, 2012
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“To paint trees well, we should know them well. Each and every tree has its characteristics. These should be studied. Some trees have very thickly massed foliage which suggests compactness and solidity. Others have sparse foliage with perhaps many opening between the leaves and twigs. Certain species are tall and slender, some more “squatty” or round in form. Aside from their shapes, texture and local color, seasonal changes and atmosphere modify their appearance.” – Edgar Payne |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 25, 2012
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"I inhale the natural world, and love it most when it's moody, stormy, wet, snowy, and dusky-colored." – Michael Coleman In a different century it could be imagined that Michael Coleman would have traveled with Jedediah Smith, Peter Skene Ogden, Jim Bridger or any number of American Indian tribes exploring and living in the American West…. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 23, 2012
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Coming from a third generation ranching family Howard Post grew up working on the family ranch near Tucson, Arizona. His portrayal of the region and of a western lifestyle is informed by his long heritage; and the aerial perspective seen in many of his paintings seems to come from a deep memory of place. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 19, 2012
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"Every object exists in two worlds. One is the tangible that we know through our senses, and another exists only in our minds." — Ed Bateman |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 18, 2012
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Now in her eighties, Edie Roberson (b.1929) is creating the most compelling work of her career. Little Orphan Annie in Annie’s Trip to Southern Utah is on a road trip and she looks absurdly happy on her motorcycle, exhaust blowing from the tailpipe as she speeds through the desert wilderness. The intertext from the comic strip informs the viewer, however, that she is in danger -- the fictional character, Annie, was always being stalked by dangerous characters. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 16, 2012
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“Our new and likeable neighbors were mostly farmers who lived short distances away. One gentleman, when he heard I was an artist, became concerned about my finances, and offered to let me buck bales during haying season. I was happy I didn't have to do that.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 13, 2012
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Brad Aldridge’s latest painting, South Fork of the Snake River, depicts the meandering unpredictable river in southeastern Idaho. The long span bridge in the background barely contains the river as it sprawls across the flood plain in the foreground. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 8, 2012
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At age 16, Alfred Lambourne arrived in Utah in 1866 by Wagon Train—walking the entire way. Among the Pioneer artists, he was the most colorful character. He painted backdrops for the Salt Lake Theater and his art and poetry reflected his interest in transcendetalist romanticism, which was in vogue during the latter half of the 19th century. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, February 7, 2012
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Born in 1860 in Bozanquit, Canada, Alexander Phimister Proctor moved to Denver in 1871 when it was still a frontier town. He studied painting and sculpture in New York and Paris, where he received wide acclaim, but ultimately he missed the west so much that he moved back in 1915. One of his most famous works is the Bronco Buster seen here at the Denver Civic center. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, February 3, 2012
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Philip Henry Barkdull (1888-1968) was a Utah artist and teacher who studied for two summers under Birger Sandzén in 1927 and 1928 when Sandzén taught summer school in Utah. He adopted Sandzén’s bravura style, which was characterized by thick impasto, pure color and broad-brush strokes, the best example of which can be seen in Designed Landscape: Symphony in Color. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, February 1, 2012
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Plein air painting is a natural extension of Kate Starling’s lifelong desire to create as much of an outdoor life as possible. Today Starling is a full time artist. ... She is not interested in the grand views so much as “slice of life” views of the canyon; arroyos, washes, cacti on a hillside, a stand of aspen, a cluster of boulders or an abandoned car or lambs finding their way around rocks. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, January 31, 2012
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Remember the angels you left behind in the snow banks when you were a kid? Remember the tractor tire tracks you made with your snow boots on the way home from school? Well, Sonja Hinrichsen does too. And she never forgot. She just got better ... |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 29, 2012
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When Lee Greene Richards’ portrait commissions diminished with the advent of the Great Depression, he turned to landscape work. Painting landscapes allowed him to use broader brush strokes and the brilliant colors found the imagery of the Wasatch mountains in autumn. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 28, 2012
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Zane Grey’s most popular and well-known book, Riders of the Purple Sage, was published in 1912. The book was made into films five times starting in 1918 with the last version starring Ed Harris in 1996. Similarly, the book has never been out of print with dozens of re-prints. Book covers for many of the editions were painted by popular illustrators of the time. |
ARCHITECTURE: State of the Union Station
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“We have tried to express the distinctive character of the railroad: strength, power, masculinity.” -- Gilbert Stanley Underwood – Architect, Union Station – Omaha, NE |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, January 24, 2012
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“Well, when I was asked to do a nickel, I felt I wanted to do something totally American—a coin that could not be mistaken for any other country's coin. It occurred to me that the buffalo, as part of our western background, was 100% American…” – James Earle Fraser |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 22, 2012
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"Within 20 miles from my house, I can paint high mountain scenery, the snow line, the tree line where it is bare; I can paint the gorge of the Rio Grande, high desert and rock canyons. There are also orchards and farmland because of the irrigated valleys that the Spanish have developed. And then we have this beautiful light." |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 21, 2012
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Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey is opening at the Crocker Art Museum February 11th and will run through May 6th, 2012. Payne was a gifted California artist who spent much of his time painting in the desert southwest. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 20, 2012
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Richards' Camp, Holiday Park-Weber Canyon, is more autobiographical than any other Utah painting from [Harwood’s] pioneer period. The setting is the campground at Holiday Park that belonged to Harwood's soon-to-be in-laws. The camp activities were recorded on canvas by J. T. Harwood in July and signed on the 3rd of August 1888. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 16, 2012
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Searching for the next landscape composition is, for Kathryn D. Stats, like hunting for treasure; she explains that “when a top crust of rock breaks off and falls down the slopes of softer eroded layers, it reminds me of crude jewels fallen from the crown to decorate the shoulders of softer layers below.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 15, 2012
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“My watercolor process involves painting hundreds of abstract shapes, all with hard edges, within a representational framework. I paint layer over layer, floating pure color into clear washes…it creates the effect of looking upon the scene in high-definition, as if you could see everything perfectly.” — Jonathan Frank |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 14, 2012
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Freedman titled his Bryce painting, Navajo Kingdom. He told his son that "The rocks are Indian Castles—sentinels overseeing, guarding and protecting their land and people.” |
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 13, 2012
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“There is no way to know if something you have done will outlast you. Time tends to sort out which pieces were really important and which ones were the thrill of the moment.” - P.A. Nisbet |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 12, 2012
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"In the past, I would have an idea for a painting and hold to that idea through to the finish. I could pretty much see the end result before I started. There were no surprises. But now my understanding of the process is that the idea is just the first impulse. From that first impulse forward, improvisation takes over…” – Walt Gonske |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painter of the Day, January 10, 2012
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If this were simply a frontier story of hardship, struggle and sorrow it would make fascinating reading in its own right. But Reuben Kirkham was a pioneer artist—part of a first generation of Utah artists whose brush strokes provide an enduring documentation of life on the fringes of civilization. It sheds new light as well on the artist’s remarkable, multiple abilities, while describing in often heartbreaking detail the life and times of a man who truly did suffer for his art. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, January 8, 2012
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"Art...is a kind of tyrant; it pushes you around. It came to me dressed in wanderlust." -- Gustave Baumann |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 7, 2012
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Zane Grey “had the knack of tying his characters into the land, and the land into the story. There were other Western writers who had fast and furious action, but Zane Grey was the one who could make the action not only convincing but inevitable, and somehow you got the impression that the bigness of the country generated a bigness of character.” -- Earl Stanley Gardner |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 5, 2012
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"I used to try to control everything but now I allow my intuition to speak more. I try to stretch the truth of what the actual image is. I never wind up with a real representation. I do things that are recognizable, yes, but I have a much different intention." – Len Chmiel |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, January 3, 2011
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Máto-Tope was a celebrated Mandan chief and warrior who was highly decorated for his valor. Every aspect of his visage has meaning, from the color of different stripes on his body and the assorted feathers from different birds to the insignia in his hair (wooden knife, six wooden sticks) … all are symbols relevant to his conquests, wounds, and bravery. |
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, January 1, 2012
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At age twenty-five Cameron wrote in her diary…”I wish I could lead a life worthy to look back upon.” Fearless, self-assured and determined Cameron left a legacy of images that equals any work being done in the west in the early part of the 20th century and a personal history unrivaled by most western fiction. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 30, 2011
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Anton Rasmussen notes that there is a lot of “rhythm and movement” in his painting of Delicate Arch - “the sort of things that would have carved that rock out over the many millions of years.” |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, December 28, 2011
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"Nature is never finished." - Robert Smithson The Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painter of the Day, December 26, 2011
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I’d like to see this large-scale painting in person. At 80 inches high, the clouds in Unveiling the Clouds would be a dominating presence in any setting. Logan Maxwell Hagege lists N.C. Wyeth and Maynard Dixon as among the artists who have inspired him. While the themes in his work are often a nod to the past, more recent work such as The Sage Trail depict images in the present with American Indians riding in contemporary clothing. I will enjoy seeing where these new themes take him. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 25, 2011
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Brian Kershisnik, Nativity ©, 2006, oil on canvas, 88 x 204 in. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 24, 2011
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Charles Russell knew how to create a cold winter scene in the Montana mountains he knew so well. The violets and graduating blues in the mountains, icicles hanging from the roof of a log cabin and the radiant warmth of the interior make this a scene I’d like to walk into. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 21, 2011
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The charm in the painting Twilight Valley comes not only from the bird’s-eye-view overlooking lush central Utah farmland, but also in the small contrasts found along the creek bed and the road. Brad Aldridge’s ambitious large-scale composition successfully incorporates a deep focus of the wide valley floor with graduated values drawing the eye easily along the long narrow road to the distant hills. |
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 20, 2011
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“I believe images of the American West are as iconic as the Statue of Liberty. These spectacular vistas are so familiar to us. They’re intrinsic to how we see and think of ourselves as Americans.” – David Jonason |
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 19, 2011
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Having grown up on a horse farm in southern Idaho, Jason Rich understands the temperament and movement of working horses. His paintings are characterized by his use of rich impasto and he is not afraid to use luminous color and contrasts to capture the mood of the land. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 18, 2011
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"My object has always been to get as close to the real thing as possible- people animals and country. The melodramatic Wild West idea is not for me the big possibility. The more lasting qualities are in the quiet and more broadly human aspects of Western life." - Maynard Dixon |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 16, 2011
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"I've heard people complain of the monotony, the weariness, the oppressiveness of the plains. For me the great plains have a releasing effect. They make me want to run and shout at the top of my voice. I like their endlessness. I like the way they make human beings appear as the little bugs they really are. I like the way they make thought seem futile and ideas but the silly vapors of the physically disordered. To think out on the great plains, under the immense rolling skies and before the equally immense roll of the earth, becomes a presumptuous absurdity." — Thomas Hart Benton |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, December 15, 2011
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“Riding in advance, we passed over one of these great plains; we looked back and saw the line of scattered horsemen stretching for a mile or more; and far in the rear against the horizon, the white wagons creeping slowly along.” - Francis Parkman |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Image of the Day, December 14, 2011
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Not only is The Oregon Trail one of the classic page-turners in American Western Literature, the book was beautifully illustrated in successive editions by Frederic Remington, N.C. Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton, and Maynard Dixon. Not shabby. |