Recently in ART AND ARCHITECTURE, Page 3
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, November 2, 2011
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"This strong primitive appeal calls out the side of art that is not derivative; it urges the painter to get his subjects, his coloring, his tone from the real life about him, not from the wisdom of the studios." - Victor Higgins |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, November 1, 2011
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“I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever … and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed…I began to record some facts around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded.” – Frederic Remington |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 31, 2011
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E. Martin Hennings studied at the Art Institute in Chicago and later in Germany before a commission took him to Taos, New Mexico where he ultimately settled. His exposure to the German Jugenstil also known as Art Nouveau seems to have influenced his landscape style in which the visual plane is flattened and the natural environment is patterned and curved. He was especially interested in the New Mexico Indians and painted them in nature for the remainder of his career. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 30, 2011
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Frank Tenney Johnson was especially interested in the work of Maxfield Parish and his influence can be seen in Johnson’s painting, The Night Hawk. Field and Stream magazine sent Johnson out west to paint and he became one of their most popular illustrators. In 1938 Amon Carter bought every work in Johnson’s exhibition at the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York City. He died from meningitis on New Years Day in 1939 after "kissing a pretty girl at a dance." |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 29, 2011
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Committed to painting outdoors rather than the comfort of his studio, contemporary artist Doug Braithwaite depicts ‘slice of life’ images from his everyday experience. Working in both the urban and rural western landscape, Doug sees form and color reference in the most unlikely places. In this image of a back alley in Park City, Utah, Braithwaite achieves deep visual layering using the natural incline of the hill, the rhythm of the structures of the old mining town, and keyed light to interpret an otherwise commonplace scene. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 27, 2011
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FOR BRENDA |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 26, 2011
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By the time Maynard Dixon painted On Coming Storm in 1941, he was dividing his time between his homes in Tucson, Arizona and Mt. Carmel, Utah. His work became increasingly minimal reflecting his interest and search for inherently geometric forms in the western landscape. His Modernist brush flattened the details while his traditional eye absorbed all of the pictorial elements. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 25, 2011
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A brilliant colorist, Arturo Chavez paints the West on an epic scale. His Grand Canyon scene, Rock of Ages, captures the sweeping view that is too much to comprehend at one glance. He offers the light hitting the rock as an anchor from which to gain entry into the panorama. Chavez has hit his stride in the last few years winning the West Select Purchase Prize in Phoenix and the Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award at the Eiteljorg Museum. He is featured in a number of magazines and books and will be featured in the upcoming book Art Journey America. I look forward to every new painting coming out of his studio. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 24, 2011
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After spending time on a Wyoming ranch in 1895, Carl Rungius (1869-1859) immigrated from Berlin, Germany to the U.S. and never looked back. Fascinated with the abundance of big game in the West, Rungius began working as a wildlife illustrator for books and magazines. By 1909, he turned his attention to easel painting full time … |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 23, 2011
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James Swinnerton created the “Little Jimmy” comic strip in 1903. It was featured until 1958 making it the longest running comic created by the same artist. After leaving New York to recover from tuberculosis in California, he relocated to the west coast and began painting in the desert southwest. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 21, 2011
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The value range achieved with grisaille, or the use of monochromatic color, made it easier for Thomas Moran to translate the sketch "Pack Trail, Grand Canyon" into a black and white lithograph that would have been used for one of the many commissions he did for magazines and newspapers. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 20, 2011
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Contemporary Colorado artist Tracy Felix remarks “I use familiar mountain images and elevate them to iconic status. Many of my paintings I consider to be portraits of great symbols of the West.” Tracy is collected by the Anschutz Collection, Denver Public Library, Denver Art Museum, Kirkland Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 18, 2011
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Minverva Beretta Kohlhepp Teichert (1888 – 1976) studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Robert Henri at Art Students League in New York City. At the urging of Henri, she returned to the West to paint “her heritage.” She married and settled in Cokeville, Wyoming where she painted mural size canvases in the living room of her modest home. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 17, 2011
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My works attempt to merge ideas and memories. Good art functions on many levels. There is the surface appeal of subject, and below are layers that may be peeled off, revealing information about the individual artist and the psychology of his era. There's the subject, but there is also the underlying theme. – Gary Ernest Smith |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Painting of the Day, October 16, 2011
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Many of Buck Weaver’s paintings are suggestive of his training with Maynard Dixon, but Landscape—Cloud Patterns reveals a more modern approach. The strong, vertically wedge-shaped clouds are perpendicular to the natural geometry of the horizontal landscape. The landmasses have been reduced in minimalist terms to their bare essentials, suggesting a breakthrough in his artistry. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: A Closer Look: Paintings by Connie Borup
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Connie Borup’s depictions of fall foliage are not inherently nostalgic, in fact far from it. She avoids the spectacular colors of fall using instead a tonal palette of dry grays, browns and yellows. But the images act as a mainline for deep memories of fall, perhaps because as P.D. James wrote, “It was one of those…autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.” |
EXHIBITIONS: John Jack Hillers: Utah Tribes - An Exhibition
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A rare collection of 116 albumen photographs taken between 1872-1875 opens on October 15th, 2011 at the Bingham Gallery/Thunderbird Foundation in Mt. Carmel, Utah. This extraordinary collection of images by John [Jack] Hillers was purchased by the Binghams in 1998. Hillers produced a number of sets to be used by John Wesley Powell to lobby Congress for more money for his expeditions. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Birger Sandzén: Ecstasy of Color
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Sven Birger Sandzén (1871-1954), long known as a painter who used thickly applied impasto and a broad brush to depict images of the west, has now caught the eye of Josh Hassel a documentary filmmaker who has just released Sandzén: Ecstasy of Color, which aired on the PBS channel in Denver on 2 October 2011. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Conrad Buff - The Other-Worldness of the West
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I found out that the way that I saw landscape, especially the western landscape that I was so much in love with, wasn’t the way the public saw it. I just couldn’t get interested in the verbenas and the sunsets. I kept on painting these magnificent forms that I saw and that I was interested in, and I tried to get the magnificent blues that we saw on the desert, which wasn’t so easy to harmonize with the rest of the landscape. And especially the wild country in Utah. – Conrad Buff |
ART AUCTIONS: The Jackson Hole Arts Festival: Million Dollar Cowboy Art
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This year the Four Lazy F Ranch sold its considerable collection of art by such artists such as O.C. Seltzer, Edward Borein, Charles M. Russell, Harry Jackson and others. Although a few paintings were passed on and a few sold at below estimate, much of the best work exceeded expectations. Here is a sample of some of the art and the big numbers the work brought in. |
ART AUCTIONS: Billy The Kid Makes a Killing
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Now, the tintype has the distinction of being the 4th most valuable western photograph ever sold at auction…fetching $2.3 million at the annual Old West Auction in Denver. Who said crime doesn’t pay? |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Arizona Centennial – Ed Mell Takes a Lickin’
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It’s a memorial postage stamp, commemorating the centennial of Arizona statehood. It portrays Cathedral Rock near Sedona and is the work of My-West friend Ed Mell who also happens to be one of the most innovative and gifted western artists alive today. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: The Top of the Continent – Through the Lens of Fred H. Kiser
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He was one of the first entrepreneurs to use the phrase, “See America First,” and in the early years of the 20th century, much of America got its impressions of the pioneer west from the cameras of Fred H. Kiser. As a keen businessman and consummate photographer, that suited him just fine. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: The Keepers of the Canyons
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They are America’s ancient art form. Steeped in the aromas of the desert, the hum of stillness and the immeasurable nuances of red. The singularity of the petrogylphs cannot be separated from the vast environment in which they reside... |
PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE: Cars, Stars and Guitars
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Fender Guitars, Warner Brother Records and High West Distillery are just a few of the clients who have commissioned Dave Newman’s collage work. Dave’s artistic process begins with a drive down a local highway or a blacktop road trip, a visit to a flea market or a country antiques store, to find objects and photo opportunities that may spark an idea for his next big project. |
PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE: LeConte Stewart: Depression Era Art
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Best known for the Red Rock splendors of Monument Valley and of Zion and Bryce Canyons, southern Utah has long attracted artists from around the world. Although LeConte Stewart (1891-1990) grew up near these iconic sites, it was actually Utah’s small towns, farms, and urban landscapes that captured his imagination from a very young age. |
ART AUCTIONS: The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in Reno … Yup, Reno
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When 42 private jets tried to fly into the Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho airport and had to be diverted to Spokane because there wasn’t room, it was time to move the fabulously popular Western art auction to another venue … one with more parking spaces. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Zane Grey’s Illustrators: Lillian Wilhelm Smith
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Upon seeing Rainbow Bridge, Grey wrote, “I saw past the vast jutting wall that had obstructed my view. A mile beyond, all was bright with the colors of sunset, and spanning the canyon in the graceful shape and beautiful hues of the rainbow was a magnificent natural bridge.” |
ART AUCTIONS: Western Art at East Coast Prices
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Sotheby’s New York, highlights from: ... When the bidding quit and the hammer came down, it had sold for $2,658,500, a staggering $2,300,000 over the high estimate. ... |
ARCHITECTURE: Ahwahnee - New Lustre for the Crown Jewel, Part II
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The magnificent façade only vaguely prepares the unsuspecting visitor for what awaits inside…an unlikely yet sumptuous amalgamation of art deco, American Indian and oriental influences housed in magnificent, monumental great rooms ... |
ARCHITECTURE: Ahwahnee - New Lustre for the Crown Jewel
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“…On entering The Ahwahnee one is conscious of calm and complete beauty echoing the mood of majesty and peace that is the essential quality of Yosemite…” Ansel Adams |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Color, Form and Light: Milford Zornes Comes Home
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During the thirty years that Milford Zornes lived in Mt. Carmel, he painted around the Zion area in every season and from every vantage point. On 1 April-31 July 2011, the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts and Bingham Gallery is bringing Zorne’s work home to the Maynard Dixon property that he loved so much with a retrospective of some of his finest work; some of it painted from his own back door. Continue Reading ... |
ART AUCTIONS: Charles Russell Auction - Great Falls, Montana
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Charles Russell The Charles M. Russell Museum, located in Great Falls Montana, has been auctioning and selling art to finance their Museum for the past 50 years. In those 50 years, the last vestiges of the old West have slipped away forever and a new West has emerged. Whether we like it or not, there is no going back to those ‘good old days’ … It’s all the more intriguing, then, that buyers from all over the world continue to purchase paintings with images that take them back in time to a pristine landscape and a romanticized idea of an uncomplicated way of life. Last year the C. M. Russell Museum auction event raised over $1.6 million in art and related sales over a three-day period—an enviable sum for any museum. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Thomas Moran: Western Landscape Goes East
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Thomas Moran's 19th Century paintings of the western landscape continue to migrate to the East. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. recently received a gift of the famed artist’s painting Green River Cliffs, Wyoming from collector Vern Milligan who purchased it in 1994 for $2.7 million. A true test of the market will happen at the Scottsdale Art Auction on April 2nd, 2011 when Moran’s Indian Summer, Green River, Wyoming is sold to the highest bidder. |
ARCHITECTURE: Lodges of the American West
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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. |
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Competing for the coveted first prize, 75 nationally recognized artists present their best work at the Autry National Center on Saturday, February 5, 2011. Masters artists participate in opening-weekend activities such as a special artists’ dinner and gallery tours. Most are on hand for the Saturday chuck wagon luncheon, where the awards are presented, followed by the evening cocktail reception featuring the official sale of the new works and a silent-bid process for the most sought-after works. Patrons attending the Saturday events are able to view the works and meet the artists. |
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY AND SCULPTURE: Ed Mell
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Ed Mell is one of the most ingenious and successful artists working in the West today. |