Painting of the Day, January 3, 2011

By Donna Poulton

This image of Máto-Tope by Karl Bodmer is the only work of art I have hanging in my office. At roughly 3 x 5 ft. the reproduction dominates the room and never ceases to fascinate me or surprise visitors who stop by my office. 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.

Máto-Tope by Karl Bodmer. Credit: My-West.com photograph.

In 1832 an unlikely expedition set out to document North American Indians and their way of life. Traveling as far as Montana, Maximilian Prince of Wied (1782-1867) financed the trip hiring Swiss painter Karl Bodmer (1809-1893) to join the group. Bodmer documented tribes, chiefs, warriors, dance, hunting and other rituals while Prince Maximilian took copious notes on his many interviews with different tribes. The result was their book Travels in the Interior of North America, a rare and highly collectable book.

Image of the Day, January 1, 2012

By Donna Poulton

An ice cream party, 1902. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron In 1889, Evelyn Cameron left the gentrified home of her parents in England to follow her husband, Ewen, to the desolate prairieland of eastern Montana. When their initial venture of raising polo ponies in Montana failed, Evelyn turned to glass-plate photography to help support the family. Over the next 30 years she photographed life and work on the ranch and that of their neighbors. Her compelling views of domestic work, wildlife (especially coyotes, wolves and birds), and ranching came with the familiarity of having done much of the same work herself. 

"Evelyn kneading a panful of dough in her kitchen, August 1904. Anxious to give her nieces in England a glimpse of the day-to-day life she led in Montana, she made up an album of photographs including several portraits of herself at work." - Donna M. Lucey. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.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 at that time and a personal history unrivaled by most western fiction.

"Evelyn on a petrified tree in the badlands displaying a copy of "The Bystander" magazine, which was conducting a contest for photographs of the magazine being read in the most unusual locations. She clambered out 'as far as I dared,' across the 72-foot-long natural bridge, hampered by her skirt, which kept snagging on the rock. The photograph was published in the British magazine." -- Donna M. Lucey. Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.Equally compelling is the story of Donna M. Lucey who tenaciously researched the story of Evelyn Cameron. After following a rumor about a cache of pioneer photography, Lucey traveled to eastern Montana in 1979. There she found over 2000 glass-plate negatives and all of Evelyn’s journals and letters in the fervent care of Janet Williams who had inherited the ranch when Evelyn died in 1928. With Cameron’s life’s work intact, Lucey wrote Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.

Credit: Photographing Montana 1894-1928, The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.

Painting of the Day, December 30, 2011

By Donna Poulton

Anton J. Rasmussen, Delicate Arch (Study), 1995 oil on canvas on masonite, 36 x 48 in. Private Collection.  Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Anton J. Rasmussen’s Delicate Arch (1995) is his most widely recognized work. Commissioned by the Salt Lake International Airport and painted on location, the towering image of Delicate Arch is 23 feet high by 18 feet wide; a size worthy of its subject.

Delicate Arch at the Salt Lake International Airport.  Credit: 3M30

Like Thomas Moran, whose landscapes were not composed for literal reference, but rather to evoke emotional impressions of a setting, Rasmussen's paintings represent: 

"… a composite of different perspectives and different rock formations, and the palette is developed out of visual sensations collected over time … Many people have commented that they’ve seen the particular view I painted ‘just that way,’ even though it would be impossible to do so.  I have decided that as one recalls the experience of visiting the southern Utah landscape, the experience is idealized … the experiences are combined in the viewer’s mind to form a single recollection of the experience."

The multi-colored clouds and spiraling activity in Delicate Arch are loud, crowding for attention. The clouds are a softer version of the repeated motifs seen in the rocks and are important elements in understanding the decay of the rock itself. Of this process Rasmussen notes that there is a lot of “rhythm and movement, the sort of things that would have carved that rock out over the many millions of years.”

Image of the Day, December 28, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"Nature is never finished."- Robert Smithson

Credit: informedmindstravel

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty has been described by Greg Lindquist as “arguably the most famous, least experienced work in the earthworks/land art canon.” While virtually every art student studies Smithson’s ideas about entropy and the death of art, few will ever experience his actual work. Situated two hours north of Salt Lake City, the sculpture was created on the shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point. The drive to the site, over an axle-breaking dirt road, is one of many challenges for visitors trying to get a glimpse of the Jetty. A victim of the lake’s drought and flood cycle, the Spiral Jetty has spent much its 42-year existence under water. Smithson died in a plane crash three years after the Jetty was built, but the ensuing confusion and impediments created by the natural flood cycle would certainly have supported his ideas of entropy.

Credit: informedmindstravel

Credit: aur2899

Credit: aur2899

Credit: snevets.d

Painter of the Day, December 26, 2011

By Donna Poulton

Logan Maxwell Hagege, Unveiling the Clouds, c. 2010, oil on linen, 80 x 52 in. Credit: loganhagege

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.

Logan Maxwell Hagege, The Sage Trail, 2011, oil on linen, 50 x 60 in. Credit: loganhagege

You may also want to browse through previous posts:

N.C. Wyeth

Maynard Dixon