Archives for 2019 September-October Issue

COWBOY ARTISTS OF AMERICA: New Beginnings

COWBOY ARTISTS OF AMERICA: New Beginnings

November 14, 2019 | by

The Cowboy Artists of America (CAA) has taken a bold step—right into the cultural heart of Fort Worth, Texas. For the first time in its history, its annual art show will not be tethered to a museum, and members couldn’t be more enthusiastic. Utah artist and current CAA president, Jason Rich, has been a member for eight years. He says, “Fort Worth is a mecca of art institutions and Western culture museums—the Amon Carter Museum, the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, the Cattle Museum, Sid Richardson Museum, etc.—that all focus on the West and Western art, and we just really fit
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Beyond Everyday Reality

Beyond Everyday Reality

November 14, 2019 | by

Ethereal and omniscient, often steeped in clouds or fog, the imagery of Wyoming-based painter, Kathryn Mapes Turner, features a mystical blending of physical and spiritual. “My style is inspired by the Celtic word CAOL AIT – places separated by a thin veil, where spaces in the solid world and the realm of spirit come close together,” she says. Bringing that concept to her work, Turner employs brushes and paint as a means of sharing with others the joy and awe of nature that lie deep within her own soul. “My relationship to the natural world is spiritual and, ideally, I
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Essential Elements

Essential Elements

November 14, 2019 | by

“I’m self-taught,” announces Kathryn Stats, painter of sun-washed desert landscapes and vivid still lifes, then quickly adds, “which didn’t mean I didn’t take any lessons; it means I didn’t graduate in anything!” Stats’ artistic journey was unconventional from the start. “I have a great uncle by marriage [LeConte Stewart], who was a fine, fine, well-thought-of artist,” she says. “I rode horses in the summer from morning until night in the same county he lived in. We had his paintings on our walls, and I tended to see landscapes through his eyes. I really think that had an influence.” Initially, that
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‘I’m Called To It’

‘I’m Called To It’

November 13, 2019 | by

Tina Garrett credits her best friend, Laura, with giving her the advice she needed to head down the path to becoming an artist. “She said, ‘You are an artist at heart; stop trying to be something you’re not,’ Garrett recalls. At the time, she had quit her job as a freelance designer and illustrator for a publishing company and was trying to decide what to do next. Her husband Adam, a firefighter and registered nurse, suggested she become a dental hygienist so that, when they retired, they could do traveling nursing and dentistry. The thought of being a dental hygienist,
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A Personal Passion

A Personal Passion

November 8, 2019 | by

When Ralph Oberg was 23, his brother invited him to go to Alaska on a mountain climbing adventure. Oberg was doing architectural renderings and basic graphic design at the time and was completely unsatisfied with the work. The trip to Alaska provided the perfect opportunity to make a change. “When I got the opportunity to quit my job and go climb ice-covered mountains in Alaska, I took it,” Oberg says. “That decision cemented the adventurer in me.” It also gave him a closer glimpse of the glaciers that now have become a hallmark of his work. Since that trip 46
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The Master and His Art

The Master and His Art

November 8, 2019 | by

Richard Schmid is described as a “painter’s painter”—and, oh, what a painter he is. His work is in high demand—as are his books, which include ‘Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting,’ which was released in 1998 and is in its 12 printings, and ‘Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting and More,’ which was released in 2013 and currently is in its fifth printing. “At the time I wrote the first edition of ‘Alla Prima,’ I did not think of myself as a prodigy,” Schmid says, “but I realized I had marvelous training in the key aspects of
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