Archives for 2021 September-October Issue

NFTs and the Art Market

NFTs and the Art Market

September 1, 2021 | by

NFTs have been around since 2014 but came into prominence when a digital image sold for $69.3 million earlier this year at Christie’s Auction House. That is certainly an attention grabber but not a complete outlier, as the entire NFT market has been on a roll during the past few years. In 2020, the market totaled $250 million, up a whopping 299 percent from the previous year. During the first six months of this year, the market soared to $2.5 billion. What does this mean for the rest of the art market, and why should a traditional artist or collector
Read More

The Studio of Quang Ho

The Studio of Quang Ho

September 1, 2021 | by

While the United States has been blessed with a multitude of native-born painters, its art heritage has also been greatly enriched by the work of many foreign-born artists, from Nicolai Fechin and John Singer Sargent to Zhiwei Tu and Mian Situ. Another name on the list of foreignborn artists who are sharing their cultural heritage with American art collectors is Quang Ho, who was born in Vietnam and is creating some of the most sought-after works in today’s market. Born in 1963, in Hue, Vietnam, Ho was 12 when he came to the United States with his mother and seven
Read More

Silver Linings

Silver Linings

September 1, 2021 | by

“I always thought when you went blind, it was black. It wasn’t,” says watercolor artist Marlin Rotach, who noticed changes in his vision in the spring of 2018. “It was flesh-toned, and it was just like a curtain going across my eye until I had no sight at all.” After visiting a specialist, Rotach learned that he was suffering from a detached retina, a condition that required two surgeries and left him blind in his right eye for five months. Unable to paint, but still able to use a computer, Rotach decided to try writing biographical vignettes about historical artists
Read More

The Guy Who Loves Horses

The Guy Who Loves Horses

September 1, 2021 | by

Mehl Lawson’s lack of the financial resources necessary to purchase a sculpture proved to be a blessing not only to him but to the Western art world, as well. If he couldn’t buy one, he decided, he’d create one. Lawson turned to a friend who was doing some sculpting, asked what he would need to do a sculpture, and went out and bought the basic tools his friend recommended. “I did a little one, and it started selling immediately,” he says. “Within about a year, I had sold the whole edition.” Read the full article in the September/October 2021 issue.
Read More

A Never-Quit Mentality

A Never-Quit Mentality

September 1, 2021 | by

It was a long Sunday afternoon for Todd Connor early this summer as he was filling packing boxes for a move from McAllister to Fort Benton, Montana, just northeast of Great Falls. But the day was filled with pleasant surprises. While cleaning out his studio, he discovered hundreds of small canvases, all plein air paintings. “I don’t get to do plein air much anymore,” he says wistfully. Don’t think for a minute that Connor sees his sun-swept portraits of pioneers, landscapes, and First Nation warriors as uninspired, 9-to- 5 studio work, however. Art is his challenge, second only to the
Read More

Capturing the Cowboy Culture

Capturing the Cowboy Culture

September 1, 2021 | by

Tyler Crow was a high school senior when the trajectory of his life was forever changed. His plan following his graduation was to go on to college, earn a degree in agricultural or ranch management, and “run my own cows.” Those plans changed when he entered a pencil drawing in a competition sponsored by the Oklahoma Youth Expo and won a scholarship for a workshop conducted by award-winning Western artists Bruce Greene and Martin Grelle, who also happened to be members of the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America (CAA). Within a couple months, Crow was studying with the two artists
Read More

A Spiritual Connection

A Spiritual Connection

September 1, 2021 | by

It’s a Monday morning in late May, and Linda Mutti is feeling lucky. “I am gonna paint today,” she announces jubilantly. “And then I’m doing a mentoring class, and then I’m going to hang with my two little rescue dogs. They’re very yappy, but I adore them. They like to come hang out in the studio.” If Mutti’s day doesn’t sound sufficiently idyllic, consider this: The studio in question is on the second floor of her home in Santa Barbara, California, with a panoramic view of the Santa Ynez Mountains. If she feels like painting outside instead of in the
Read More

A Clear and Unique Vision

A Clear and Unique Vision

September 1, 2021 | by

If you ask Phil Epp how he developed the style that has come to define his sky-filled Southwestern landscapes, he’ll shrug and admit that it’s not something he can easily explain—nor something he fully understands himself. It started with his childhood love of cowboy art, horses, and the view from his bedroom window in his childhood home in Nebraska. Then it merged with painters he was introduced to in college—from Picasso to Jackson Pollock—and to the work of color field painters, like Mark Rothko, who used large areas of unbroken, flat colors on their canvases. Read the full article in
Read More