Archives for 2024 January-February Issue

Dusting Off the Cobwebs

Dusting Off the Cobwebs

December 13, 2023 | by

Something I’ve heard over and over again since I started working at Art of the West is how supportive the art community is. Through my work as the creative and production director, I thought I understood what that meant as I saw how artists support each other at shows I’ve attended and how we work to support artists through the work we do with the publication. But, after attending an artist workshop last fall, I have an even greater understanding of what that support means and how powerful it is. I’ve always been a creative person and have found joy
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Blazing His Own Trail

Blazing His Own Trail

December 11, 2023 | by

During his 40-plus years as a photographer, David Yarrow has been held at gunpoint, chased by a hippopotamus, and suffered hypothermia when his raft capsized in the Arctic Ocean. No matter what he encounters in the field, however, it is the art world that keeps him up at night. “My biggest fear is to bore people,” he says. Yarrow’s life has been anything but boring. Born in 1966 in Glasgow, Scotland, his childhood love of sports led him to pick up a camera when he was a teenager. He learned his craft on the job while photographing local sporting matches
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‘It’s A Fine Life’

‘It’s A Fine Life’

December 11, 2023 | by

“I’m 88 years old. I still love to paint, so I’m in the studio every day,” says Chuck Sabatino, whose paintings have been wowing art aficionados for almost four decades. “I also love to golf with friends and am not very good at it. They tell me, ‘Stay home and paint!’” While Sabatino loves golfing, he loves painting more. That’s why he’s in the studio at his home in north Scottsdale, Arizona, seven days a week. He arrives there at 9 a.m. each day and works until about 2 p.m., following that with reading and doing research for future paintings. 
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On the Road

On the Road

December 11, 2023 | by

On some level, Linda Lillegraven has been drawn to the wide-open spaces of the Western landscape for most of her life. She remembers visiting national parks with her family when she was a child. When they’d stop at an overlook and get out of the car to take in the view, she’d see her dad’s face light up. “He’d say, ‘This is God’s country,’” Lillegraven says. “The enthusiasm he had, the love and reverence—he really loved the big open spaces, and I think I caught that from him.” The idea of painting those spaces didn’t occur to her, however, until
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The Power of Paint and Prayer

The Power of Paint and Prayer

December 11, 2023 | by

Alfredo Rodriguez is a master painter who delights in capturing the faces of Native Americans, pioneers, cowboys, miners, and children and letting those faces tell stories. He is particularly drawn to the faces of old people, saying, “The wrinkles, the expressions, tell the story.” But he is also drawn to the innocence, the “cleanliness of the souls” of children. No matter who or what he is painting, he does so with unbridled talent. There is one face Rodriguez has painted that he will remember forever: an official at the American Counsel in Tijuana, Mexico. In 1970, while applying for a
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The Road to Western Wildlife

The Road to Western Wildlife

December 11, 2023 | by

Carol Lundeen’s love affair with animals of the West began in the 1970s. During a family trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota, she was fascinated by the bison and herds of pronghorn she saw there. “Everywhere you’d look, you could see herds of pronghorn running over the land,” she says. “I was so impressed with their beauty.” It would take many years for art and the fascination with Western wildlife to combine and become a focus for Lundeen. But, here she is today—enthusiastically capturing in oils the animals that made such an impression on her when she was
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Simplicity and Complexity

Simplicity and Complexity

December 11, 2023 | by

Rick Kennington grew up in environments much like those he paints: seemingly endless spaces, mountain backdrops, blue skies, and the steady resolve of cowboys and others whose lives are quietly, solidly entwined with the West. A lifelong resident of Utah, living near the Wasatch Mountains, Kennington’s parents were both from Star Valley, Wyoming, and he spent much of his childhood visiting his grandfather in that area. That’s when the painting began. From his first painting, when he was 18, of his grandfather on a horse, it’s been an ongoing pull toward portraying that life and lifestyle that has kept Kennington
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The Studio of Gladys Roldan-de-Moras

The Studio of Gladys Roldan-de-Moras

December 11, 2023 | by

Magic can occur anywhere. Take, for instance, a busy street in San Antonio, Texas, with five lanes of traffic rushing past a bustling neighborhood of restaurants, doctors’ offices, and an upscale grocery store—where the businesses give way to residential blocks with a sleek, white, modern house that sits behind a cinderblock wall. Unlike the surrounding houses, this one doesn’t sit neatly parallel to the street; it’s at a noticeable slant, facing squarely north. To step through the gates and into the foyer is to step into another world. The rear wall, composed of 15 five-by-seven-foot windowpanes, stretches up, embracing the
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