Archives for 2024 May-June Issue

Going Back in Time

Going Back in Time

April 10, 2024 | by

Lights. Cameras. Fog machines. Actors dressed in kerchiefs and gun belts. “I’m familiar with the whole setup because this is what I do on a small scale,” says renowned Western artist Morgan Weistling. But he’s not talking about a reenactment or a photo shoot for reference photos—he’s talking about the film set of new TV series, ‘Elkhorn,’ where he is the official set photographer. ‘Elkhorn’ is a Morningstar Entertainment mini-series that premiered April 11. “It’s about the early life of Teddy Roosevelt, when he loses his wife and mother and decides to go out West to become a cowboy, to
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A Dream Realized

A Dream Realized

April 10, 2024 | by

Dale Terbush hasn’t kept count of the number of paintings he’s created during the course of his career—but, if he had to guess, he thinks the tally would be close to 10,000. Terbush, who has been painting vibrant, light-infused landscapes for almost 55 years, works fast. When people often ask him how he is able to paint so quickly, he has a ready answer: “How many times do you have to paint a tree before you understand what a tree looks like? The same goes for clouds, mountains, anything,” he says. “How many times do you paint them before you
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The Composer

The Composer

April 10, 2024 | by

The year is 1841, and the sounds of men and animals fill the streets of what would one day become Omaha, Nebraska, as the first serious group of pioneers sets out along the Oregon Trail. From high atop a rearing horse, a wagon master calls to the party of covered wagons, urging the travelers through a dry creek bed and toward a new life out West. This is not a scene from a new Taylor Sheridan television series; it’s a six-block-long monumental installation in downtown Omaha, something Utah-based sculptor Blair Buswell has been contributing to for the past 20 years.
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Cowboy Storyteller

Cowboy Storyteller

April 10, 2024 | by

“I need a wife,” laments accomplished New Mexico oil painter JaNeil Anderson. She is mostly joking; she has been happily married to her husband Walt for many years, working side by side with him on their cattle ranch beside the Gila River. But, as she notes, it’s not uncommon for the wives of male artists to take on much of the ancillary work that surrounds making and selling art: marketing, framing, accounting, and other supportive and administrative tasks. “My men artist friends all have wives,” Anderson says. “The wife does all the show entries and all the paperwork; the men
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Kindred Spirits

Kindred Spirits

April 10, 2024 | by

Matthew Hillier and Julia Rogers have a special connection. They share a love of wildlife, landscapes, and water. They respect each other’s talent and cheer each other on. And, they’re married—to each other. The two met at an art show in Tacoma, Washington, in the 1990s and continued to connect at other shows for a few years before they began long distance dating. At the time, Hillier was living in Florida, and Rogers was living in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. They married in 2001 and lived in a suburb of Washington, D.C. for a time, but Rogers missed living in Chesapeake
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Riding New Waves

Riding New Waves

April 10, 2024 | by

Daniel Keys is successful, inspired—and inspiring. He’s earned prestigious awards for his paintings, which are included in collections throughout the world, and is inspired by the beauty around him. He’s also generous, giving back through two programs he developed to encourage young artists: the Sierra Art Group and the Palette Project. He got the idea for both programs while painting with the late master artist Richard Schmid, who had formed the Putney Painters on the East Coast. “I wanted to replicate that, so I started the Sierra Art Group,” Keys says, adding that the group paints together at A Sense
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‘I Like Variety’

‘I Like Variety’

April 10, 2024 | by

Dana Lombardo has a 9 to 5 job, but it doesn’t take her far from her art projects. Both, in fact, are usually in the same room. Lombardo is a contract specialist for a hospital and lives in Grand Lake, at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. Since the pandemic, she’s been able to work from home, setting up her office in her art studio. “It’s great because I can sit across the room and stare at [one of my paintings], and say it needs this or it needs that,” Lombardo says. “I can
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The Studio of C. Michael Dudash

The Studio of C. Michael Dudash

April 10, 2024 | by

C. Michael Dudash’s 2,100-square-foot studio is nestled on a scenic, five-acre lot in the small Irish city of Rathdrum, Idaho, a small town just north of Coeur d’Alene. Working with a contractor, he designed and built a beautiful studio, one that would stand out and have a certain “je ne sais quoi.” The interesting shape resembles a church from the outside and could easily be remodeled someday to accommodate a large RV by taking out two interior walls and adding a larger garage door. “That’s the way I designed it—a big main room,” Dudash says. “At its core, it’s a
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