Contemporary Western Artist Kevin Chupik Draws Inspiration From the Arizona Desert Kevin Chupik knows what it’s like to live in the desert. He understands the desolation, the silence, and the sweltering heat. He knows all about the suffering that’s part and parcel of the landscape. And he loves all of it. “It’s a twisted thing, but the rewards are tangible,” he says. “The audible silences that make so much noise, the crunching of the rocks under foot, the caw of the ravens, and the sound of the wind—is all so very real when you experience it.” Chupik first fell
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Archives for 2026 November-December Issue
Rising From The Ashes
How Lisa Danielle Turned Tragedy Into a New Beginning for Her Art and Career “I’m looking at my new living room/gallery, and I’m just so proud of it,” says Sedona, Arizona still life painter Lisa Danielle, standing before a vintage barrister’s bookcase that’s been in her family for generations. It originally belonged to her great-grandfather and is now filled with treasured artifacts she has collected during the course of her long career: boots, vintage books, beadwork, baskets, and pottery. Her work depicting those same objects covers the newly painted walls. It’s characteristic of Danielle, who relies on her deep
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Amazing Life, Amazing Art
From Medical Student to Wildlife Artist: Valerie Gobeil’s Unlikely Journey There are a few key moments that led to wildlife oil painter Valerie Gobeil’s promising career. One of them left her with neck and back injuries and a concussion after a distracted driver T-boned her car. The collision occurred 13 years ago, during Gobeil’s first year of medical school in Arizona, forcing her to take some time off. “I would read one paragraph, and I’d have to re-read it five, six, seven times to try to retain some of it,” she says. “When I was studying basically the equivalent
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The Magic of Mokuhanga
How Leon Loughridge Uses Watercolor and Mokuhanga to Capture the West Leon Loughridge is a busy artist—and that’s just how he likes it. Living in Denver, Colorado, and working out of a remodeled garage that serves as his studio, he shares his love of landscapes by creating watercolor paintings and woodblock prints that are carried by several galleries and featured in several art shows each year. He can thank his grandmother for instilling in him a love of art. When he was a young boy growing up on a ranch in Pojoaque, New Mexico, his grandmother, who was very
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Desert Star
Southern California Artist Whitney Gardner Brings the Mojave Desert to Life The Mojave Desert is a panoply of stark and beautiful contrasts—light and shadow, color and contrast, grace and grit. It also happens to be home to Southern California landscape artist Whitney Gardner. The vista from her 1950s-era jack rabbit cabin and vintage Airstream Trailer studio are enough to titillate any artist’s muse. It’s a solitary place, but that suits her personality and her artistic drive. The nearest town, 29 Palms, is on the northeastern gateway to the Joshua Tree National Park. Gardner’s cabin is in Wonder Valley, a
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Still Lifting the Human Spirit
Sculptor Gary Lee Price Brings Dr. Viktor Frankl’s Statue of Responsibility to Life Gary Lee Price—what a man, what an artist, what an inspiration! He’s been using his sculptures to lift the spirits of people for more than four decades through thousands of sculptures that have found homes in museums, churches, cemeteries, airports, botanical gardens, and corporate offices throughout the world. While Price is grateful for his success with those sculptures, he’s most excited about the one he is planning for the future. That one, something he’s been dreaming about for years, will be a massive 305-foot monument titled
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The Studio of Andrew Peters
How Andrew Peters Is Restoring Native Prairie and Wetlands as His Largest Artistic Creation For most artists, 1,000 square inches represents a large canvas. But Andrew Peters is painting his biggest masterpiece on a living canvas of nearly 1 million square feet: approximately 20 acres of land that he’s actively shaping as home to his dream studio. “This is the painting that I will work on for the rest of my life,” he says of the “canvas” he frequently traverses and admires on foot. “The masterpiece of my lifetime will be the ecology and the beauty of a native
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