Phil Bob Borman’s mission, he says, is “to paint the world, one sky at a time.” He’s well on his way to doing so, currently painting in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Utah, with plans to add skies on the East Coast, Europe, and Scotland to his repertoire. “I love the light, the shapes, the magnificence of clouds,” Borman says. “I love watching them change. There are times when I’m out by myself and I can actually hear the clouds. Phil Bob Borman (Texas) Twilight’s Crown Oil 51″x38″ “The beauty of light and the day’s forces are revealed in
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Archives for Oil
Creative Adventure
Although Jill Soukup was born in Buffalo, New York, she could lay claim to the status of Colorado native. Her upbringing, education, and the inspiration for her current paintings have all been influenced by the fact that she has resided in the Centennial State since she was six months old. Soukup (pronounced Soakup) is a Czechoslovakian surname, the equivalent of the name Smith in the United States, but the talented artist and her paintings are by no means common. Her father was a veterinarian, and her mother was dedicated to saving abandoned pets, so there is little wonder that Soukup
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Transcending the Image
When John Coleman was 43 years old, he received a phone call that changed his life. That call was from a client, who had asked Coleman to do a construction project for him. Just as work was about to begin, however, the client received a lower bid and was going to use a different vendor. Suddenly, Coleman had three full months with nothing to do. “It was a sign,” he says now. “I knew exactly what I had to do. It was what I had always wanted to do, but I never had time to do it. Now I had
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A 40-Year Journey
Last October, two weeks after giving a talk to a sold-out crowd at the Nicolai Fechin House at the Taos Art Museum, Jerry Jordan was flying high. He had given a presentation on his life and his work to a sold-out crowd. “The theme was ‘what does it look like to paint for 60 years and try to make a living at it?’” he says. “About 75 people attended; we had to turn people away,” he says, adding that it was the highlight of his career. During his presentation, Jordan says, he showed his very first painting—a paint-by-numbers piece he
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Bridging Cultures
For California artist Mian Situ, 2016 and 2017 were banner years. In 2016, he met, courted, and married Gloria. Their romance began on the Internet and Gloria, a resident of the Yunnan Province in China, was a little reticent, when Situ made his first long-distance overture. Situ, who was familiar with the Yunnan Province from many trips he had taken to the province to garner resource material for his art, felt a kinship with her. Eventually, his knowledge of the area, combined with how much they had in common and proof of who he was as an artist won her
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The Studio of Don Weller
Little did Utah-based watercolorist Don Weller realize that, when he and his wife chose to relocate from Southern California to northern Utah in the early 1980s, that decision would become the impetus for him to begin a career as a fine artist. It was a move that would set the stage for the rest of his life—and his career. In 1960, after earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in fine art from the University of Washington in his hometown of Pullman, Weller headed to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in commercial art Don Weller (Utah) Don Weller Painting
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The Power of Two
When we find someone with whom to share our lives, we are fortunate. When artists do so, they are especially blessed. At least that’s the case with the four artist couples we interviewed for this article. For most of us, we were attracted to our spouses, or significant others, for a variety of reasons: their physical appearance—which might simply be a great smile—their sincerity, sense of humor, intelligence, talent, or kindness. For the artists we talked with, there are other, equally important attributes, including respect for each other’s work and a shared passion for art. Couples Featured: – Sherrie McGraw
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‘Art Must Have Soul’
As an accomplished artist with more than 30 years under his belt, Jove Wang has a theory that presides over his art. Roughly translated, it’s to know what you’re doing so well that you don’t need to be a slave to technique. It’s no understatement to say that Wang knows what he’s doing. Rather than offer up a painting that is merely a rendering, his intention is to involve viewers; he wants to elicit a response with his paintings. “I do not intend to paint extreme realism,” he explains. “I like the myriad variety of edges, as well as the
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‘The Greatest Thing I Could Have Done’
During an interview for this article in early August, Denis Milhomme is concerned about the wildfires encroaching on his beloved Yosemite Valley. “It’s a little smokier right now than usual,” he says, lamenting that he can’t capture the photos and plein air paintings he relies on as the basis of his lavishly detailed oil landscapes. “It’s really bad, all these fires that are happening; it’s a lot of damage.” Milhomme, whose home in Three Rivers, California, is not far from Sequoia National Park, treasures these scenic places and worries about their future. He conserves them in the ways that he
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‘I’m Living the Life I Paint’
Tim Cox has gone fishing twice already this year. That might not seem like much to most avid fishermen, but Cox isn’t complaining. It’s more fishing that he’s done for the better part of a decade. In 2010, Cox became the vice president of the Cowboy Artists of America (CAA). The next year, when he was president, the organization officially moved from its long-time headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That transition consumed most of Cox’s time for much of his two-year term as president. “I think I averaged about four hours of sleep a day for those
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