Archives for Oil

Magical Connections

Magical Connections

November 19, 2016 | by

While strolling through a gallery, a painting catches your eye: an intricately portrayed primitive clay pot set against a stark black background. It’s a complicated design, dramatically displayed. You’re drawn to the simple artifact, looking deeper for meaning you can feel but can’t see. That is exactly the effect Santa Fe, New Mexico, artist Roseta Santiago hopes to elicit. Painting these artifacts, she says, is like looking into the window of the ancient peoples’ souls and retelling their history. When she looks at a piece of pottery, Santiago doesn’t see just a geometric, complex design, although it’s clearly visible. What
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Making a Life’s Work from One Trip

Making a Life’s Work from One Trip

November 19, 2016 | by

One of the earliest white artists to portray life in the West, Alfred Jacob Miller had no idea he was headed that way, until an unexpected 1837 encounter with a Scotsman, who hired him to document the trip through illustrations. Their ensuing journey was Miller’s only westward travel. However, he found so much inspiration and made so many sketches from that one journey that it sustained commissions for the rest of his life. Miller, who made a career out of one trip, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 1810, the first of nine children in a family of comfortable
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Sweet Sixteen

Sweet Sixteen

November 19, 2016 | by

Contacted in mid-August to see if he would be available on the following Wednesday afternoon to do the interview for this article, Kyle Ma replied, “That won’t work; I’ll be in school.” If all you knew about Ma was that he creates beautifully rendered paintings of everything from landscapes and seascapes to flowers and chickens, you would quite naturally assume that the reason he would be in school on a Wednesday was that he would be teaching art classes. And you would be oh, so wrong. Ma is taking classes, not teaching them. You see, this remarkable painter is a
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Defying Definition

Defying Definition

November 19, 2016 | by

Tim Solliday’s paintings do not lend themselves to easy categorization. Clicking through the slides on his website once, twice, a couple dozen times, my eyes linger on the expressive faces, the light-drenched landscapes. Are these works realistic? Well, no, not exactly. No human eyes have ever been that wise or that kind. No natural light is quite so warm and inviting. I’m not looking at reality; I’m looking at something with more beauty and more potential for magic than mere prosaic reality. I find myself looking to literature instead, where there’s a term that feels close to apt: magical realism,
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Celebrating America’s National Parks

Celebrating America’s National Parks

November 19, 2016 | by

On August 25, 1916, with a stroke of a pen, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act that created the National Park Service—and that would result, 100 years later, in the protection and preservation of 59 national parks, encompassing approximately 51.9 million acres in 27 states. That act was inspired, in large part, by the Hudson River School painters, who eagerly painted the majestic landscape of the West. Perhaps best known is Thomas Moran, who became famous for his paintings of the Rocky Mountains and whose Western landscapes are credited as being critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In
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A Long Time Coming

A Long Time Coming

September 19, 2016 | by

Mark Maggiori fell in love with the American West when he was a 15-year-old on vacation with his uncle and cousin. It was so different from his home in Paris, France, that he couldn’t help but be charmed by the wide-open spaces, the rugged terrain, and the hard-working cowboys. But when he returned to France, his attention quickly returned to his skateboard and his studies, and the romance of the West was forgotten. Almost 20 years later, Maggiori found himself at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. By then, he had finished his formal art
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A Visual Poet

A Visual Poet

September 19, 2016 | by

California artist Dan Pinkham wants to leave behind a legacy. Yes, his paintings will continue to be his spiritual voice into perpetuity, but he wants there to be more. His studio, a 16th century replica of the Italian Chapel that Michelangelo used as a studio when he painted the Sistine Chapel, will be that legacy. Pinkham and his wife Vicki, along with a nephew and fellow artists, have spent years refurbishing this relic. In fact, when they first saw the property, slated for demolition, it presented a daunting undertaking that neither Pinkham nor his wife felt inclined to tackle. Besides,
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‘There Was Always a Plan’

‘There Was Always a Plan’

September 19, 2016 | by

Patient and painstakingly precise as he creates masterworks in oil, Canadian artist Bruce Lawes evokes an equally dedicated passion when it comes to shaping his own artistic destiny. His first painting sale at the age of 12 confirmed his innate artistic abilities, but the direction that talent would take was not clarified until six years later, when his father brought home a stunning coffee table book titled “The Art of Robert Bateman.” “I was absolutely mesmerized by his imagery,” Lawes says. “It brought my love for nature into focus and defined my goal to be able to paint like Bateman
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Putting Light Into the World

Putting Light Into the World

September 19, 2016 | by

“I try to be attentive, as I walk through life. It’s a spiritual thing for me, as well as an artistic thing. I see inspiration as God’s gift to humanity. You just have to be open to it and tap into it. Painting is my way of saying ‘Amen’ visually, of saying I’m in agreement with the beauty and mystery of this world.” Those “amens” have not gone unnoticed by art lovers, who eagerly collect the paintings Michelle Dunaway creates, paintings in which she skillfully shares her love of the world—its people and its land. In each, she finds stories
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I Just Have To Paint It

I Just Have To Paint It

September 19, 2016 | by

Jim Norton was, as he puts it, “scared to death.” He was pale and had a terrible headache, but he stood by his paintings, with a smile on his face, determined to suffer through what he anticipated was going to be a rather humiliating experience. The cause of Norton’s distress was his first showing with the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America (CAA). He was elected into membership in 1989, when he was just 34 years old, and was overwhelmed by the company he would be keeping—artists such as Howard Terpning, Robert Pummell, Roy Andersen, Jim Reynolds, and Ken Riley. Jim
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