Archives for Oil

Embracing the Challenge

Embracing the Challenge

June 15, 2023 | by

Paul Van Ginkel will tell you he’s an all-in kind of guy. Every time he does something, he challenges himself to do it better than ever before. That kind of tenacity and ambition paid off in early March when Van Ginkel, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, learned that he’d been nominated for the prestigious Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award. The winner will be honored at a ceremony in September. Although he’s not a stranger to awards—there have been many—he was particularly pleased that his patrons were so insistent on nominating him to be recognized for his outstanding
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‘The Ball Just Kept Rolling’

‘The Ball Just Kept Rolling’

June 15, 2023 | by

Russell Smith’s original career plan was to become an aeronautical engineer so he could design airplanes. That changed after he took a few art classes during his first year of college. “I realized I didn’t want to design them, I wanted to paint them,” he says. And that’s just what he’s been doing for more than 20 years. His depictions of early aircraft—combined with the people and land of the West—are wonderfully crafted and carry with them a captivating energy, excitement, and perspective. His paintings, fueled by an early love of aviation, have earned him several awards but the real
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A Journey Through History

A Journey Through History

June 15, 2023 | by

“I love where we have come from,” says Brian Bateman. “History is the catalyst for all of my work—the men, women, machines, and how they intertwine.” That love of history took hold when he was a young boy and continues to drive him as he captures the past in paintings that feature everything from the West and Native Americans to mountain men and military aircraft. What makes those paintings unique is that he often combines two or more subjects in one painting, and he looks forward to combining aircraft within his Western work. Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Bateman’s initial
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Looking to the Skies

Looking to the Skies

June 15, 2023 | by

Canadian artist Ross Buckland developed his love of the land while growing up on a farm in Ontario. “I was always looking at the sky or at the colors on the ground,” he says. He’s still looking at the sky and the ground but now he’s sharing what he sees through his paintings of landscapes, wildlife—and airplanes. “Aviation became a passion for me, and so did drawing,” Buckland says. “For summer vacations we would go to visit our grandparents in Calgary. The airplane flight was the most exciting part of it. I wanted the window seat so I could see
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The Adventure Continues

The Adventure Continues

June 15, 2023 | by

Last fall, Lee Alban took a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Although he and his family had traveled through the Tetons back in the 1970s and had explored some of the National Parks out West in the early 1990s, he hadn’t yet been to Jackson Hole. The purpose of the trip was to participate in the National Oil and Acrylics Painters Society’s Best of America exhibition. It was Alban’s first trip to Jackson Hole, and he was eager to see the city and gather photographic reference materials he could use in future works. But it wasn’t just the quintessential beauty
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The Studio of Roseta Santiago

The Studio of Roseta Santiago

May 4, 2023 | by

New Mexico artist Roseta Santiago is a storyteller. She has a seemingly infinite intellectual storehouse of anecdotes and people swirling around in her head that spill out in even the most mundane conversation. The same way that Santiago cultivates emotional connections with people and objects and infuses them into her art, she has also done so in her studio. In January, Santiago was hard at work preparing for a retrospective at the Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve in Osage County, Oklahoma. One of only 11 artists who will be featured at the show in October, she is thrilled to be
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Art and Authenticity

Art and Authenticity

May 4, 2023 | by

In the action, beauty, frailty, or majesty, Jim Bortz infuses into his oil paintings a quality that results in sunlight landing perfectly, flowing river waters the viewer can almost hear, and animals that are more than reproductions. That quality stems from his immersion into the wild outside his home in Cody, Wyoming. Bortz spends countless hours hunting, hiking, and taking photos that provide critical references for his work. “I spend a ton of time in the field,” he says. “I study the animals I put in my paintings. I want to know their biology; I want to know their habits,
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Cowboy Storyteller

Cowboy Storyteller

May 4, 2023 | by

“When I was 14 or 15, my school offered an on-location drawing class in the summer,” says Arizona-based artist Steve Atkinson. “I’d get up early in the morning and go down to Yellow Creek with my little sketch pad and transistor radio, and I can remember just thinking to myself, ‘If I could do this for a living, it would be Heaven,'” he recalls of that class. If the teenage Atkinson could see himself now, he would likely agree that his life has been Heaven. His paintings have earned him many honors, the latest being the People’s Choice Award at
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The Magic Continues

The Magic Continues

May 4, 2023 | by

Most people probably know Arturo Chávez as an award-winning painter who masterfully captures the colors and shapes of Western landscapes. But there is more to this talented man—so much more. He is also a classical guitarist, a former pilot, a championship tango dancer, and a licensed commercial drone flyer. It is his love of painting, however, that drives him. “I’ve been pushing paint for 40 years,” Chávez says. “My landscapes come from my heart. It’s my creativity. I’ve created more than 6,000 paintings. There’s a chain from my ankle to my easel.” Of course, he’s speaking metaphorically; he is as
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Style Change

Style Change

March 4, 2023 | by

It all started in September 2021, when Western artist Sonya Terpening was honored as a distinguished alumni at an Oklahoma State University (OSU) football game. When her name and image were flashed on the jumbotron at halftime, another alumni and major supporter OSU, recognized her and realized he had purchased one of her works several years earlier. He decided to do some research into her art career. At the time, Terpening was in the third major evolution of her style. After earning an art degree from OSU, she had begun her career as a Western watercolor artist and had achieved
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