Archives for Oil

Beauty is the Goal

Beauty is the Goal

March 4, 2023 | by

“The most consistent source of my inspiration will always be nature.” So says Aaron Blaise, who spent most of his career as an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation before turning to fine art and capturing everything from small birds and big cats to elephants and moose in a beautifully realistic style. “The natural world, for me, is an escape,” he says. “It’s a source of wonder and, ultimately, my greatest inspiration for all of the work I do, whether it be painting, drawing, or animation. The creatures we share our planet with are so diverse and beautiful and such
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Beautifully Authentic

Beautifully Authentic

March 4, 2023 | by

Monte Moore describes his art career as a large tree. After so many years as an illustrator—and so much more—he says, “I started growing another branch.” That new branch is his career as a fine artist who captures the people and wildlife of the West in a myriad of mediums, including acrylics, pencils, oils, bronze, and mixed media. The Colorado artist, who was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, considers himself blessed to have had parents who encouraged him and instilled in him a love of art, particularly Western art. A year after Moore was born, his father bought a
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‘I Will Always Have My Art’

‘I Will Always Have My Art’

March 4, 2023 | by

If you walked into a particular Coeur D’Alene office building at 4 a.m., you would find Western artist Tobias “Toby” Sauer already hard at work. He faces an easel, surrounded by beaded moccasins, feathered headdresses, and a bear claw necklace that hang from the walls. Sauer began to make his own Native American accoutrements in late 2020 in order to correct inaccuracies he saw at reference photo shoots. “They would have women’s clothes on a man—and artists would paint it,” says Sauer, who conducts extensive research to ensure his creations are faithful to the cultures he depicts in his paintings.
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Tuning In

Tuning In

March 3, 2023 | by

Oil painter Kimberly Beck kicks off most workdays with a three-mile walk. “There’s a reservoir near our house and, if I get up early, I can get there and back and still get to work on time,” she says. “You see all kinds of birds there. You start to learn the regulars of the neighborhood. “Last summer, I caught Cooper’s hawks mating. The female was gathering all these twigs, and I figured out where the nest was. For the rest of the spring, I was able to observe the nest, until the male started charging me. I think he literally
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The Studio of Mark Maggiori

The Studio of Mark Maggiori

March 3, 2023 | by

During the past two years, Mark Maggiori has found himself setting up his studio in two different garages. One is the studio of his dreams, located in Taos, New Mexico, and renovated to meet his exact specifications. The other is a more temporary arrangement, with his workspace nestled into a garage in Los Angeles, California. While both have been productive places for Maggiori to work on paintings for his upcoming one-man show at Legacy Gallery, it’s the Taos studio he wants to talk about. He, his wife Petecia, and his daughter Wilderness moved to Taos in 2020. They had found
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‘A Renaissance Woman’

‘A Renaissance Woman’

March 3, 2023 | by

Laurie Lee’s art career took root while she and her husband Bryan lived for more than 45 years in Frannie, Wyoming, a small town—population 150—on the Montana border. They raised three children there, while also running the family’s natural gas business. Today, she and Bryan live in Powell, Montana, not far from Frannie. Lee has not moved far geographically but, artistically, she has come a long way as she creates paintings that tell stories, ask questions, and are beautifully crafted. A solid career in oil paintings that depict a range of visual moods—from pensive portraits to moody nightscapes to vivid
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Glory of the Skies

Glory of the Skies

March 3, 2023 | by

Two days after Thanksgiving 2022, Arizona artist Linda Glover Gooch was up to her neck in details: finishing a large commission for a local patron, starting another large commission, preparing her online classes, and managing her Black Friday sale. “It’s been such a whirlwind, I just haven’t had time to stop and think,” she says. “But it’s a good kind of busy.” Gooch took time to reflect on the many changes in her life and art, and she’s thankful for all of it—the good and the not so good. Her art career started with an epiphany when she was 13
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The Cycle of Life

The Cycle of Life

January 5, 2023 | by

“It’s been a busy 12 years.” That’s how Elizabeth Robbins describes her life since the last time we visited with her. Since then, she’s continued to create masterful paintings that find homes with enthusiastic and appreciative collectors. She’s also added to her repertoire, has started a successful online instructional program and a production company, and has moved to Ogden, Utah. She made that move in late 2013, six years after her husband Jim Pruitt passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack  while mowing the lawn at their home in Kansas. “We had a beautiful marriage,” she says. “He was the
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The Studio of Logan Maxwell Hagege

The Studio of Logan Maxwell Hagege

January 5, 2023 | by

Working in his studio—a 2,000-square-foot space located about 100 feet from his home in Ojai, California, Logan Maxwell Hagege creates award-winning paintings that vibrate with color. Through his use of limited detail, he invites viewers to interact with his images, to become actively engaged as they fill in spaces that he has purposely left unfilled. “I’m trying to see how little I can put in and still get the point across,” Hagege says. “My paintings are interactive; viewers use their imaginations. They play a role in how the painting is seen.” Hagege was born and raised in California and studied
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New Man, New Artist

New Man, New Artist

January 5, 2023 | by

With colors that swerve up, literally, from the canvas in thick swooshes and splatches of oil paints, Mateo Romero knows full well his paintings aren’t everyone’s cup of gallery cappucino. “I had a dealer in Arizona, and the person who worked in the gallery told me, ‘I think you’re wasting a lot of paint,'” Romero recalls with a slight laugh. For the past six years, the Santa Fe, New Mexico, artist has been working in a unique method of portraying Southwestern landscapes and forms. His primary tools are oils, applied thickly on canvas with palette knives rather than brushes. The
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