Archives for Figurative

Struggle, Hope and Beauty

Struggle, Hope and Beauty

February 4, 2026 | by

  California-based Chinese-American oil painter Huihan Liu loves the writings of Ernest Hemingway, particularly “The Old Man and the Sea,” so much that many years ago, he made an oil painting inspired by the book. “When I was in graduate school, we had a final project involving literature and painting,” he says. “And one of my paintings was The Old Man and the Sea.” There was something in the story that spoke to him, he says—the difficulty, the struggle, the endurance, the refusal to lose hope even in the face of crushing misfortune. Unlike most of his other paintngs, The
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Painterly Photography

Painterly Photography

February 4, 2026 | by

  Wayne Heim has spent most of his career as a medical illustrator, working on a freelance basis with medical device manufacturers to explain to surgeons how to use their instruments during various procedures. For the past 15 years, he’s been exploring another medium as he captures images of the people and places of the West with a camera. Every image, he says, is a “one-image movie.” What Heim means by that is that each image he captures—whether it be a cowboy or a landscape—has a story to tell. “Each one-image movie pulls viewers into what happened just before the
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Reflecting the Magic of Light

Reflecting the Magic of Light

February 4, 2026 | by

  When Michelle Kondos was a senior at Bennington College in Vermont, her advisor told her something no aspiring artist ever wants to hear. “I had a bad experience toward the end of college with my main advisor there, who told me that I had zero talent and no hope of ever earning a living as an artist,” Kondos says. “When I left school, I was so discouraged by this that I didn’t paint for about four years.” Kondos’ academic career was full of ups and downs. The curriculum at Bennington College focused on abstract art, leaving her unsatisfied, because
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The West Goes Pop

The West Goes Pop

December 8, 2025 | by

  Billy Schenck can’t draw, as he will tell you himself. “I was never a good draftsman,” he says. “I just can’t make stuff up and draw it from memory. I mean, I can draw cactus, I can draw trees, I can draw sagebrush—but hands, faces, horses? I have to use photographs.” Schenck isn’t being self-deprecating; that’s not his style, as he will also tell you. “I knew by the time I was 24 that I was going to alter the course of Western art, and that’s exactly what I did. So how about that for humility?” How does a
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A New Life

A New Life

December 8, 2025 | by

  When Jerry Salinas turned 50, his wife gave him an unexpected gift. She knew that after more than 20 years as an illustrator for commercial clients, he was ready for a change. But she also knew that she needed to give him a gentle push in that direction. So, on his birthday, she told him to stop doing commercial work. That marked the official start of Salinas’ fine art career, a move he had been itching to make since he started illustrating back in the early 2000s. “I started my career in illustration, mainly to earn a living,” he
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Unlocking Unorthodoxy

Unlocking Unorthodoxy

December 8, 2025 | by

  At age 79, Craig Tennant is conscientiously reinventing his career to shy away from tired formulas and to create art that makes him happy. The creative change hearkens back to his roots in advertising while it also gives him more permission to experiment and to paint what he wants. “I’m coming back to who I really am, and that’s a graphic artist,” he says. “I’m going to go into more design and a flatter look.” The directional change, Tennant says, is due in part to being burned out on creative ideas after feeling compelled to produce the same painting
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The Studio of Karin Hollebeke

The Studio of Karin Hollebeke

December 8, 2025 | by

  Inside a charming log cabin set on a 40-acre plot of land in the northeast corner of Utah, Karin Hollebeke is hard at work, creating scenes of the Old West that have found their way into the hearts—and homes—of collectors throughout the country. The former cattle ranch, located 40 miles from Vernal, and situated at an altitude of 7,000 feet, attracts an impressive variety of wildlife. It’s the perfect setting for Hollebeke, who has spent most of her career capturing scenes of the historic American West. She and her husband Wayne, who passed away last year, moved from El
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Renaissance Western Art

Renaissance Western Art

October 8, 2025 | by

  You might describe Colorado artists Olga and Aleksey Ivanov as contemporary Western art pioneers. Why? Because their partnership, medium, and technique stand out among Western artists. Their creativity is formed by intuition and collaboration—they paint together on the same canvas—storytelling, whimsy, symbolism, and a Renaissance art technique. Their harmonious paintings could be called the artistic equivalent of perfect pitch. “We are using one of the oldest techniques,” Olga says. “We are modern artists trying to connect the old medium to the modern vision of the West.”  Vivid colors are the hallmark of the couple’s art—the result of using the
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The Cowboy Connection Continues

The Cowboy Connection Continues

October 8, 2025 | by

  Bruce Greene has been fascinated with cowboys since he was a young boy growing up in Texas. That fascination continues today and is manifested in the paintings and sculptures he creates. It’s also apparent in how he spends some of his time when he’s not in his studio, which often involves helping out at area ranches, something he’s been doing for about three decades. “I started spending time on the JA Ranch and the 6666 Ranch,” Greene says. “I went and helped them work cattle, which I think is hugely important. A lot of Western art today lacks that,
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Slow and Easy Does It

Slow and Easy Does It

October 8, 2025 | by

  Vicki Catapano’s paintings combine a mastery of brushstroke, color, exquisite realism, and authenticity. From the details of hand-braided hackamore of the Nevada buckaroo to the beadwork in Native American regalia, her work displays a passion and carefulness in preserving the ways of the Old West. “I’m such a slow painter,” Catapano says. “Getting the elements of the Native regalia and the hackamore or spade bit accurate are of utmost importance. Every detail in each painting is critical and has to be precise and correct.” Painting in the Old Masters style and technique of applying thin layers of paint, one layer
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