Archives for Figurative

The Studio of C. Michael Dudash

The Studio of C. Michael Dudash

April 10, 2024 | by

C. Michael Dudash’s 2,100-square-foot studio is nestled on a scenic, five-acre lot in the small Irish city of Rathdrum, Idaho, a small town just north of Coeur d’Alene. Working with a contractor, he designed and built a beautiful studio, one that would stand out and have a certain “je ne sais quoi.” The interesting shape resembles a church from the outside and could easily be remodeled someday to accommodate a large RV by taking out two interior walls and adding a larger garage door. “That’s the way I designed it—a big main room,” Dudash says. “At its core, it’s a
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Where Function Meets Fine Art

Where Function Meets Fine Art

March 20, 2024 | by

Functional art, artwork that is both attractive and practical, is nothing new to the art world. Art glass vases, clay vessels, and even bronze door knockers or bookends apply. But these works don’t seem to be included in many shows. Last year, artist Eric Bowman made a splash at the Prix de West with his tetrapycht screen—and he’s doing it again at the Night of Artists at the Briscoe Museum this year.   Bowman, known for his stylized Western scenes, got the idea for the original screen from his love of craftsman furniture. “The idea just popped in my head one
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Letting His Voice Find Him

Letting His Voice Find Him

February 8, 2024 | by

When we caught up with Andrew Higdon, the 27-year-old artist had just returned from his honeymoon with his wife Savannah. “When we first got engaged, I laid out my plan for the next 10 years [as an artist] in front of her, and said, ‘This is what this life looks like to me; are you down for this?’” he says. “She said, ‘Absolutely.’ I couldn’t ask for anyone better to walk this journey with.” Higdon credits many kind advisors for helping him put together a roadmap for his life at such a young age but he admits that his future
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Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead

February 8, 2024 | by

During the past six months, J.R. Hess has been living his dream life. He moved to Colorado with his wife Molly and their two teenage sons, Cass and River, he’s got studio space in his new home in Loveland, and his photorealistic wildlife drawings hang in galleries in Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. “I’ve been waiting my whole life to get to this point,” Hess says. “I am so thankful, so happy to be doing what I’m doing. I’m still new at this but I know that I’m so fortunate to be able to do what I love to do.”
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Talent and Tradition

Talent and Tradition

February 8, 2024 | by

Ed Natiya’s Indigenous and Native American sculptures and monuments have earned him a reputation as one of the best sculptors of his kind. In 2016, for instance, he won the top prize in sculpture at the Southwestern Association for Indian Art (SWAIA) Indian Market—the largest Native American art show in the world, attended by 100,000 at its annual gathering in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In March, he’ll have one of his larger-than-life monuments on display at the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. The Briscoe doesn’t ordinarily take large pieces but, in Natiya’s case, it made an exception.
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Blazing His Own Trail

Blazing His Own Trail

December 11, 2023 | by

During his 40-plus years as a photographer, David Yarrow has been held at gunpoint, chased by a hippopotamus, and suffered hypothermia when his raft capsized in the Arctic Ocean. No matter what he encounters in the field, however, it is the art world that keeps him up at night. “My biggest fear is to bore people,” he says. Yarrow’s life has been anything but boring. Born in 1966 in Glasgow, Scotland, his childhood love of sports led him to pick up a camera when he was a teenager. He learned his craft on the job while photographing local sporting matches
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The Power of Paint and Prayer

The Power of Paint and Prayer

December 11, 2023 | by

Alfredo Rodriguez is a master painter who delights in capturing the faces of Native Americans, pioneers, cowboys, miners, and children and letting those faces tell stories. He is particularly drawn to the faces of old people, saying, “The wrinkles, the expressions, tell the story.” But he is also drawn to the innocence, the “cleanliness of the souls” of children. No matter who or what he is painting, he does so with unbridled talent. There is one face Rodriguez has painted that he will remember forever: an official at the American Counsel in Tijuana, Mexico. In 1970, while applying for a
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Simplicity and Complexity

Simplicity and Complexity

December 11, 2023 | by

Rick Kennington grew up in environments much like those he paints: seemingly endless spaces, mountain backdrops, blue skies, and the steady resolve of cowboys and others whose lives are quietly, solidly entwined with the West. A lifelong resident of Utah, living near the Wasatch Mountains, Kennington’s parents were both from Star Valley, Wyoming, and he spent much of his childhood visiting his grandfather in that area. That’s when the painting began. From his first painting, when he was 18, of his grandfather on a horse, it’s been an ongoing pull toward portraying that life and lifestyle that has kept Kennington
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The Studio of Gladys Roldan-de-Moras

The Studio of Gladys Roldan-de-Moras

December 11, 2023 | by

Magic can occur anywhere. Take, for instance, a busy street in San Antonio, Texas, with five lanes of traffic rushing past a bustling neighborhood of restaurants, doctors’ offices, and an upscale grocery store—where the businesses give way to residential blocks with a sleek, white, modern house that sits behind a cinderblock wall. Unlike the surrounding houses, this one doesn’t sit neatly parallel to the street; it’s at a noticeable slant, facing squarely north. To step through the gates and into the foyer is to step into another world. The rear wall, composed of 15 five-by-seven-foot windowpanes, stretches up, embracing the
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Story Teller Extraordinaire

Story Teller Extraordinaire

October 12, 2023 | by

In June of 1973, Clark Kelley Price had just worked a spring roundup in Montana. He had four paintings in his truck and decided to stop at the Jensen Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on his way home to Utah. He was bedraggled, but he entered the gallery and wandered around, admiring the artwork it housed. A staff member approached him and asked, “Are you an artist?” “Yes, I am,” Price responded. “I can tell by the way you’re studying these paintings,” she said. “What kind of art do you do?” Read the full article in the November/December 2023 issue.
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