Archives for Figurative

The Challenge of Watercolors

The Challenge of Watercolors

May 4, 2023 | by

Joel R. Johnson candidly admits that painting with watercolors is a constant challenge. “Transparent watercolor is so different from all the other mediums,” he says. “At first, I was trying to paint in watercolors the way I did in oils, and that just didn’t work. It took me years to understand the technique of painting in watercolor and, especially, the properties of the paint itself.” Understanding the nuances of watercolors is critical to Johnson as he works. “The quality I am after in my paintings is that they glow, so I had to learn the differences between transparent, staining, or
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‘I’m Inspired by God’s Creation’

‘I’m Inspired by God’s Creation’

March 4, 2023 | by

“I have to paint my vision.” So says Frank Ordaz, whose visions range from portraits and landscapes to cowboys and old trucks. He is so eclectic in his subject matter and style that a gallery owner once told him, “I don’t know where to put you; I don’t know how to sell you.” That gallery owner needn’t have worried because his paintings sell themselves, appealing to a similarly eclectic group of collectors. Simply put, Ordaz’s paintings cannot be labeled—and neither can he. Although he was trained as a fine artist when he was a young boy, Ordaz spent his early
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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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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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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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Renaissance Man of the West

Renaissance Man of the West

January 5, 2023 | by

Western artist Charles Dayton clearly recalls the exact moment art went from part-time hobby to potential vocation. “[Utah landscape painter] Karl Thomas came over to my house,” he says, referring to an event that took place more than 20 years ago. “He’d found out that I was doing some painting—just starting, just some basic things. “I brought out a couple pieces to show him what I was working on—I think it was a mule deer and something else—and he just got kind of quiet. I thought, ‘He’s figuring out how to let me know I shouldn’t quit my day job.’
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Inspiring and Uplifting

Inspiring and Uplifting

January 5, 2023 | by

Echoing the wisdom in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “To thine own self be true,” Arizona-based painter Mitch Baird emphasizes, “As an artist, I don’t want to be pigeonholed. I simply want to be open and free to paint whatever I see—landscapes, figurative works, still life or whatever else motivates me.” He says, “Paintings are a communication between artist and viewer, and great artistic communication depends on solid draftsmanship, design, and vision. What I strive for in each painting is to create a positive visual statement, and hope that the viewer will experience what I see and be inspired, uplifted, and moved in
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A Dream Realized

A Dream Realized

January 5, 2023 | by

Dial back 60 years; it’s 1962, and 6-year old Patricia McGeeney is settling into a small studio at the back of Mittel’s Art Supply Store in Santa Monica, California. She is about to take the first steps toward her dream of becoming an artist. Already a prolific drawer of horses, McGeeney has impressed her mother with her artistic skills, so much so that she has signed her daughter up for art lessons in the store’s studio. “The high ceilings, dingy atmosphere, and smell of turpentine had a profound effect on me,” McGeeney says. “I never wanted to do anything else
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