Archives for Genre

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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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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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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The Studio of Josh Clare

The Studio of Josh Clare

October 8, 2025 | by

  Light plays a major role in the art and life of Josh Clare. The big-picture light is his strong Christian faith. Light is also the element he knew he wanted to harness and infuse throughout the 4,000-square foot studio he built near his Utah home in 2018.  The three-level structure has six 4-by-4-foot skylights above his painting area, and the way the lights works—illumination without direct sunlight—is the studio’s strongest asset. “It’s a beautiful, pleasing light to paint under,” Clare says. A Utah native who studied art, he met Cambree, a horticulture major, on the Brigham Young-Idaho campus. The
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Answering the Call

Answering the Call

August 7, 2025 | by

  Ten years ago, Starr Hardridge accidentally discovered the style that now defines his work. A citizen of the Muscogee Creek nation, he was invited to submit work for the Return from Exile show, which was planned to spotlight artists from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole tribes. Hardridge had been studying the basketry, pottery, and beadwork designs that those tribes had done before they were relocated to Oklahoma. He discovered that much of the traditional beadwork of his Muscogee ancestors was left behind when they left the Southeast. He wanted to resurrect that tradition in his painting
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Poetic Landscapes

Poetic Landscapes

August 7, 2025 | by

  June Dudley’s vibrant paintings capture a moment in time, an emotion, a ghost of memory. Combined with dynamic lighting and design, her attunement with color creates a mood that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes majestic, but is always inviting and approachable. “One of my collectors told me, ‘I have not seen anyone painting in the vivid and vibrant colors and detail you do, and at the same time being able to capture and convey such powerful moods,’” Dudley says. “That pretty well sums up my goal in art.” The Texas artist has always had one goal: painting. Life doesn’t always
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Keeping It Fresh

Keeping It Fresh

August 7, 2025 | by

  “I don’t like clichés,” says Western artist Brett James Smith. He recognizes that his chosen genre is replete with familiar tropes: the backlit pastoral scene, the regal Native American chief, the faithful dog, the sunlit brook, the swaggering cowboy. Although you will find those landscapes and figures in Smith’s portfolio, he is determined to paint them in such a way that you won’t mistake his work for anyone else’s. “I’m always looking for a fresher look at any subject,” he says. “My number one priority is to do things that haven’t been done, or at least to bring something
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