When he was a college student in the 1970s, Colorado artist Michael Ome Untiedt attended a lecture by Jacob Bronowski and remembers to this day most of what the Polish-British mathematician and philosopher said. “I heard Dr. Bronowski say that it is not tools nor intellect nor language that separate us from all other species on the planet. The thing that separates us from all other species is the ability to pass on aspects of our culture through acts of beauty, which he defined as art,” Untiedt recalls. “That has led me my entire life. That’s why I’m committed to
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Archives for Landscape
A Celebration of Color
Erin Hanson has an energy that mirrors the paintings she creates. She shares the story of her life—and her work—and injects both with vibrant colors and textures that have captured the attention of collectors throughout the world. That’s no exaggeration; during the past 15 years she has sold 3,000 original paintings and countless prints. Collectors purchase her paintings as quickly as she completes them. One collector says that, every time he looks at the painting he purchased from Hanson, “it gets more and more beautiful” and that it will be his “get-out-of-husband-jail-for-free-card” for years to come because his wife loves
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Endless Inspiration
Jessica L. Bryant is a multi-dimensional woman. She’s an artist, a conservationist, a wife, a mother—and a bagpiper. Yes, you read that correctly. Bryant has been playing bagpipes since she was a teenager growing up in Minnesota and today is the pipe major of a pipe band in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. By the way, she also plays the piano, French horn, and several other instruments. What Bryant is best known for, however, are her watercolor paintings that capture the beauty of landscapes throughout the United States. Her love of the land is deep and goes beyond her art. “Being outside,
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On the Road
On some level, Linda Lillegraven has been drawn to the wide-open spaces of the Western landscape for most of her life. She remembers visiting national parks with her family when she was a child. When they’d stop at an overlook and get out of the car to take in the view, she’d see her dad’s face light up. “He’d say, ‘This is God’s country,’” Lillegraven says. “The enthusiasm he had, the love and reverence—he really loved the big open spaces, and I think I caught that from him.” The idea of painting those spaces didn’t occur to her, however, until
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Great Inspiration
When you see a William Haskell painting, you will never forget it. The shapes, the colors, the movement within it are, simply put, stunning. And that’s just as he wants it. “You can be a great technician,” Haskell says, “but, if you can’t compose a painting with a great flow, it won’t work. I want to create something that keeps you in that world, that has all that movement, that you enjoy exploring and finding new things in.” Read the full article in the November/December 2023 issue. Night Ride Acrylic 9″ by 12″ Trust in the Storm Acrylic 16″ by
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Peaceful, Spiritual Paintings
In November, Jane Hunt expects to move into her “dream studio” in her family’s home outside of Boulder, Colorado. Building it has been a three-year process, and she’s more than excited to leave behind the small, temporary space she’s been using. It isn’t just the open floor plan and the additional space for new, larger easels that Hunt is anticipating. “The thing I’m most excited about is the view,” she says. “The studio is on the very top of my house, which is on the very top of a mountain so the view is just amazing. It’s a vista as
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Sharing Her Light
“My goal is to show others how I see the world,” says Kwani Povi Winder. “Being an artist has completely changed how I see it; it’s so incredibly colorful.” While she’s always seen the world and its people as a wondrous place, since 2013 Winder has been sharing her visions—whether they be landscapes, people, spiritual images, or animals—through paintings filled with vibrant colors and brilliant light. “I am constantly analyzing everything before my eyes and trying to identify what made me stop and take a second look at something,” she says. “Was it the contrast, the saturation, or maybe the
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A Magnificent Obsession
When Heidi Marshall was a young girl, she said to her mother, “Show me something I haven’t seen before.” Her mother replied, “Oh, my—another artist!” In recalling that moment, Marshall says, “I come from a family of artists, and she recognized what we were like.” Marshall’s father, William Amenda, was chief editorial portrait and courtroom illustrator for “The Detroit News” and also painted and sculpted in his spare time. Her paternal grandfather was an artist in Germany who painted religious scenes in churches. And her mother was a writer and fine arts appraiser. Read the full article in the September/October
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‘The Ball Just Kept Rolling’
Russell Smith’s original career plan was to become an aeronautical engineer so he could design airplanes. That changed after he took a few art classes during his first year of college. “I realized I didn’t want to design them, I wanted to paint them,” he says. And that’s just what he’s been doing for more than 20 years. His depictions of early aircraft—combined with the people and land of the West—are wonderfully crafted and carry with them a captivating energy, excitement, and perspective. His paintings, fueled by an early love of aviation, have earned him several awards but the real
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A Journey Through History
“I love where we have come from,” says Brian Bateman. “History is the catalyst for all of my work—the men, women, machines, and how they intertwine.” That love of history took hold when he was a young boy and continues to drive him as he captures the past in paintings that feature everything from the West and Native Americans to mountain men and military aircraft. What makes those paintings unique is that he often combines two or more subjects in one painting, and he looks forward to combining aircraft within his Western work. Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Bateman’s initial
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