Archives for Portrait

A Penchant For the Past

A Penchant For the Past

November 20, 2015 | by

Known for evocative historical paintings that depict the lives of the Eastern Woodland Indians and non-native settlers, who lived in the region surrounding his home in Western Pennsylvania during the 18th century, John Buxton, like several successful fine artists, began his career as a commercial illustrator. Determined to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a professional artist, in 1959 Buxton journeyed west to begin formal art studies at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. Getting his priorities straight a few years later, Buxton returned to his studies and earned his Professional Arts Degree in 1962, which
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I’m Never Bored

I’m Never Bored

November 20, 2015 | by

A drive to yoga class about 10 years ago provided an aha moment for Teresa Elliott. As she drove by a pasture of longhorns, she was so taken by what she saw that she returned the next day and took photographs of them. “There was a bull there,” she says. “It was hot, and he was miserable and stomping his feet. I took a snapshot and went back home and that was my first painting.” Little did Elliott realize how popular her longhorn portraits would become, how eagerly collectors would seek them out. She painted them because she loved them
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Eiteljorg Museum Receives Multimillion-Dollar Art Collection

Eiteljorg Museum Receives Multimillion-Dollar Art Collection

November 20, 2015 | by

Imagine, if you will, that you receive a phone call from someone telling you that you soon will be receiving a gift. When that gift arrives, you open it and find inside millions of dollars worth of artwork—paintings by the likes of Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, N. C. Wyeth, and Howard Terpning, along with magnificently crafted Native American artifacts. You are stunned. You are thrilled. And you are grateful. That is exactly how the folks at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, felt when the attorney for the estate of the late K. S.
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Cowboy Artists of America Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Cowboy Artists of America Celebrates 50th Anniversary

September 20, 2015 | by

With the celebration of the Cowboy Artists of America’s 50th anniversary, one has to wonder if the founding artists—Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton, and George Phippen—could have envisioned what the organization would become and that it would still be going strong five decades later. Those four men, along with dozens of others who were invited to join the prestigious organization over the years, were committed to creating authentic representations of life—and work—in the American West and to doing so with the highest of artistic standards. Four members of the CAA—John Coleman, Martin Grelle, Bill Nebeker, and Jim Norton—recently took
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The Joy of Painting

The Joy of Painting

September 20, 2015 | by

Suchitra Bhosle was in Seattle, Washington, looking for a job that would put her new MBA degree to good use, when she received news that her father had passed away. She put her job search on hold to travel back to her native India—and returned to the United States with an entirely different focus in mind. Back in Seattle, Bhosle stopped sending out resumes and started looking for workshops that would help develop the aptitude she had always had for art. Suchitra Bhosle Arches of II duomo De Taormina Oil 16″ x 12″ “The movement of the interior light of
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Creating New Challenges

Creating New Challenges

July 20, 2015 | by

Carrie Ballantyne once told a young cowgirl that she didn’t think she was much of a storyteller. Her paintings—portraits of western men, women and children, often focused mostly on their faces—were too limited, she said, to tell stories. “This young cowgirl looked so surprised,” Ballantyne remembers. “She stopped me and said that she saw a story in every face I portrayed.” That revelation changed everything for Ballantyne. Carrie Ballantyne (Wyoming) Wyoming Flower Child Oil 18″x14″ “I have been lucky, through the years, to be able to work with my family and close friends. It makes my job more pleasurable, when
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My Richest Blessing Is My Imagination

My Richest Blessing Is My Imagination

July 20, 2015 | by

Whether he is depicting a Native American hunting party, a stagecoach arriving in a frontier town, or a cowpuncher riding night herd in the moonlight, the imagery of Montana-based artist Gary Lynn Roberts clearly reflects his belief that he lives and works in God’s country. For him, it’s a reality in more ways than one. Living on a remote 100-acre spread in the majestic Bitterroot Valley some 50 miles south of Missoula, Roberts doesn’t have to venture far to find the towering snow-capped mountains, sparkling rivers, and native wildlife that so richly complement his compelling compositions. Gary Lynn Roberts Wapiti
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A Creative Calling

A Creative Calling

July 20, 2015 | by

Albin Veselka wants to talk about art. First, though, he wants to say a few words about the meaning of life and the purpose of art. “I’m always trying to uplift people; I think it’s important to better the world,” says Veselka, whose Christian faith, along with his missionary zeal for art, guide his creative journey. “My faith helps me to do that—to uplift people and to show them something through my art.” This spirit of expansive generosity suffuses Veselka’s work, as well as his artistic philosophy. Albin Veselka Sunset Tide Oil 24″x15″ “I love the way white reflects all
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Realistic Paintings, Idealized Subjects

Realistic Paintings, Idealized Subjects

July 20, 2015 | by

Though France has produced many famous artists, one typically does not think of a French native devoting a distinguished artistic career to the depiction of Native Americans. But such was the case with François Henri Farny (later Anglicized to Henry Farny), who painted a proud picture of a Native American race that already was on the decline. Born in the Alsace region of France on July 15, 1847, Farny was the third child in a Protestant family that sought to escape an atmosphere of political turmoil and religious oppression. Henry Farny The Song of the Talking Wire (1904) Oil 22″x40″
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The Race is Still Going

The Race is Still Going

May 20, 2015 | by

There is nothing Morgan Weistling enjoys more—or works as hard at—as telling a story. It is exciting and challenging, as he spends countless hours—and makes thousands of decisions—to create each painting in a manner that captures the attention of viewers, draws them in, and—he hopes—puts a smile on their faces. Snake Oil Salesman is a prime example of how Weistling works. “I look at that painting, and I see 100,000 decisions I had to make,” he says of the piece, which depicts a gathering of men, women, and children around a man enthusiastically extolling the benefits of the snake oil
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