Archives for Wildlife

Peaceful Feelings

When Paul Dykman steps outside his rural Montana home, his first instinct is to look up. “I look up, and I see the mountains; I see the amazing sky,” he says. “And I think, ‘Lord, how did you do that? Will you please show me how to do that?’ “It’s so beautiful. I look around and wonder how to get that certain color in the sky or the hue of the mountain. It’s not easy to emulate what God finds so easy to do.” Dykman has spent the past 20-plus years trying to do just that. Read the full article
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The Studio of Doug Monson

If you happen to find yourself wandering through the galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, do yourself a favor and venture an hour and change down US 89-S to Afton. Thanks to the hard work and bold, generous vision of wildlife artist and Afton resident Doug Monson, the little town—population 2,000—is finding a place on the map for artists and collectors alike. Monson and his wife Donna have been enamored with Afton since they visited it four years ago while searching for studio space. “It’s in a beautiful valley, a high mountain valley,” Monson says. “It’s just a really good area,
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A Master In His Prime

George Carlson has never subscribed to any “ism.” As the only person in history to be honored with the Prix de West Purchase Award—the top prize in Western Art—in two different media, he also has never seen himself as a “Western artist,” at least not in the way it has celebrated iconic landscapes, cowboys, and indigenous people. But Carlson does believe in a way of seeing that is articulated by many, going back to the ancient Greeks. It is embraced by American master realist Andrew Wyeth and by Carlson’s friend, painter Robert Lougheed. Their maxim is this: Nature provides all
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Patience and Precision

Randal M. Dutra has enjoyed a varied career in art for more than 46 years. He began his studies in 1975, working from life at a Canadian game farm, and in 1977 he enrolled at the Art Students League in New York. During his early art career, he also learned from several respected mentors, including Clarence Tillenius, Robert Lougheed, and George Carlson. In 1981, Dutra became involved in cinematic visual effects. During his 25 years in the movie business, while concurrently producing fine art, he worked with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Disney on several films, two of which earned
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Beautiful Blendings

Acclaimed sculptor James G. Moore—Jim to friends, family, and a growing population of enthusiastic collectors—is leading a very good life, enjoying a mix of work and play that any creative person would envy. “My great joy is to be on the water,” he says. “I kayak; about twice a week I’m on some kind of boat.” On the days Moore isn’t paddling one of two nearby rivers (both the Wenatchee and the Columbia flow an easy drive from his home), he’s apt to be in one of his two studios. “My metal shop is where I make all the racket,”
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‘Color is Everything To Me’

In early August, Kathy Anderson was hard at work in the studio at her home in Redding, Connecticut. She had just returned from a 12-day reunion in Montana with members of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters and was preparing to head to Vermont the following week to paint with the Putney Painters. Anderson was also working on a painting for a show in October and that afternoon was scheduled to give a video tour of her studio for the Scottsdale Artists School. Later that week she would be serving as an awards judge for a local art show. And,
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Chasing Perfection

There are things you have to give up if you’re going to run a ranch, raise a family, and pursue a career as a wildlife artist all at the same time. Chad Poppleton, who took over the operations of his dad’s ranch in northern Utah’s Cache Valley a year ago, is doing all three—and doing them well. Most days, he’s up early to do chores and get work done around the ranch. Once those jobs are done, he heads to his studio and paints for several hours. Then he loops back to the ranch for more chores and to wrap
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The Studio of Edward Aldrich

After getting married in 2002 wildlife artist Edward (Ned) Aldrich and his wife Kerry set up housekeeping in Golden, Colorado. Within three years, however, they realized they wanted more land, so they moved to a home on a mountainside just west of Denver. The downside of their new home was that its configuration did not allow room for a studio. Aldrich spent the first two years there working in a basement studio, then decided to add additional space to the top of the house. “Working there really spurred me on to get the addition finished,” he says of his basement
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The Studio of Quang Ho

While the United States has been blessed with a multitude of native-born painters, its art heritage has also been greatly enriched by the work of many foreign-born artists, from Nicolai Fechin and John Singer Sargent to Zhiwei Tu and Mian Situ. Another name on the list of foreignborn artists who are sharing their cultural heritage with American art collectors is Quang Ho, who was born in Vietnam and is creating some of the most sought-after works in today’s market. Born in 1963, in Hue, Vietnam, Ho was 12 when he came to the United States with his mother and seven
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Talent Knows No Age

In 2004, after 30 years in the car business, John Marzolf sold his three dealerships and retired. Two years later, however, he was bored and looking for something to do. “I loved art, and I collected art,” he says, “so I decided to buy and sell art.” While visiting the Biltmore Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, Marzolf purchased a Frank Tenney Johnson painting for $275,000 and met the gallery’s owner, Steve Rose. “I liked Rose,” Marzolf says, adding that three times he asked Rose to sell the gallery to him. “The fourth time I said, ‘Why don’t you sell it to
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