Archives for Landscape

Capturing the Human Experience

Capturing the Human Experience

January 1, 2022 | by

An elderly woman in her Sunday-best hat, a father carrying his son on his shoulder, a man waiting at a bus stop, another asleep in his favorite chair. These evocative images of humble, hard-working people who are often overlooked by the world at large are so powerful in their simplicity that they motivated one New York art critic to describe their creator, Dean Mitchell, as a “modern-day Vermeer.” “My work is primarily about the human experience,” Mitchell says. “I want it to be a commentary on the reality of life as lived by the ordinary people in this country.” Read
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A Master In His Prime

A Master In His Prime

January 1, 2022 | by

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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Painting Nature’s Majesty

Painting Nature’s Majesty

January 1, 2022 | by

Like her landscape paintings, Jan DeLipsey is a breath of fresh air. She’s wonderfully witty, laughs freely, and is an open book when talking about her life and struggles. It’s not quite what you would expect of a psychologist. A what? Yes, you read that correctly; DeLipsey is not only an award-winning artist; she’s a psychologist. “I’m 68,” she says. “I retired when I was 60 and started painting for fun. One thing led to another, and here I am. It’s the most interesting, fun thing I’ve ever done.” Read the full article in the January/February 2022 issue. The Homestead
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Discipline, Control, and Wisdom

Discipline, Control, and Wisdom

November 1, 2021 | by

If you log onto Rick McClure’s Facebook page, you might think for a minute that you’ve wandered into an online Buddhism class where the teacher has become the student, asking his former pupils to critique his teaching skills. “Generous and sincere,” offered one. Another responded, “Doesn’t hesitate to share all the tips and techniques he’s spent a long career learning.” And a third asked, “Is this a trick question?” Not necessarily. Art professionals will tell you that great art teachers share many characteristics, including passion, dedication, and perseverance. Being a great artist and a great teacher are not mutually exclusive;
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‘Color is Everything To Me’

‘Color is Everything To Me’

November 1, 2021 | by

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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The Studio of Quang Ho

The Studio of Quang Ho

September 1, 2021 | by

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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Silver Linings

Silver Linings

September 1, 2021 | by

“I always thought when you went blind, it was black. It wasn’t,” says watercolor artist Marlin Rotach, who noticed changes in his vision in the spring of 2018. “It was flesh-toned, and it was just like a curtain going across my eye until I had no sight at all.” After visiting a specialist, Rotach learned that he was suffering from a detached retina, a condition that required two surgeries and left him blind in his right eye for five months. Unable to paint, but still able to use a computer, Rotach decided to try writing biographical vignettes about historical artists
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A Never-Quit Mentality

A Never-Quit Mentality

September 1, 2021 | by

It was a long Sunday afternoon for Todd Connor early this summer as he was filling packing boxes for a move from McAllister to Fort Benton, Montana, just northeast of Great Falls. But the day was filled with pleasant surprises. While cleaning out his studio, he discovered hundreds of small canvases, all plein air paintings. “I don’t get to do plein air much anymore,” he says wistfully. Don’t think for a minute that Connor sees his sun-swept portraits of pioneers, landscapes, and First Nation warriors as uninspired, 9-to- 5 studio work, however. Art is his challenge, second only to the
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A Spiritual Connection

A Spiritual Connection

September 1, 2021 | by

It’s a Monday morning in late May, and Linda Mutti is feeling lucky. “I am gonna paint today,” she announces jubilantly. “And then I’m doing a mentoring class, and then I’m going to hang with my two little rescue dogs. They’re very yappy, but I adore them. They like to come hang out in the studio.” If Mutti’s day doesn’t sound sufficiently idyllic, consider this: The studio in question is on the second floor of her home in Santa Barbara, California, with a panoramic view of the Santa Ynez Mountains. If she feels like painting outside instead of in the
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A Clear and Unique Vision

A Clear and Unique Vision

September 1, 2021 | by

If you ask Phil Epp how he developed the style that has come to define his sky-filled Southwestern landscapes, he’ll shrug and admit that it’s not something he can easily explain—nor something he fully understands himself. It started with his childhood love of cowboy art, horses, and the view from his bedroom window in his childhood home in Nebraska. Then it merged with painters he was introduced to in college—from Picasso to Jackson Pollock—and to the work of color field painters, like Mark Rothko, who used large areas of unbroken, flat colors on their canvases. Read the full article in
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