Archives for Landscape

The Studio of Paula Holtzclaw

The Studio of Paula Holtzclaw

April 15, 2019 | by

Five days a week, Paula Holtzclaw takes a seat at her easel and paints on location. Her setting is an idyllic one in the North Carolina countryside, about 20 miles south of Charlotte, a place of lush gardens and slow-moving clouds, and verdant farmland. She paints there at all times of the day, but she particularly loves the dusk, when the light falls and the colors deepen. Where is this magical place? It’s in Holtzclaw’s house; it’s her studio. Although she has been in her current studio for well over a decade now, she still speaks of it with gratitude
Read More

Mother Nature’s Majesty

Mother Nature’s Majesty

April 15, 2019 | by

“There is so much in the wilderness that is relative to life. It’s hard, messy, and wondrous, but strangely there is a perfect order to it all. Whether I am on the middle of a lake, floating down the river, climbing a mountain, or simply sitting on my front porch, reveling under the big sky, it all makes me think deeply. I find purpose and passion in the landscape; it is inherently who I am.” So says Montana artist Brooke Wetzel, who adds that she and her family “live where the winters are hard, but the inspiration is endless. The
Read More

Mother Nature’s Majesty

Mother Nature’s Majesty

April 15, 2019 | by

W. Jason Situ was born in Kaiping, China, where he was faced with the changes and challenges brought about by the country’s cultural revolution under Mao Tse Tung. His interest in art took hold, as he copied propaganda and slogan banners, before connecting with Szeto Lapa, who introduced him to plein air painting and, later, with Mian Situ, who became his mentor. Eventually, Situ was able to study at the Guanzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where his style evolved into impressionistic realism. Fast forward to 1989. Situ left China and immigrated with his wife Lisa and their two children to
Read More

A Universal Language

A Universal Language

April 15, 2019 | by

Utah artist Robert Duncan’s motto could be this: Explore the depth of your surroundings to mine the beauty at hand. Meanwhile, his catalyst seems to be Andrew Wyeth’s artistic philosophy. “[Wyeth] never wanted to travel much, he just wanted to dig deeper into the things close around him,” Duncan says. “He’d talk about how just a footprint in the snow, as he walked across a field, would trigger a feeling that he could dig into for days and weeks. I think that digging deeper into the things we care most about, and to appreciate the things that we pass by,
Read More

Living By the Brush

Living By the Brush

April 15, 2019 | by

Arizona-based artist Gregory Stewart Hull is a highly regarded devotee of contemporary realism. His versatility is vividly apparent in a wide range of luminous compositions that underscore his ability to use his mastery of capturing light to its fullest potential. A Renaissance man by nature, Hull has been blessed with an inquisitive mind, a passion for perfection, and the ability to find beauty in a diverse range of subject matter, especially in mountains and coastal settings. From his earliest days, he says, his parents emphasized the importance of being well rounded, providing him with many opportunities to develop his talents.
Read More

‘I’ll Never Retire; I’ll Always Paint’

‘I’ll Never Retire; I’ll Always Paint’

April 15, 2019 | by

For most of the past decade, C. Michael Dudash has been ramping up his annual schedule of shows. In the coming year, he’ll participate in at least half a dozen major art events, from Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, to the Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That means that Dudash paints between 40 and 50 pieces a year. Some are small, and some are larger, but each one requires dedicated time at the easel in his Rathdrum, Idaho, studio. “It is a lot
Read More

Hooked on the Feeling

Hooked on the Feeling

February 15, 2019 | by

If she hadn’t been diagnosed with Type I diabetes during her first year of college, Carol Strock Wasson today would be a chemical engineer rather than an artist, who is thrilling collectors with her beautifully rendered landscape paintings. In order to deal with that diagnosis and the required twice daily insulin injections, she returned home to Union City, Indiana, where she currently resides, and began to paint. “It’s the reason I’m an artist today,” Strock Wasson says. “I had painted in high school, and my mother was an artist, so I turned to art. Carol Strock Wasson (Indiana) Yellow Bucket
Read More

Sky King

Sky King

February 15, 2019 | by

Phil Bob Borman’s mission, he says, is “to paint the world, one sky at a time.” He’s well on his way to doing so, currently painting in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Utah, with plans to add skies on the East Coast, Europe, and Scotland to his repertoire. “I love the light, the shapes, the magnificence of clouds,” Borman says. “I love watching them change. There are times when I’m out by myself and I can actually hear the clouds. Phil Bob Borman (Texas) Twilight’s Crown Oil 51″x38″ “The beauty of light and the day’s forces are revealed in
Read More

A 40-Year Journey

A 40-Year Journey

February 15, 2019 | by

Last October, two weeks after giving a talk to a sold-out crowd at the Nicolai Fechin House at the Taos Art Museum, Jerry Jordan was flying high. He had given a presentation on his life and his work to a sold-out crowd. “The theme was ‘what does it look like to paint for 60 years and try to make a living at it?’” he says. “About 75 people attended; we had to turn people away,” he says, adding that it was the highlight of his career. During his presentation, Jordan says, he showed his very first painting—a paint-by-numbers piece he
Read More

‘Art Must Have Soul’

‘Art Must Have Soul’

November 15, 2018 | by

As an accomplished artist with more than 30 years under his belt, Jove Wang has a theory that presides over his art. Roughly translated, it’s to know what you’re doing so well that you don’t need to be a slave to technique. It’s no understatement to say that Wang knows what he’s doing. Rather than offer up a painting that is merely a rendering, his intention is to involve viewers; he wants to elicit a response with his paintings. “I do not intend to paint extreme realism,” he explains. “I like the myriad variety of edges, as well as the
Read More