Archives for Wildlife

Realism with a Painterly Slant

Realism with a Painterly Slant

July 15, 2018 | by

Shawn Cameron can’t remember when she first began drawing horses. “I never decided I would be a Western artist,” she says. “It was just a natural outcome of my life. I painted or drew horses from—I can’t remember when I started! But from my earliest memory, I drew what I saw, and what I saw was horses and cattle.” A fourth-generation cattle rancher, Cameron grew up among horses, cattle, and working cowboys. She also grew up immersed in the arts. “My mother encouraged it, always,” she says. “She studied art and music herself, and my brother and I had professional
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The Wonder of Wildlife

The Wonder of Wildlife

May 15, 2018 | by

Hailed as one of the nation’s premier wildlife artists, the path Montana-based painter Daniel Smith traveled in reaching this position of renown has been one of dedication and evolution. Born in Mankato, Minnesota, in 1954, he says he was genetically infused with a love of art and nature thanks to his father, an inveterate outdoorsman, who used his own wood-burning skills to give visual testimony to his inherent love for wildlife. He goes a step further, saying that same gene seems to have been passed on to his son, Adam. “After dabbling with art a bit in high school, at
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A Lifelong Journey

A Lifelong Journey

May 15, 2018 | by

The first sculpture Bill Nebeker cast was of two mountain men. He had been crafting small clay pieces at his kitchen table in the evenings, after working all day with other artists at George Phippen’s Bear Paw Bronze Foundry in Skull Valley, near Nebeker’s home in Prescott, Arizona. “It was pretty crude,” Nebeker admits. But it sold. So did the others he made after it. It wasn’t long before he was making more selling sculptures than he was at the foundry, so he gave up his job and starting sculpting full time: cowboys, mostly, but also Native Americans and wildlife.
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Abstract Impressionism

Abstract Impressionism

May 15, 2018 | by

Perched atop the corrals or catwalks above rodeos, artist Howard Post gets a view that rouses his muse. The patterns of cattle huddled together in the corral, or the linear outline of the fences create a vision that spawns his artistic vision and are a strong focus in the Arizona artist’s paintings. Post, once an avid rodeo participant himself, discovered this birds-eye perspective by accident. To get a better look, he clambered up above the activity and discovered patterns and light that hadn’t been evident from his ground-level participation. The new perspective set his contemporary paintings of cattle, cowboys, rodeo
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In Praise of the Cowboy

In Praise of the Cowboy

May 15, 2018 | by

Bill Anton traces his fascination with the West back to a trip he took, when he was just 7, with his family to Glacier National Park and the West Coast. “The mountains, the air, the weather were profoundly different from anything I’d known,” says the artist, who grew up in Chicago, Illinois. “I’d never seen anything that was like the American West, and the impression it made on my mind and heart was unmistakable. I’d find a way to be back to stay the minute I was old enough—and I did.” Now living in Prescott, Arizona, Anton has been sharing
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Creating an Interesting Dance

Creating an Interesting Dance

March 15, 2018 | by

Some nights, Mary Ross Buchholz dreams that she is making art. “Sometimes I wake up and—oh, mercy—I didn’t finish that after all; it was just a dream,” she says in her melodic west Texas drawl. “I eat, sleep, and breathe art.” It’s an apt commentary on Buchholz’s life, a busy but joyous synthesis of ranching, family life, and, of course, art. She and her husband Bob run a good-sized ranch near Eldorado, Texas—population 1,961—and for many years she has balanced her creative endeavors seamlessly with the family business. “Maybe a little bit of our daily ranch life shines through in
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‘My Best Years are Still Ahead’

‘My Best Years are Still Ahead’

March 15, 2018 | by

The first few years after moving to the United States were the lowest in Mick Doellinger’s life. In 2003, he sold his home, his furniture, his taxidermy business, and his studio in Australia to come to America and become a wildlife sculptor. He certainly hadn’t expected it to be easy, but he didn’t realize how lonely it would be. “I had no resources, no family, no safety net,” Doellinger says. “But I knew that, if I wanted to be a full-time sculptor, the United States was where I needed to be.” He also knew that he couldn’t really go home:
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‘I Love What I Am Doing’

‘I Love What I Am Doing’

January 15, 2018 | by

Although Tom Dorr ranks among the nation’s most prolific painters of Western art, the Phoenix-based artist, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent his early years in Kansas City, Kansas, had little affinity for subjects west of the Mississippi. That changed, when his father’s employer, AT&T, transferred the family to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the early 1950s. “I was about 12, when we arrived in Colorado, and by then I had already discovered my love for painting and drawing,” Dorr says. “At that time, there were still a lot of old farms and ranches in the area, so I
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Western Voices: Past and Present

Western Voices: Past and Present

November 18, 2017 | by

Generations of painters and sculptors make up the fabric of art of the American West. The ongoing influence of artists, reaching back to the 1800s, is evident in the ambitions and efforts of younger artists today and, just as the best artists of old are known by their unique stylistic voices, a new generation strives to develop its own voice and, perhaps, the opportunity to influence those who follow them. Art of the West has been a platform for Western art for the past 30 years, helping us to hear the voices of new generations of artists, along with echoes
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Women Artists: Meeting the Challenge

Women Artists: Meeting the Challenge

November 18, 2017 | by

It’s no secret that women artists often have a more difficult time than their male counterparts in not only succeeding in their careers, but in the prices paid for their work and in the collectability of that work by museums. It’s a topic that has been quietly discussed for many years, but now is gaining awareness, due in part to members of American Women Artists (AWA), who were shocked when they realized that women artists represent only 3 to 5 percent of artwork in museum collections. As a result, the group has launched 25 in 25, a campaign to have
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