Showing posts with label Southwest Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southwest Art. Show all posts

Expressionist Landscape Painters:


The World Through Rose Colored Glasses


Question: What kind of world is it when you don’t see black, grey, and brown?
Answer: It’s the world of colorists and expressionist landscape painters.

Desert Oasis 24.5" x 30.5"
by Michelle Chrisman

And what a lovely world it is. I know that personally, I ‘m attracted to high color. The primaries are my friends, and I don’t want much to do with those “sad,” muted colors.

In my last post, I wrote about landscape as a personal vision. I noticed that there are some other landscape painters at Wilde Meyer who express how they feel when they look at a scene, rather than try to reproduce it. These painters feel really good!

Michelle Chrisman does the majority of her painting outdoors in New Mexico. “Part of the enjoyment for me is to be outside, to paint quickly and record my emotional response to what I’m seeing,” she said. “I love to get in the zone, surrounded by nature, and paint alla prima, that is, wet on wet, finishing in one session.” Her painting entitled “Desert Oasis,” shown at the top of this post, is a good example of her fresh style. It’s as if she took in her surroundings and expressed it in just a moment, to say how it affected her.

Michelle is a colorist who “hyper sees,” that is, she sees the hues that make up the local color others perceive. She’s very interested in the effect of light and spectral color, which is defined by Wikipedia as “a color that is evoked by a single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum, or by a relatively narrow band of wavelengths. The spectrum is often divided up into named colors: red, orange yellow, green, blue and violet.”

Kitchen Mesa 24.5" x 30.5"
by Michelle Chrisman


You can see Michelle’s technique and color vision in her painting entitled “Kitchen Mesa.” It was painted at Ghost Ranch, the site of many of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. I like the wonderful reds and yellows she uses to show warmth and light, and the soft violets to indicate the shadow of the rock crevices. The blue/green hue in the foreground really pops against the red tones around it. In addition to strong color, Michelle uses heavy texture with a palette knife to describe her landscape.

“For me, paint is part of the experience,” she said. “I want it to be luscious, to say ‘I’m paint, touch me!’”

Barbara Gurwitz wants to create a sense of place in her landscape paintings. She takes photos and does sketches of the special places she wants to paint. But realism takes a back seat to the expression of how she felt at the time of her visit to the site. “I’m not interested in duplicating the colors of nature,” she said. “I’ve always chosen colors that speak to the way I see the world, which are sometimes different from what you would expect.”

View from the West 24" x 30"
by Barbara Gurwitz

High Country Summer 40" x 60"
by Barbara Gurwitz
When looking at one Barbara’s paintings, “A View from the West,” I know it’s a scene of a southwestern village in the foothills of a mountain range. But her strong, primary colors give this landscape great energy and a charming, folk art quality.

Santa Cruz Autumn 34" x 44"
by Barbara Gurwitz
Barbara also seems to see through rose-colored glasses, and that may be because she uses a red ground under her paintings. “It’s a wonderful neutral,” she said. She leaves the red as negative space in some areas. This is evident in most of her paintings, such as, “High Country Summer” and “Santa Cruz Autumn.” The red under-painting makes everything glow!

When Barbara paints, she often calls upon her spiritual mentor, Vincent Van Gogh (who wasn’t quite as upbeat as she). “I love his willingness to paint as he saw fit, and he’s always been an inspiration to me.”

 Leigh Gusterson learned to paint in New Jersey and was trained in the Hudson River style of plein air painting. “It was grey and humid a lot of the time, and my paintings reflected that weather.” But things changed when she relocated to Taos and experienced the effect of the light there. Now, Leigh loves to push color when she paints on location at her favorite sites.
Hollyhock Morning 9.25" x 12"
by Leigh Gusterson

“As artists, we train our eyes to see shapes, form and color more intensely,” Leigh said. “I like to share what I see with viewers of my artwork.” Even though Leigh uses non-traditional colors (as in “Hollyhock Morning”), she said that her palette is simple, with just 12-14 colors. “I can make anything I want with these colors,” she explains. “And, sometimes, it’s just the awesome New Mexican landscape that displays these amazing colors!” She said the pink cliffs in “Magpie Playground” really exist.


Magpie Playground 17.25" x 21.5"
by Leigh Gusterson

Like Barbara, Leigh enjoys painting scenes of villages nestled in the mountain foothills, with their farms, houses and church. She, too, chooses to wear rose-colored glasses, and infuses some of her work with a sense of whimsy, as in “Drive By Sheep.”

Drive By Sheep 27.5" x 27.5"
by Leigh Gusterson

So, if you’re living in the southwest, take a drive to a favorite spot and look again. You, too, may see some amazing colors you’ve never noticed there before.

Myths, Truth & Western Characters

Thom Ross | Doc Holiday
Doc Holiday 40"x30"
Thom Ross | Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp 40"x30"
Myths and truth are the narratives that run through the distinctive paintings by Thom Ross. In his art, Thom paints famous Western characters in a distinctive way that tells a more complex story than the traditional historical myths we have come to know. “I’m a storyteller who paints,” he says.

Some of Thom's most well know  paintings is his ongoing series of works about the Gunfight at O.K. Corral.  Here is a bit of background on the Gunfight at O.K. Corral from Wikipedia:
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, of the United States and which is generally regarded as the most famous gunfight in the history of the American Old West. The gunfight, believed to have lasted only about thirty seconds, was fought between the outlaw Cowboys Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and his brother Frank McLaury, and the opposing lawmen Virgil Earp and his brothers Morgan and Wyatt Earp, aided by Doc Holliday acting as a temporary deputy of Virgil. Cowboys Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unharmed, but Ike's brother Billy Clanton, along with both McLaurys, were killed. Lawmen Holliday and Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded. Only Wyatt Earp came through the fight unharmed. The fight has come to represent a time in American history when the frontier was open range for outlaws opposed by law enforcement that was spread thin over vast territories, leaving some areas unprotected.

Thom Ross | Clanton Gang Crossing Allen Street
Clanton Gang Crossing Allen Street 18"x18" giclee print

And here are a couple from our image archives.  Some, Thom painted many years ago:

Thom Ross | Gunfight at OK Corral
The Gunfight at OK Corral  oil on canvas 48"x72"  2009

Waiting in the Corral, oil on canvas 48"x48" 2005
Midnight Tombstone Quartet 2005
Billy Clanton, 2001
Virgil Earp, 2001


Tom McLaury is Dead, 2001
Billy Clanton's Last Shot, 2001




It Takes a Collector to Collage!


Collage from Judy Feldman's collection
The other day, when I went into our guest bedroom, I noticed two of my mother’s collage pieces on the wall. She was a painter, but she also loved collage. Aside from several works of art, she also left me bags of her raw materials: colorful papers, some ribbon, a piece of corrugated paper from the inside of a cookie box, a gold envelope, magazine images, and even a pair of old eyeglasses!

According to an essay from the Guggenheim Museum's online art glossary, the glued-on patches that Braque and Picasso added to their canvases offered a new perspective on painting when the patches "collided with the surface plane of the painting." From this perspective, collage examined the relationship between painting and sculpture, and these new works "gave each medium some of the characteristics of the other." The Guggenheim essay also noted that the use of bits of newspaper was a reference to current events, and to popular culture. This juxtaposition of signifiers, "at once serious and tongue-in-cheek," was fundamental to the inspiration behind collage.

Number 3, 10"x10"
by Bill Colt
 
 I googled the word "collage," and found some interesting information from Wikipedia. It said that collage is defined as an art form in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and adhered to a backing. The word collage is from the French word "coller," which means "to glue." This term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.

There are several artists at Wilde Meyer who use collage in their artwork. I spoke with two of them.


Desert Caddy,  24"x30"
by Bill Colt
Bill Colt is following the tradition of Braque and Picasso, using pages from old magazines he finds in antique stores to inspire him

"I have some Colliers magazines from 1947 and Life magazines from 1952," he said. His painting, entitled "Desert Caddy,"has some of those 1952 clippings which he paired with his image of the old Cadillac. He said that he recently "scored" a stock of 1970s TV Guides, so he plans to do a series of muscle cars from that decade.

Pacific, 1943 mixed media 24"x48"
by Bill Colt


Bill is a corporate pilot, and his airplane paintings include pieces of aviation maps, old Pan Am ads and aviation engineering manuals. His collage technique is pretty methodical at first.
Roadmaster mixed media 24"x48"
by Bill Colt

To start, he creates texture on his canvas with joint compound and bits of things like cheesecloth. Then, he collages pieces of his printed materials on the canvas with gel medium. As the creative process takes over, he draws his image in charcoal, and then paints with acrylics, covering some of the collage work. To finish, Bill glazes his painting with a product that deepens and enriches his colors.



Backroad Boys 36"x36"
by Charles Davison

Charles Davison considers himself a multi-media artist. He takes the collage concept even further, using beads, buttons and other items, in addition to paper and fabric, to create his artwork.

Charles has been in Arizona since 1978, but even when he lived in New York, he said he was interested in southwestern themes. He said that his work has evolved from a non-representational style with neutral tones, to his current focus on horses and Native Americans, all painted in bright colors and enhanced with his collage work.

Me-Maw's Quilt 30"x30"
by Charles Davison
 
For example, in "Me-Maw’s Quilt," he uses fabric to create the clothes and the hanging quilt. "Magic Sky" is heavily collaged with pieces of turquoise, buttons and coins. Rusted bottle caps create a frame around this painting.
Magic Sky 28.5"x22.5"
by Charles Davison
Like all multi-media and collage artists, Charles is a collector. He gets his materials from the desert, antique stores and thrift shops. His large, colorful fabric collection inspires him, as do his other found objects. They all enable him to work in multiple layers, adding materials as his paintings evolve.

Jonah's Tale 20"x20"
by Charles Davison
By adding a third dimension to what is normally a two-dimensional art form, multi-media paintings with collage have a tactile, textural quality that is very appealing. I think we react with surprise and wonder when we examine these paintings and see the bits and pieces of things that have been incorporated by the artist.

The Wilde "Wild West"

Why has Western-themed art always been so popular with collectors?

So many of us are interested in the stories of the American “Wild West” and the characters who colored our history there. To me, Western art has a unique duality: the romanticism of traveling through beautiful country on a horse and the tough, grittiness of the cowboys who embrace this life.

At Wilde Meyer Gallery, there are several artists who have brought their own subjective interpretation to the theme of western art. Their styles range from traditional to contemporary, and their subject matter focuses on landscapes, wildlife and the people who follow the western traditions.

"Once He Rode the Wild Horses" acrylic on panel 24"x24"
by Jim Nelson
Jim Nelson
Jim Nelson uses very intense colors, which he says are based on the sacred colors of the Lakota people. He is a descendent of Wendel Phillips, a noted Indian rights advocate of the late 1800’s.

Nelson says, "Through my paintings, I attempt to illustrate the legends and spirituality that was taught to me by my grandmother. The subject matter I paint is not a modern Indian, but a people at a period of time when animal spirits were tied to everyday life. In our modern world, an inquisitive public is reaching back into the ancient times for a simpler way of life and the basics; the sky, the earth and the open prairie." 

In this painting, entitled “Once he Rode the Wild Horses,” Nelson uses red and other primary colors to depict the strength of this noble man. His direct gaze at the viewer is riveting, and Nelson’s use of the American flag design on his clothing and in the buffalo appliqué provide thought-provoking irony. To me, the green spots that dance across his chest create additional energy in the painting.

Paul Sheldon
Paul Sheldon refers to old western photographs to make sure his cowboys’ clothing is accurate. But his paintings are far from traditional!  His strong colors energize his western scenes and give his paintings a contemporary edge.

"Montana Busters" 30"x40"
by Paul Sheldon
"The Ranch Lassie"  33"x36"
by Paul Sheldon

In “Montana Busters,” two figures sit straight on horseback against a flat, stylized mountain background. The grassy plain in the foreground is bright red – a considered choice of subjective color – broken by the long cobalt blue shadow. The turquoise outlines around the cowboys make them appear three dimensional, standing out in front of the background.


"Moonrise Over the Red Wall" acrylic on canvas  31.5" x 41.5"
by Thom Ross
 Thom Ross
Thom Ross is another Wilde Meyer artist who interprets Western art in a personal way.   Thom brings his love of history and story-telling to his paintings, which he sees as a “contemplation of history and the people and events which so shaped it."

In “Moonrise over the Red Wall,” the two cowboys take a tough stance, staring at and assessing the viewer.

The artist’s strong brush strokes; unusual horizon line; and stylized mountains topped by a flat moon sphere definitely get my attention. There’s some very strong masculine energy here, and I expect these guys to come to life and start shooting!

Carolyn Hawley

"It's a Hair Cut and Shave" oil on canvas 24.5" x 28.5"
by Carolyne Hawley
 Carolyn Hawley presents a much more traditional view of the western cowboy.

In “It’s a Hair Cut & Shave,” her subject sits in the center of the painting, astride his horse. He looks like he’s just come from a long trip (his horse looks a little tired..) and he’s contemplating whether he should dismount and get cleaned up at the local barbershop.

Carolyn uses sunlight very effectively to make the cowboy and his beautiful horse stand out against the darker background.

"Beyond the Burros"  oil on canvas 31" x 31"
by Sarah Webber
Sarah Webber
Western wildlife is Sarah Webber’s passion.   Her painterly close-ups of southwestern birds and animals show her love of these creatures, as well as her love of the painting process.

Sarah’s work is figurative, but her strokes creative wonderful patterns. You can see this talent in both “Beyond the Burros” and “Trick or Treat.”

These animals look so interested in the viewer! I think any of Sarah’s paintings would look great hanging near other western art, such as one of Carolyn’s pieces.

Writing this blog has really opened my eyes to the many different styles of American western art. I’m pretty impressed!


"Trick or Treat"  oil on canvas 20"x32"
by Sarah Webber
Wilde Meyer will have a special selection of Western art showing in October,  click here for more information or send us an email.

Figures of the West
October 6, 2011 through November 2, 2011
 Wilde Meyer Gallery, 4142 N. Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ. 480-945-2323.

Animals and Places of the West
October 6, 2011 through November 2, 2011
Colores, 7100 Main Street, Scottsdale, AZ. 480-947-1489

Also, please visit us during Western Artwalk on Thursday October 9, 2011.