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




The Storyteller & The Dream Maker

The Dream Maker by Andrea Peterson
What stimulates the artistic mind to pick up a brush and create a painting, or to produce a beautiful object, or, for that matter, to write a compelling novel? Sometimes we see something that triggers our imagination – whether it’s a beautiful landscape, a bowl of perfect fruit, colors that turn us on, or a story that we’ve overheard.

Some artists use many of these stimuli to create their work. Painters can tell the story of what they’ve been thinking about through narrative art. These storytellers don’t use words; they use images and color to inform the viewer.

Ka Fisher’s paintings, which have a lovely, Impressionist style, tell stories about Native Americans – their land and the things they do during their daily lives. She told me that she often visits places like Chinle, Kayenta and Canyon de Chelly for her inspiration. At the Hubbell Trading post, she has taken a “listening tour,” where she overhears conversations among customers.

Escape Plan by Ka Fisher

Billy Blue Hat Rides by Ka Fisher
“I get many ideas from the people I meet and the stories I hear,” Ka said. For example, I heard about animals that tend to get away such as problem sheep. That provided me with the idea for ‘Escape Plan,’  which depicts a woman herder and a border collie keeping watch over sheep that seem to have another idea about where they want to go.”
Boots and Fetish
by Ka Fisher

Another painting, “Come to Say Hello,” was inspired by a moment when Ka was at a ranch in Taos eating donuts and some horses approached her. “I think they wanted a taste,” she said. “That was a moment I remembered and decided to share in this painting.” Although her references are accurate, Ka’s color palette is very imaginative, as you can see in her paintings.

Come to Say Hello by Ka Fisher
Sometimes memories can play a role in narrative painting. In Ka Fisher’s case, she spent her childhood summers in Canada by a river near two Indian villages. The scenes she paints incorporate some of that landscape, along with the Southwest she has adopted as her current home.

Andrea Peterson’s paintings are based on ancient mythology, lost legends and a time when nature was full of mystery. She, too, tells stories about cultures, often referring to eastern traditions and symbolism. Andrea’s paintings seem to be inspired by thoughts of figures wandering through mystical lands.

Phoenix and the Tiger by Andrea Peterson
Field of Piece by Andrea Peterson
For example, in “Phoenix and the Tiger,” she uses popular yin/yang symbols. The white tiger is a rare animal, and a powerful representation of strength, or yang. The girl has the tattoo of the Phoenix bird, a feminine, or yin, symbol of rebirth. Although this painting is highly imaginative, Andrea told me that the background is actually a depiction of an actual Chinese landscape called "Tiger Leaping Gorge."
My Bonnie by Andrea Peterson

In her painting entitled “Field of Piece,” we see a young woman with windblown hair cradling a lamb. The landscape that surrounds her is clearly one of the artist’s imaginations, and we wonder about the story that she is telling us here.

Her newest painting, entitled "Spirit World," is inspired by the annual Chinese lantern festival where many lanterns are released the first full moon of the New Year.

Spirit World celebrates positive relationships between people, ancestors, nature and the higher beings that were believed to be responsible for bringing or returning the light each year,” Andrea said. “The large size of this painting gives the viewer the sense of not just looking at a peaceful scene, but the feeling of being within the painting themselves,” she explained.

Spirit World by Andrea Peterson
As you can see, narrative art depicts subjects that are dear to an artist’s heart. In my next blog post, I’m going to look at paintings by Thom Ross. His stories are all about famous Western characters and the myths that follow them. Should be interesting!

Small Worlds


Interior "Landscapes" That Create Small Worlds

Recently, I had the thrill of opening the May issue of Phoenix Home & Garden and seeing, on P. 132, a beautiful large photo of a recent painting of mine, called “Temptation.” That definitely made my day! The painting will be part of an exhibit at Colores in early May about “Interiors, Objects and Little Worlds.”

Temptation, Judy Feldman
As you can see, it depicts a cozy living room, where the owners are ready to have some tea and cupcakes – unless Cleo gets to them first!

Never Leaving, Diane Barbee
I’ve always been attracted to interior settings, some real, some imagined. I like to paint a place where I’ve enjoyed myself, or create one where I’d like to be. But so have many other painters, including such masters as Matisse, Bonnard and Hockney. Interiors provide a vehicle for self-expression, particularly if you love color, fabrics, still lifes and window scenes.

Several other Wilde Meyer artists share these interests. Diane Barbee uses interior furnishings to express her joy of color and her optimism about life. She, too, likes to create her own world through painting. In “Round Zebra Pillow,” Diane combines images of things she likes: a funky chair and ottoman with a giant zebra skin pillow, paintings of landscapes and a polka dot dress hanging jauntily from a window. In “Never Leaving,” she zeroes in on the chair itself, using fabrics in colorful, complimentary colors. The diverging lines on the chair cushion and the wood floor take our eye to the back wall, where there is more pattern.
Round Zebra Pillow, Diane Barbee
Freshness and surprise are qualities that come to mind when viewing Diane's work. She believes that life should be full of wonder and inspiration. Her philosophy allows her to enjoy a variety of subject matter. Considering herself an expressionist; she uses color to convey that and her subject matter is a vehicle to that end. Diane is an eternal optimist and hopes to bring that optimism to every painting she creates.
My Real Life Big Screen TV, Lori Faye Bock

Lori Faye Bock also has a personalized vision of interiors. In “My Real Life Big Screen TV,” she presents us with a view from a dining table of a fanciful, walled garden. Everything in this painting is interpreted in a whimsical way. The bold colors and the simplified furniture, flowers, vegetables and animals express an endearing wonder. You could say it’s child-like, but I think it’s more sophisticated than that.

Country House, Jacqueline Rochester
The late Jacqueline Rochester expressed her love of interiors in a more tranquil way. Her color palate is softer, and although she does use patterns in some paintings, they do not affect the viewer in the same way as those in Diane’s paintings.

For example, in “The Present,” the patterned tablecloth, scarf and woman’s dress all catch our attention, but they are not the focal point. Our eyes go to the dog and the gift behind him. The angles of the scarf and the wall corner direct us to the focal point. In “Country House,” the pale pink interior is so soothing, beckoning us to come in, rest and bask in the rays from large sunlit windows.

The Present, Jacqueline Rochester

All these artists have their own personal style, but I would say that those of us who love to paint interiors aim to convey a feeling of contentment and joy to our viewers.


Transparent Art

Totem 6 by Tom Philabaum
The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the development of studio art glass in America. To celebrate this milestone and recognize the many talented glass artists, many glass demonstrations, lectures and exhibitions will take place in museums, galleries, art centers, universities, organizations, festivals and other venues across the United States throughout 2012.

Here’s a brief history of the glass art movement, taken from a post from the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Fifty years ago, in 1962, Wisconsin artist Harvey Littleton and glass scientist Dominick Labino introduced glass as a medium for artistic expression in two workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. Littleton and Labino developed small furnaces and a glass formula with a low melting point, making it possible for individual artists to work with glass outside of an industrial setting. In 1963 Littleton taught the first glass-blowing class in an American college at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“This combination of events kick-started the American Studio Glass movement and introduced a generation of trained artists to glass as a medium for individual, creative expression. In other words, glass moved out of the factory and into artists’ studios.”

In Scottsdale, glass artistry by some of Arizona’s finest artists will be featured during the “Glass Act” art walk on Thursday, April 12, from 7-9pm.

At Wilde Meyer’s Colores Gallery, four glass artists will be featured: Tom Philabaum, Sandy Pendelton, Dave Klein and Sue Goldsand

Tom Philabaum is a veteran accomplished glass artist. He built his first glassblowing studio in 1975 in downtown Tucson, and opened a gallery in 1982. Since that time, the Philabaum Glass Gallery has been showing artists from across the country. Tom continues to spearhead the studio of blown glass, and the more current sculptural and site specific art, using a broad array of techniques, including kiln casting, fusing, slumping, and dalle de verre.

 At Wilde Meyer, you can see pieces from his Precarious Rock Series. Some have scavo surfaces, a difficult Venetian glass-blowing technique that results in giving a blown glass object the appearance of an artifact dug-up after centuries. (Scavo means unearthed in Italian.) Others in the series celebrate bright color combinations. The precarious notion comes from the fact that the “rocks” are faceted and laminated in seemingly gravity-defying positions.
Three Heads are Better than Two by Tom Philabaum


Colores also shows paperweights, vessels and disk sculptures made by Tom, such as Teal Egg, Rock Bowl and Large Jade Disk.
Teal Egg
by Tom Philabaum
Jade Disk
by Tom Philabaum
Rock Bowl
by Tom Philabaum

I think that glass artists and collectors are all interested in the effects of different lighting on glass. These changes give glass art life and make it different from two-dimensional work. Sandy Pendleton’s glass pieces have an iridescent quality to them and many textured surfaces that allow light to bounce around. Sandy notes that they change with the light over the course of a day and become more dramatic in the evening. I can see this happening with her “Violet Geology” Bowl and her “Sapphire River” piece.
Violet Geology by Sandy Pendleton

Feather Stone by Sandy Pendleton

After a lifetime of artistic work in other media, Sue Goldsand discovered fused glass and knew she had found her passion. She likes this medium because it allows her to use strong colors and bold designs to depict her charming animal figures.

Each piece has its own personality. “Teets”, her colorful bird, “Blue Standing Dog” and “Cool Green Cat” are examples of her work.

Fused glass cat art by Sue Goldsand
Cool Green Cat by Sue Goldsand

Sue Goldsand, fused glass
Blue Standing Dog by Sue Goldsand
Dave Klein started blowing glass in Prescott with Michael Joplin in 1980. He enjoys the constant challenge of combining techniques to produce unique works. Dave is the director and co-founder of the Sonoran Glass Art Academy. His statement about glass art conveys the excitement of this 50-year-old art form: “It is the dawn of the ‘Glass Age’, glass technology is racing as never before, new techniques, materials and discoveries are literally exploding in the industry. Glass artists can now take advantage of many new materials and techniques to push the industrial and artistic envelope.”
At Wilde Meyer, Dave glass bowls and display plates are beautiful examples of his proficiency in this medium.

Yellow Bowl with Red Threads by Dave Klein


Waterborn #3 by Dave Klein


Rednot by Dave Klein


Who Needs Reality...

What you see isn’t always what you get (in art, that is) . . .  

You Drive Me Cuckoo 30"x30" acrylic on canvas
by Trevor Mikula 
An artist’s "style" often emerges from an interest in a certain subject. But what characterizes his or her paintings is the interpretation of that subject. Is it abstract or figurative? If it’s the latter, does the artist portray realism, or a more personal means of expression? 
The Effects of Diet on Pattern
48"x36" acrylic on panel
by Timothy Chapman

At Wilde Meyer, it’s safe to say that many artists are interested in animals. A visit to the gallery will include sightings of horses, dogs, chimpanzees, zebras and other varieties of fauna. However, not all animals are portrayed in the same way. 

Timothy Chapman’s animals are a unique group. Many of them are floating – and they’re not always birds. Their hides do not have the traditional markings, and some appear to be a newly created species (by Timothy). A sense of wonder as well as humor is the thread that ties his work together.

According to Timothy (who studied biology in college), his paintings owe a lot to his fondness for earlier styles of depicting animals, particularly the copperplate engravings that illustrated Buffon's Natural History, as well as Victorian animal portraiture and old scientific illustration. Since there was no photography at that time, the images are not always correct.

The Antlered Lagomorphs of Western North America
16"x12" acrylic on panel by Timothy Chapman


"I have tried to present similarly earnest, but basically inaccurate, renderings of animals by using humor, irony and surrealistic sensibility that’s not available to the scientist," he said. 

For example, in his painting entitled "Recent Addition to the Genus Equus," we don’t know if it’s a horse or a zebra, but its floral markings are so exotic! Decorative giraffes are another favorite subject. A seemingly tattooed giraffe is reaching for fruit in a beautiful painting he donated for the Arizona Cancer Center auction. In "The Effects of Diet on Pattern," a patterned giraffe appears to float on a trip to another place.  
Recent Additions to the Genus Equus
48"x72" acrylic on canvas by Timothy Chapman


Since Timothy gives himself permission to be creative with his animals, he has painted "The Antlered Lagomorphs of Western North America," depicting four hares with different antler-style head gear. Could this be a new breed, like the Jackalope?

"What I want most is to impart to the viewer a sense of wonder and strangeness that nature photography and video, in spite of their inherent capacity for precision, cannot," Timothy explains.

Animals also are a favorite image for Trevor Mikula. His creatures bear a faint resemblance to their realistic sisters and brothers, but for the most part, they are all fantasy and humor.

Gossip Girls 20"x60" acrylic on canvas
by Trevor Mikula
I often start with an idea for a title, usually a play on words, and then I take off from there," he said.
"Often, my friends give me inspiration for a painting.  I get a lot of ‘Oh, you should do this, and you should do that,’ he explained.

Bulldog 36"x36" acrylic on canvas
by Trevor Mikula

According to Trevor, there is a narrative in his paintings, but he says it’s up to the viewer to create a story. "Gossip Girls" is a good example. Just what are those three birds saying to each other?

He is drawn to "crazy ideas that make me laugh," such as the fierce "Bulldog" with the annoying bird on its head. "You Drive Me Cuckoo" (shown at the top of this post) is definitely open to interpretations, although the gist of it is very clear!

Alice the Camel 13.75" x 13.75" acrylic on canvas
by Trevor Mikula 

Trevor has a youthful, naïf style that is very happy. His colorful images painted with palette knifes always put a big smile on my face. He can take a plain camel, name it Alice and give it a special look that’s far better than reality. Who needs reality, anyway, when you can have art?