Ralph Oberg, Western Wilderness Show Preview, Western Art Collector, July 2015

INSIDE Coeur d’Alene Art Auction • SoA: Wyoming • Terri Kelly Moyers • Sculpture JULY 2015

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UPCOMING SHOW

S HOW LO C AT ION JAC K S ON HOL E , W Y

Up to 10 works July 1-31, 2015 Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway Jackson Hole, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186

RALPH OBERG

Western wilderness

P

ainter Ralph Oberg keeps his options wide open when he works. “You have to be fluid and flexible,” he says. “There’s a part in your head that is trying to generalize the effects of light and composition. Much of that has to be experimental and trial and error.

Sometimes it leads you, and sometimes you have to allow yourself to be led.”

Oberg—whose new exhibition, Ralph Oberg’s Western Wilderness, opens July 1 at Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming— says he has spent, and continues to spend, a great deal of time out in nature experiencing its wealth of inspiration firsthand. It’s that rich experience that has paved the way for his unique style of wildlife and nature painting.

“I’m 65, and I’ve traveled quite a bit through the mountains of the West…as a backpacker, hiker and horseback rider and

on bush planes. I’ve seen and photographed an awful lot, and I’m continuously surprised where ideas for paintings come from,” he says. “But once the idea congeals, sometimes unexpectedly, and I get to block it out on the canvas, that is the most exciting part. I also enjoy the events and problems that stand in the way. A painting presents the artist with questions, and the artist has to answer those questions. Sometimes you have to stand back and really think about it, but those answers always provide joyful moments.”

In Oberg’s new exhibition, he focuses on what he knows best: peaceful views of nature and quiet moments involving wildlife. Works in the show include the deer piece The Prince and the winter scene Starlight Starbright, with the Northern Lights fluttering like ribbons made of glowing

fabric over a herd of caribou. In Warming Up, he paints a snow-flanked creek, its bend in the terrain shaded by an unseen ridge, and in a small patch of sunlight, a fox soaks in the warmth of the morning light.

These works, and others by Oberg, show his strength with intricate compositions, yet also his deliberately simple design.

“I don’t really paint locations or places I see.

They’re usually all drawn together from many sources. I want it to be natural, and I want it to look and feel right, but I also want to show it how I want to show it,” he says. “Sometimes I’m a stickler for detail, but other times I really allow myself to manipulate the scene how I want it. People sometimes think I’m working from a single source, like a photograph, but that’s rarely the case. For Starlight Starbright, for instance, that is an imaginary location—the whole thing is made up. The arrangements, the tree placement, and even the borealis is my own construction.”

The liberties Oberg takes with his subjects are meant to enhance the truth of the scene, not deviate from it. This can be viewed in Camp Chores, featuring a young cowboy tending to the horses at a forest encampment.

The painting was inspired by Oberg’s time on pack trips with artist Tucker Smith.

“These young, strong men do a lot of work for us older guys. They’re the first ones up and the last ones to bed. We respect their efforts a great deal,” the painter says. “I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors on trips similar to this, and I just love painting things I see or experience. It never gets old.”

Fo r a d i re c t l i n k to t he e x h i b it i n g g a l l e r y g o to w w w. we ste r n a r tc o l le c to r. c o m

Warming Up, oil on linen, 30 x 40"

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The Prince, oil, 18 x 26"

Camp Chores, oil, 27 x 36"

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