2013 West Select Handbook

THE

WEST SELECT

2013

FCII

THE

WEST SELECT 2013

THE

WEST SELECT

Bill Anton Prescott, Arizona

T. Allen Lawson Austin, Texas

Cynthia Rigden Kirkland, Arizona

Scott Baxter Scottsdale, Arizona

Richard Loffler Saskatchewan, Canada

Billy Schenck Santa Fe, New Mexico

Arturo Chávez Santa Fe, New Mexico

Merrill Mahaffey Phoenix, Arizona

Bill Shepherd Santa Fe, New Mexico

Len Chmiel Hotchkiss, Colorado

D. LaRue Mahlke * Waco, Texas

Bob “Shoofly” Shufelt Hillsboro, New Mexico

Jay Dusard Douglas, Arizona

Walter Matia Dickerson, Maryland

Gary Ernest Smith Highland, Utah

Josh Elliott Helena, Montana

William Matthews Denver, Colorado

Matt Smith * Scottsdale, Arizona

Gary T. Erbe * Nutley, New Jersey

Ed Mell Phoenix, Arizona

Don Stinson Evergreen, Colorado

Logan Maxwell Hagege * Los Angeles, California

Dean Mitchell Tampa, Florida

Kent Ullberg Corpus Christi, Texas

George Hallmark Meridian, Texas

Dan Ostermiller Loveland, Colorado

Curt Walters Sedona, Arizona

Ann Hanson Shell, Wyoming

Tom Palmore * Edmond, Oklahoma

Benjamin Wu San Francisco, California

Donna Howell-Sickles * Saint Jo, Texas

Robert Peters * Prescott, Arizona

Steve Kestrel Loveland, Colorado

Howard Post Queen Creek, Arizona

* New Artist for 2013

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends:

WEST SELECT 2013

Welcome to Phoenix Art Museum and to The West Select 2013. Since the first visual artists began working in the American West two centuries ago, the west has been a continually changing aspect of American development and culture. Today this is no less true of a statement given demographic shifts, economic development, alternative energy sources, open lands, and traditional agriculture and ranching. The West Select strives to reflect the broad range of the west today and how people see and use the various areas. We are proud to present to you the work of thirty-four very talented artists who capture much of this activity in a most sensitive manner. Since the Museum’s founding in 1959, we have worked to be a leader in art created in the American West.

Begun three years ago, The West Select is intended to be a special sale/ exhibition presented in a museum setting. There are several other superb sales installed in western American focused institutions, but The West Select is presented in a different context here at Phoenix Art Museum. As an exhibition, it is viewed in multiple contexts as it relates to contemporary art and to traditional western American styles and periods. It relates also to multiple mediums, including large scale photography.

The success of this annual sale and exhibition is a result of months of volunteer hours put in by the Museum’s Men’s Arts Council, a large staff team guided by Jerry Smith, Curator of American and Western American Art, and assisted by another one of our support organizations, Western Art Associates. I would like to thank all of these individuals for their dedication to building The West Select into a premier sale and exhibition each year.

Sincerely,

James K. Ballinger The Sybil Harrington Director

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Contents

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WELCOME REMARKS

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PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

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ARTISTS’ BIOS AND IMAGES

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IN MEMORIAM, LOUISA MCELWAIN

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2012 WEST SELECT AWARDS

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KIECKHEFER BEST OF SHOW AWARDS

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2013 SPONSORS

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

2013 Participating Artists

Bill Anton, Cowboy Poetry, 2013. Oil on linen, 18” x 24”.

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William Anton Prescott, Arizona 6

Galleries: Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY

“I do not see myself as a biographer of the “cowboy.” I know some artists feel they are recording a historical portrayal of ranch life today in the American West. But the focus of my work has always been mood and passion. If I’m recording anything, I’m recording how I feel about the West. I want the viewer to feel the drama of atmosphere and the mystery of a western night. I want the volume and portent of a cloud to be evident in the calligraphy of a brush stroke. The pack of the muscle below a horse’s shoulder should be energized by the gestural application of paint.

You see, I love to paint. And I love the American West. I was born in Chicago, but the Sierra Nevada,

Sangre de Cristo, Sawatch, and a hundred other ranges of our Rocky Mountains were the only “Big Shoulders” that ever interested me.

Walking thunderstorms, sunstruck cedars, rimrock, and artfully abstract water patterns charge the landscape here with an impossible beauty.

Amidst this nobility is its caretaker: the rancher. With the natural ease of generations bred to the saddle, he is a powerful image, further ennobled by a fine horse. An artist under the spell of the west has the privilege of marshaling the virtues of landscape, figure and equine painting into one supremely paintable subject: the American cowboy.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Bill Anton, Cowboy Poetry, 2013. Oil on linen, 18” x 24”.

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Scott Baxter

Scottsdale, Arizona 8

Galleries: Cattle Track Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

Scott has been a professional photographer for over 25 years.

Some of his commercial and editorial clients include American Cowboy, Arizona Highways, Arizona Public Service, AQHA, MSN.com, Calistoga Ranch, the New York Times, Men’s Journal, The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Cowboys and Indians, Grand Canyon University, and Wyndham Hotels.

His fine art photography work has been exhibited in Phoenix Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Museum. His work is in the permanent collections of the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Museum, the Scottsdale Public Art Program, Arizona Public Service, and National Bank of Arizona, and in numerous private collections.

Scott also recently completed 100 Years 100 Ranchers, a tenyear official Legacy Project for the Arizona Centennial. This compilation

of compelling large format blackand-white photographs depicting many of Arizona’s longest-active ranchers, 100 Years 100 Ranchers, has been featured in exhibits and presentations across the state.

Arizona Highways editor Robert Stieve described the project as “the best photographs ever made of ranchers in Arizona” with “a historical importance that doesn’t exist anywhere else. 100 Years 100 Ranchers isn’t just a series of artful and captivating black and whites, it’s a permanent record of a way of life – a disappearing way of life – that has deep roots in our state.”

Scott’s stark image of Rancher, Sam Udall, entitled First Snow, was featured on the December 2011 Cover of Arizona Highways – 50 Greatest Photos.

Scott lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he lives and works out of the Historic Cattle Track Arts Compound.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Scott T. Baxter, Nihinaa aadà hozò (There is Beauty all Around Us), 2013. Photography, 38” x 25.5”. ` `

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Arturo Chávez Santa Fe, New Mexico 10

Galleries: Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Mountain Trails Gallery, Sedona, AZ

Awards: 2011 Western Art Associates Museum Purchase

Arturo Chávez was born in 1949 near Taos and raised in New Mexico. Chávez turned to art as a full-time career in 1980. International recognition includes exhibitions in the US embassies in Moscow, Croatia, and Guyana and as part of the permanent collections of the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the Bernalillo County Courthouse, the Santa Fe Capitol Collection, the Taos National Guard, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Eiteljorg Museum, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, Phoenix Art Museum, and the Booth Museum of Western Art. Corporate and professional collections include The Peabody Energy Corporation, Ebner International, Fuji Electric Japan,

and the permanent collection of Burlington Northern Railway.

Chávez is a featured artist in the Emmy nominated PBS documentary, Landscapes of Enchantment, produced for Public Television.

A trained classic guitarist, Chávez studied concert classical guitar and music at the University of New Mexico and was a mission pilot for the Civil Air Patrol, which is the civilian branch of the US Air Force.

Chávez uses a combination of onlocation studies and compositional drawings to arrive at a finished painting.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Arturo Chávez, Raven’s View, 2013. Oil on linen on panel, 48” x 48”.

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Len Chmiel

Hotchkiss, Colorado 12

Galleries: Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV www.lenchmiel.com

There is an intimacy and honesty about the subjects oil painter Len Chmiel chooses, as if each painting was an expression of himself. He explains that he has a pretty good idea of who he is at this point in his life. “I used to try to control everything, but now I allow my intuition to speak more. I try to stretch the truth of what the actual image is. I do paintings with recognizable subjects because I’m inspired by what I see, however, that is not my only intention.”

Chmiel works outdoors a great deal, taking trips to England, Scotland, Europe, Mexico, Guatemala and Uruguay, and as far away as Nepal and Thailand, and as close to home as his own backyard. He is fond of the Western US where he often fits in hunting excursions with his painting trips. When he returns to his studio, his small on-the-spot paintings often serve as the genesis for Chmiel’s larger compositions.

Chmiel maintains a truly open minded view of art. “What’s my

definition of an artist? An artist has an opinion. If there’s no self, then there is no art. Look at Richard Diebenkorn or Gustav Klimt; they were excellent designers, they were all excellent technicians, very skillful, but they didn’t let that skill hinder their expression. Art is when you go beyond being a good craftsman and interject yourself. Conversely, you don’t have to be a great technician to get your viewpoint across. van Gough is an example of that.”

Len Chmiel has had numerous sellout one-man shows, and has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine, Business Week, Western Art Digest, and American Artists Magazine.

His work has also been included in several books and his paintings have been collected by museums and major corporations across the United States, and can be seen in such prestigious shows as the Prix de West Invitational and now, The West Select.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Len Chmiel, One More Dawn, 2013. Oil on canvas, 26” x 37”.

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Jay Dusard Douglas, Arizona 14

Galleries: Andrew Smith Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Cattle Track Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ Paul Paletti Gallery, Lexington, KY www.jaydusard.com www.tinysatellitepress.com

Awards: 2011 Gold – Works on Paper 2012 Silver – Works on Paper

Jay Dusard was born in 1937 in St. Louis, MO, and raised on southern Illinois farms. He received a degree in Architecture from the University of Florida in 1961, then spent two years in the US Army. Moving to Arizona 50 years ago, he worked on a cattle ranch on the Sonora border, beginning his long involvement with the ranching culture.

He began photographing in 1966 and is still actively pursuing that art.

He taught photography at Prescott College in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was awarded a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship to make view camera portraits of working cowboys, buckaroos, and vaqueros from Canada to Mexico. 25,000 road miles and visits to some 45 ranches led to the publication of his acclaimed first book, The North American Cowboy: A Portrait.

In 1982, Jay’s new cowboy photographs were shown alongside the annual Cowboy Artists of America exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum. In the years since, he

has become the acknowledged master, in black-and-white, of environmental portraits, landscapes and abstractions. No longer making gelatin silver darkroom photographs, he has concentrated on making monumental-size prints in collaboration with Carlos Mandelaveitia in Scottsdale. A suite of eighteen monumental cowboy portraits and panoramic landscapes was exhibited at the Booth Museum of Western Art. Nine prints ranging in size from 4’ x 5’ to 4’ x 8’ filled the main art gallery at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in 2009.

At the 2011 West Select his 5’ x 6.5’ Abandoned Railroad Coach Car, Rodeo, New Mexico received the Gold Award for Works on Paper.

Image 2 of the edition of 3 is in the permanent collection at Phoenix Art Museum.

Jay and his wife Kathie live near Douglas, AZ, where between trips to photograph and teach workshops, he finds time to punch cows and play jazz cornet.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Jay Dusard, Mule Mountains, 47 Ranch, Arizona, 2012, 2012. Photography, 38” x 48”.

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Josh Elliott Helena, Montana 16

Galleries: Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY A.L. Swanson Gallery, Helena, MT www.joshelliottart.com

Josh Elliott was born in Great Falls, MT in 1973 and now lives with his wife and two daughters in Helena.

He was raised to appreciate art and is a third generation artist. His grandfather studied with Grant Wood and dabbled in all sorts of artistic pursuits. His father, wildlife artist Steve Elliott, gave up a successful career as an ER doctor to become a full-time artist. Josh’s father taught and encouraged him.

Josh learned the importance of painting from his real life experiences and discovered his passion for painting outdoors. He sees his outdoor paintings as a reaction to what is in front of him, and feels they act as exercise to

sharpen his skills. He considers his studio paintings to be a culmination of everything he has learned from painting out, combined with his own artistic interpretation. Josh says, “A good painting, to me, is truth filtered through the artist.”

He participates in many shows including the Prix de West at the National Cowboy Museum, American Masters at Salmagundi Club in New York City, Maynard Dixon Country, and Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum. At the Quest for the West, Josh won the Palette Award in 2008 and the Artist’s Choice Award in 2011. He was awarded the Edith Hamlin Award at Maynard Dixon Country in 2007.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Josh Elliott, Canyon Drift, 2013. Oil on canvas, 36” x 40”.

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Gary Erbe

Nutley, New Jersey 18

Galleries: Godel & Co. Fine Art, New York, NY www.garyerbe.com

Gary T. Erbe was born in 1944 in Union City, NJ. Unable to attend art school, he worked as an engraver from 1965-1970 to support himself and his family, painting in his free time. In 1967, Erbe discovered Trompe l’oeil painting. He then recognized his particular place.

In 1969, Erbe conceived a way of creating paintings that would be more contemporary and a departure from the 19th Century Trompe l’oeil masters. By freeing objects from their natural surroundings via the illusion of levitation and through the juxtaposition of objects that in reality had no relationship, he could create thought-provoking paintings. In the same year, Erbe coined the term “Levitational Realism.” In 1970, Erbe decided to pursue his art full time and began to actively exhibit his work.

Erbe has exhibited extensively with solo exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout America, Asia, and Europe, and has been invited into many important exhibitions including Outward Bound – American Art on the Brink of the 21st Century. His work

was also represented in American Realism, which opened September 2012 at The Beijing World Museum in China and traveled to five museums in China. Erbe has also garnered many awards and honors including an unprecedented 6 Gold Medals at The Allied Artists of America, Inc. Annual Exhibitions held at The National Arts Club in New York City.

He has also received the Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Art from The Butler Institute of American Art, the Salmagundi Club Medal of Honor, the Gold Medal from The National Museum of Sports, a First Prize Award from The National Arts Club, and a Gold Medal of Honor from Audubon Artists.

Erbe’s work combines flat space forms that are exaggerated and enhanced by shadow, light and color.

The result is pure three-dimensional illusion. While there are and will always be elements of Trompe l’oeil in his work, he has less of an interest in fooling the eye in favor of stimulating the mind.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Gary T. Erbe, Annie Oakley: Little Sure Shot, 2012. Oil on canvas, 48” x 60”.

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Logan Maxwell Hagege Los Angeles, California 20

Galleries: Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY Wood River Fine Art, Ketchum, ID Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ John B. Strong Fine Art, Oklahoma City, OK Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Culver City, CA www.loganhagege.com

Logan Maxwell Hagege is an artist from Los Angeles who paints the figure and landscape. Traditionally trained in a local Los Angeles classic atelier program, Hagege’s interests and ability in fine art were evident from the beginning. His studies involved spending more than six hours per day drawing and painting live models. While at the atelier program, Hagege also studied privately with Steve Huston and Joseph Mendez.

Inspiration for his subjects began at an early age when he would visit his grandmother, who lived in the California desert, as well as his extensive travels and extended stays in various landscapes in the American southwest. Hagege’s subjects are contemporary American Indians living in the southwest as well as modern landscapes that are timeless in life and in his works. Logan’s evolution from landscape to figure, and

now a combination of both, was a natural progression in his art that he continues to push to its limits in his own unique style. One idea that drives his work is that evolution in art is never ending. He is constantly challenging himself with new ideas and new ways of looking at the same subject.

Hagege is in the permanent collection of the Booth Western Art Museum, the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Most recently he received the Artist’s Choice award in the Coors Western Art Show 2013 and the Montgomery Frames award at the 2013 Masters of the American West Show at the Autry National Center. Publications include Southwest Art Magazine, Art of the West Magazine, American Art Collector Magazine, and Western Art Collector.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Logan Maxwell Hagege, When it Rains, 2013. Oil on linen, 30” x 30”.

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George Hallmark Meridian, Texas 22

Galleries: Insight Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX Nedra Matteucci Galleries, Santa Fe, NM

Awards: 2011 Silver – Painting

Born and raised in north-central Texas, George Hallmark was an architectural designer and commercial artist before turning to easel painting. Voted the official Texas State Artist in 1988, his work can be found in many prestigious private and corporate collections, including those of Texas Instruments, the Texas Capital, MBNA, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Eiteljorg Museum and the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Hallmark’s work has been featured in Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Southwest Art, and U.S. Art magazines. George is an

annual participant in the Prix de West Exhibition and Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and the American Masters at the Salmagundi Club in New York.

George participates in the Eiteljorg Museum’s Quest for the West show in Indianapolis, where in 2010 he won the Artist of Distinction Award.

Hallmark’s work is also featured in the West Select Show at the Phoenix Art Museum, where in 2011 he won the Silver medal for oil painting. In early 2012, the Briscoe Museum in San Antonio purchased a major painting for their permanent collection.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

George Hallmark, El Lechero, 2013. Oil on linen, 48” x 36”.

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Ann Hanson Shell, Wyoming 24

Galleries: Big Horn Galleries, Cody, WY and Tubac, AZ www.annhanson.com

Ann Hanson captures the heart and soul of the West in her paintings. She wants you to feel like you have been there and can reach out and grab the moment. Hanson paints with oils and pastels and is noted for her very realistic and highly detailed paintings.

“I love capturing the subtleties of day to day life and portraying the small snippets that look into the lives and hearts of my friends and neighbors.”

Ann has been in several national western art shows including Cowgirl Up! at the Desert Caballeros Museum, the Buffalo Bill Art Show where she won the William E. Weiss Purchase award, the Settlers West Miniature Show, the Cheyenne Frontier Days Art Show, the Heart of the West at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the Masters in Miniature Show at the Trailside Gallery, and the West Select at Phoenix Art Museum.

Ann’s work was awarded people’s choice at the 2012 Cheyenne Frontier Days Art Show.

Ann has been featured in Art of the West, Western Horseman, U.S. Art, American Artist, and InformArt magazines. Ann’s painting Sharpshooter was on the cover of Southwest Art Magazine in March 2006 and her work was also featured in the March 2007 edition.

Her work was also featured in the summer 2008 edition of Horses In Art Magazine. Hanson’s painting Cayde and Company was featured on the February 2011 cover of Western Horseman Magazine and the January 2013 cover featured Diamond X Ranch Girls.

In 2009, Ann, along with over 100 artists worldwide of different genres, was invited by George Lucas to create new work inspired by the Star Wars saga. Her work On The Hunt is included in the book released in October 2012, STARWARS Art: Visions.

“I’m having a great time doing what I love. I feel truly blessed.”

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Ann Hanson, Private Conversation, 2013. Oil on panel, 20” x 20”.

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Donna Howell-Sickles Saint Jo, Texas 26

Galleries: Davis & Blevins, The Main Street Gallery, Saint Jo, TX

Donna Howell-Sickles was born in 1949 in Gainesville, Texas, where she was raised on a 900-acre farm.

When Howell-Sickles was entering junior high school, her parents moved the family to New Mexico where she graduated from Lovington High School.

In 1972, she earned her BFA from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. During her junior year at Texas Tech, she acquired an old postcard circa 1935, depicting a cowgirl seated atop a horse. The vintage postcard read, “Greetings from a Real Cowgirl from the Ole Southwest.” Attracted instantly by the charm and confidence of the woman in the image, Howell-Sickles began incorporating the cowgirl figure into her artwork, as well as collecting and researching these old-time cowgirl images. Before long, this cowgirl icon, and all that she could stand for, became the

central theme in the ContemporaryWestern settings of Howell-Sickles’ mixed-media artwork.

Donna Howell-Sickles works on paper and canvas, in a mix of charcoal, pastel and acrylic, most often leaving her under-drawing visible. In the artwork, the cowgirl achieves the status of a heroine, and these images have brought Donna Howell-Sickles national attention, recognition, accolades, and success.

Her work is rich with symbolism and allusions to classical mythology, but the viewer does not need to be familiar with the references in order to appreciate the female affirmations and the joy of life apparent in each piece. With an ageless grace and timeless stories, these cowgirl heroines will live on forever in vibrant colors through Donna HowellSickles’ artwork.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Donna Howell-Sickles, Sky Full of Horses and A Heart Full of Dreams, 2013. Mixed media on paper, 50” x 40”.

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Steve Kestrel Loveland, Colorado 28

Galleries: Altamira Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY American Legacy Gallery, Kansas City, MS Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM J. Williott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA James Graham & Sons, New York, NY Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY The Main Street Gallery, Saint Jo, TX

AWARDS 2011 Gold – Sculpture 2012 Gold – Sculpture

Steve Kestrel grew up in southern New Mexico at the interface of the high desert and Sacramento mountains. This edge of the Chihuahuan Desert is a land of contrasts, in its ecosystems and corresponding flora and fauna. With his family, he raised and trained quarter horses and worked cattle on ranches up through his college years.

Kestrel now resides with his wife Cindi on a 43-acre “wildlife preserve” in Colorado’s Redstone Canyon.

Kestrel was awarded the Prix de West Purchase Award in 2013 for his stone carving Desert Timeline. At the Briscoe Art Museum 2013 Night of Artists Show he was awarded the Purchase Award for his sculpture Desert Solitaire.

Kestrel won the Gold Medal for Sculpture at The West Select at Phoenix Art Museum in 2011 for the stone carving Ripple Effect II. He won another Gold Medal in 2012 for his stone carving Trickster Transformation.

In 2005 and 2008, Kestrel was awarded Best of Show at the Coors

Western Art Show. In 2011 he was celebrated as their featured artist.

William Kerr, founder and trustee of the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA), stated that “Steve’s objects are a never-ending source of surprise to me.... He has the ability to see into the stone and envision a unique object that then, through his artistry, emerges. The intellectual and tactile come together seamlessly in his art.” At the NMWA Western Visions Show, Kestrel won People’s Choice Award in 2007 and the Red Smith Award in 2008.

His work is in the collections of 13 museums, including the National Museum of Wildlife Art (15 pieces), Denver Art Museum, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Eiteljorg Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Woodson Art Museum, Brookgreen Gardens, Brisco Western Art Museum, Leanin’ Tree Museum, and Booth Western Art Museum.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Steve Kestrel, Starlight, Starbright, 2013. Bronze, 6” x 18” x 7”.

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T. Allen Lawson Austin, Texas 30

Galleries: David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, NY Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery, London, England Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY

With an eye for subtle beauty and a dedication to continual study, T. Allen Lawson works and paints in the tradition of earlier representational artists. His paintings and drawings are consistently evolving expressions of the artist and his surroundings.

Tim formally studied portraiture and figure drawing at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut. He has painted and studied throughout the United States and on three continents.

His work is part of the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Portland Museum of Art, the Whitney Gallery of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the Florence Griswold Museum, and the Farnsworth Art Museum.

In 2008, T. Allen Lawson was chosen to create the White House Christmas card. The painting is now a part of the White House permanent art collection.

T. Allen Lawson received the Golden Thunderbird Award for Best of Show at the Maynard Dixon Country art show in 2006. He has also received the Red Smith Memorial Award at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Grant, the Jurors’ Choice Award from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and in 2000 he was the winner of both the Artists’ Choice Award and the William E. Weiss Purchase Award at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Tim and his family usually live in Maine, but this year they are in Austin, Texas.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

T. Allen Lawson, Summer Glade, 2013. Oil on linen, 35” x 25”.

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Richard Loffler

Saskatchewan, Canada 32

Galleries: Astoria Fine Art, Jackson, WY Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO Insight Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ Rowe Gallery, Sedona, AZ Sage Creek Gallery, Santa Fe, NM The Sylvan Gallery, Charleston, SC

Galleries: 2011 Silver – Sculpture 2012 Silver – Sculpture

Richard Loffler grew up on the wide-open Saskatchewan prairies in central Canada. He became a committed outdoorsman as a teenager, absorbing the wonders of the natural world around him.

Two local zoos at Saskatoon and Moose Jaw and another larger zoo in Calgary, Alberta became a retreat for observing animals in close quarters, while the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina, where he began working in 1978, was a haven to study the beautifully prepared natural history dioramas.

“I have been given nature’s theatre to access freely. I find it a necessary tool in the formation of the idea and the finished work. Working from life affords me controlled confidence. No questions go unanswered.”

Loffler is a dedicated family man and an avid outdoorsman. He juggles his time between his fieldwork, his studio work, and Montana foundries.

In 1989, Loffler was accepted into the Society of Animal Artists and

the National Sculpture Society. He continues to show at the Prix de West, where he was chosen for the Robert Lougheed Award in 2002 and the James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award in 2012. Loffler was invited to exhibit at the 2002 Rendezvous Showcase at the Thomas Gilcrease Museum of Art as well as at the Gilcrease Museum in the 2004 and 2012. Presently he has completed a 65’ monumental sculpture, The Buffalo Trail, which is now in front of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. He has also created a 1 and 1/4 life-sized sculpture called OUTLAW for downtown Calgary.

Furthermore, Loffler has taught sculpture classes at the Scottsdale Artists School for 10 years.

“Art is an expression of our innermost thoughts, perceptions, and aspirations. It is an extension of society, the happening of our era and the progress of our time. When balanced with truth, knowledge, and sensitivity, art holds the virtuous vision of the past, an account of the present. and a dream for tomorrow.”

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Richard Loffler, Barnyard Politics, 2012. Bronze, 22” x 65” x 15”

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Merrill Mahaffey Phoenix, Arizona 34

Galleries: Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe, NM Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, Telluride, CO

Born in Albuquerque, Mahaffey grew up in Colorado, completed his formal art education in California and Arizona, and has explored and painted the American west the whole time.

Soon after enrolling at the California College of Arts and Crafts, he realized he would have to play catch-up. The students from California, whose exposure to art, museums and theories about art, far exceeded his own. He took on the challenge, immersing himself in the museums and galleries in this culturally rich region.

After a year, Mahaffey returned to Sacramento State, visiting San Francisco frequently. He considers this period and these places the source for his philosophy as a painter.

Disciplined study and practice of penmanship, straight lines, circles, and the representation of three dimensions on the two-dimensional plane gave him the mastery to merge realism with his modernist spirit. “Why

not do real paintings of real places with these new skills?” he asked.

Now 40 years later, a partial listing of Mahaffey’s collectors includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Denver Art Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

His corporate collector’s include Exxon, Phillips Petroleum, and Phelps Dodge, all entities with intense interest in geology and an everincreasing awareness of the need to respect what is sacred about the land and all of our involvements with it.

Mahaffey’s oeuvre is a link between aesthetic and environmental concerns. He bridges realism with fractal modernism in an everevolving style that reflects the highest standards of craftsmanship, exploration, and invention.

The viewer in search of beauty, intelligence, relevance and originality in both concept and technique will find it all and more in Merrill Mahaffey’s powerful vision.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Merrill Mahaffey, Nankoweap Greeting, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 30”.

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D. LaRue Mahlke Waco, Texas 36

Galleries: InSight Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX M Gallery of Fine Art, Charleston, SC Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts, Mt. Carmel, UT www.dlaruemahlke.com

There is a quiet thoughtfulness and passionate purpose to the work of artist D. LaRue Mahlke.

Her paintings convey a sense of restfulness and peace that reflect the spiritual connection she feels for the landscape. Denise believes that being an artist is a calling that involves preserving, celebrating, and sharing in God’s creation. This sense of having a God-given purpose motivates her to paint from the heart and challenges her to continue to sharpen her skills, understanding, and dedication.

Born in 1957, Mahlke is a native of Texas, currently living in Waco with her husband Ray. Her work has been featured in American Artist, American

Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Pastel Journal, Plein Air Magazine, Southwest Art, and Western Art Collector. She is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America and an Out-of-State-Artist member of the California Art Club.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

D. LaRue Mahlke, Connectivity, 2012. Pastel on hand-prepared surface, 36” x 48”.

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Walter Matia

Dickerson, Maryland 38

Galleries: The Audubon Gallery, Charleston, SC Collectors Covey, Dallas, TX Curlew Castings Studio of Walter Matia Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Meredith Long Company, Houston, TX Russell Fink Gallery, Lorton, VA Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY Paderewski Fine Arts, Beaver Creek, CO www.matia.com

Walter Matia was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned degrees in Biology and Art Design. Upon graduation he worked in the exhibits department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and then served as the Vice President of The Nature Conservancy for Land Management. He is a regular participant in the Society of Animal Artists Exhibitions, Birds in Art Exhibition in Wisconsin, Prix de West Invitational in Oklahoma City, Coors Western Art Show in Denver, and Masters of the American West in Los Angeles. He has received the National Museum of Wildlife Art “Red” Smith Award, the National

Sculpture Society’s Gold and Bronze Medal Awards, the Prix de West James Earle Fraser Award, and the Masters of the American West James R. Parks Trustee Purchase Award.

Walter is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society, a Master Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists, and Master Wildlife Artist of Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Birds in Art. He resides in Dickerson, Maryland with his wife, two children, and two sort of trained Labradors.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Walter Matia, Golden Rule, 2012. Bronze, 29” x 29” x 15”.

39

William Matthews Denver, Colorado 40

Galleries: Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Goodwin Fine Art, Denver, CO Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY

William Matthews was born in 1949 in New York City. He grew up in the Bay Area. He is most well known for his portrayal of the working cowboys from the American west.

The second published monograph, William Matthews: Working the West, Chronicle Books, 2007 is devoted to this subject.

Other areas of interest and work include: Italy (2006), Canyon de Chelly (2005), Scotland: The Highlands & Islands (2003), A Wet Line: Fly Fishing on the Rivers of North America (2002), Land of the Rajput (2001), Fast Horses (1999), Ireland (1997), Heart Land:

Watercolors of the Amish and Mennonite and Shaker Villages (1996), China (1995), The Blue Nile (1993), and Sketches of Spain (1992).

His watercolors are part of numerous private and public collections including Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, Booth Western Art Museum, Buffalo Bill Historical Center and Museum, Denver Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Joslyn Museum, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Phoenix Art Museum, and the Tucson Museum.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

William Matthews, Mr. Harney Hangs Up His Saddle, 2013. Watercolor, 29” x 21”.

41

Ed Mell

Phoenix, Arizona 42

Galleries: Altamira Fine Art, Jackson, WY Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ Overland Gallery, Phoenix, AZ The Owings Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Born in 1942, Ed Mell spent an idyllic childhood in what was then the small western city of Phoenix.

He began drawing at an early age, inspired by the automobiles and futuristic design of the ‘40s and ‘50s. After attending Phoenix Junior College, an interest in advertising and illustration led him to Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

After LA, Ed went to work at Young and Rubicam in NYC and then at Kenyon and Eckhardt. Finding art directing creatively stifling, he moved onto illustration, becoming one of the first airbrush artists to emerge in the ‘60s. His skill in this newly rediscovered medium attracted clients such as Tang and National Lampoon.

After two summers teaching art on the Hopi reservation, Ed decided to return home to Arizona’s Sonoran desert. “Spending months in that beauty right after being in the city was the catalyst that changed my artistic direction.”

Ed’s first works were minimal and angular, while later he moved onto more naturalistic expressions of the Western landscape. Ed still paints in both styles today, and began making bronze sculptures in the ‘80s.

His work is in many corporate and private collections, nationally and internationally.

Several large scale works have also been commissioned, including an 8.5’ tall bucking bronco, a muralesque painting for Kartchner Caverns, and most recently a bronze of a rising phoenix for Phoenix City Hall. In 1996 his life as an artist was chronicled in the book Beyond the Visible Terrain: The Art of Ed Mell.

Regardless of style or medium, Ed is most renowned for his uncanny ability to capture the power of his awesome subjects, whether a brewing desert storm that dwarfs the tallest of mountains, or an animal frozen in violent action.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Ed Mell, Cross Cut, 2013. Oil on linen, 36” x 36”.

43

Dean Mitchell Tampa, Florida 44

Galleries: Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole, WY Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, St. Augustine, FL J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA Korologos Gallery, Balsalt, CO Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ www.DeanMitchellStudio.com

Awards: 2011 Silver – Works on Paper 2012 Gold – Works of Paper 2012 Kieckhefer Best of Show 2012 WAA Museum Purchase

Dean L. Mitchell was born 1957 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and reared in Quincy, Florida. He is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art & Design (BFA, MFA) in Columbus, Ohio. Mitchell is well known for his figurative works, landscapes, and still lifes. In addition to watercolors, he is accomplished in other mediums including egg temperas, oils, and pastels.

Mitchell has been featured in numerous publications that include the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, American Artist, Artists Magazine, Fine Art International, and Art News, and The Art of Watercolour Magazine.

His art can be found in corporate and museum collections across the country, including the Autry National Center, Arkansas Art

Center, Canton Museum of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Margaret Harwell Art Museum, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Beach Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Mississippi Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, and the Library of Congress.

He has received over 400 awards including the T.H. Saunders International Artists in watercolor competition in England, American Watercolor Society Gold and Silver Medal, Allied Artist of American Gold Medal and Oil, Thomas Moran Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York, Art for the Parks $50,000 Grand Prize, Loa Ruth Spring Award from the National Watercolor Society, and The Award of Excellence from the Shanghai Zhujiajiao International Watercolour Biennial Exhibition.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Dean Mitchell, Pima-Maricopa Reservation, 2013. Oil, 24” x 36”.

45

Dan Ostermiller Loveland, Colorado 46

Galleries: Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO Nedra Matteucci Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

The sculpture of Dan Ostermiller is usually given the label “animal sculpture,” however, within that field can be found a wide range of subjects and interpretations. From the barnyard to the vast American Great Plains, from the back porch to the Zambezi Valley, Ostermiller’s animals are studies in elegance and power. They are also depictions of their very essence – the lumbering strength of the grizzly, the feline grace of the cat, or the charming vulnerability of the lop-eared rabbit.

His thorough knowledge of animals, acquired from years of experience with his father Roy Ostermiller, a renowned taxidermist, is the foundation for his work. Like James L. Clark and Carl Akeley, wildlife sculptors who began as taxidermists and curators for the American Museum of Natural History, Ostermiller has built upon this foundation by careful study of animal habits and instincts.

Drawing from his many travels abroad, he creates animal figures

in context with their natural surroundings. In the tradition of the French 19th century animaliers, Ostermiller’s work is true to the subject. Yet, his work has a realism that is not just an accurate rendering of the subject, but a sophisticated combination of line and composition.

His thorough grounding in taxidermy lends authority to his designs. But the technique that evolved out of his knowledge of anatomy gives his work spontaneity, setting it outside the realm of mere duplication of an animal’s image. Infusing each design is personality – a combination of the sculptor’s and the subject’s. This spirit, the feeling the work imparts to the viewer, is the hallmark of an Ostermiller sculpture.

Dan Ostermiller has been a supporter of the arts in his home of Loveland, CO. He has been recognized by his peers through election in the National Sculpture Society and the Society of Animal Artists, and served as President of the National Sculpture Society from 2011-2014.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Dan Ostermiller, Copete, 2013. Bronze, 9.5” x 2.5” x 8.75”.

47

Tom Palmore Edmond, Oklahoma 48

Galleries: Astoria Gallery of Fine Art, Jackson, WY LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM and Scottsdale, AZ

For more than 35 years, Tom Palmore has painted animals with a reverence for his subject and a masterful technical prowess. His ultra-real renderings of animals in oil and acrylic offer a unique and often comical juxtaposition of technical literalism and surreal, imaginative context–questioning the established conventions of photography and painting, especially as evident in the portrait genre.

Palmore’s witty and whimsical portraits take our human instinct toward personifications of animals to an extreme. It’s been said of the artist that he approaches each painting as though it were commissioned by the subject itself.

This inversion of role between artist and subject is perhaps one of the predominant ways the artist achieves the illusionary quality so intrinsic to his work. When asked what his paintings are about, he says, “They’re about other earthlings

that we share this planet with… and about our relationship with them.” Palmore’s paintings have a masterly eloquence that elevates his subjects’ status and renders them in oil and acrylic with the dignity, even personality, suggestive of his view of their full partnership on the earth with humans.

Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Palmore’s education and art training occurred at several institutions, concluding with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1969. His work appears in numerous corporate collections and in such prominent public collections as the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Saint Louis Museum of Art, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Tom Palmore, Majestic Cat, 2013. Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”.

49

Robert Peters Prescott, Arizona 50

Galleries: Astoria Gallery of Fine Art, Jackson, WY LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM and Scottsdale, AZ

Robert Peters is a landscape and still life painter with a career spanning more than 30 years. He regularly contributes to museum exhibitions such as the Prix de West, Masters of the American West, Western Visions, and Quest for the West.

Robert’s paintings have earned serious recognition by collectors.

In 2011 he was the recipient of the Eiteljorg Museum’s Victor Higgins Award, presented to the best body of work exhibited. His works are now included in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections.

Robert is a former award-winning freelance illustrator who was represented in New York City.

Born in upstate New York and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Robert credits his early memories of the Arizona desert with sparking a passion for the outdoors. His extensive travels throughout the American southwest instilled a love for nature. Enthusiasm and respect for the natural world

continues to be the driving force behind his landscape paintings.

Robert’s life in the west included some time in southwestern Colorado where he and his wife Nanette raised paint horses. After spending a few years living on the central California coast, the couple and their two children have moved back home to the Arizona high country near Prescott.

“The western landscape is an endless source of inspiration to me,” Robert says. “I draw strictly from my own observations, which imparts an authentic and natural quality to my paintings. If something is in one of my paintings, I’ve been there and I’ve experienced it.” Publications that have featured Robert’s paintings are Art of the West, Cowboys and Indians, Equine Image, Persimmon Hill, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, Western Horseman, and Wildlife Art.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Robert Peters, Swan Valley Idyll, 2013. Oil on linen, 30” x 40”.

51

Howard Post

Queen Creek, Arizona 52

Galleries: Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe, NM

A third generation Arizonan, Howard Post grew up on a small ranch near Tucson in southern Arizona. He attended the University of Arizona where he completed his BFA and MFA degrees. In the early ‘70s he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for a variety of clients throughout the US. After serving on the faculty at both the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, Post began painting full time.

“Among my favorite are scenes of the contemporary west that I grew up with. These are not the romanticized images we often see pictured. I’ve tried to portray my personalized view of the real west. Even the most ordinary or mundane can be visually exciting if we approach them without a preconceived notion.”

Post’s work can be found in a variety of collections including the Smithsonian, the US Postal Service in Washington, DC, AT&T World Headquarters, United Airlines Headquarters, Standard Oil, Nabisco, and the Forbes Foundation.

Post’s works can also found in a range of Museums including the Midland museum, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Tampa Museum of Art, Mesa Southwest Museum, The Whitney Buffalo Bill Museum of Western Art, Tucson Museum of Art, the Denver Museum of Art, the Eiteljorg Museum, and Phoenix Art Museum.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Howard Post, The Turn In, 2013. Oil on canvas, 30” x 40”.

53

Cynthia Rigden Kirkland, Arizona 54

Galleries: Claggett-Rey, Vail, CO Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY

Cynthia Rigden grew up surrounded by horses and cattle on the ranch which has belonged to her family since 1902. Her roots in Arizona and the west are deep, but she does not consider herself a “western artist;” rather she is an artist who comes from the west. Rigden believes her long association with horses and cattle gives her an edge when portraying them.

She studied art at Arizona State University and attended a summer session in Florence, Italy, studying graphic arts and history. She has shown in the Prix de West for 20 years and is a member of The American Academy of Equine Art. She has been featured in articles in Southwest Art Magazine, Arizona Highways, and Art of the West.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Cynthia Rigden, They Pointed Them North, 2013. Bronze, 16” x 27” x 18”.

55

Billy Schenck

Santa Fe, New Mexico 56

Galleries: Altamira Fine Art, Jackson, WY Larsen Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, NM Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Culver City, CA Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ Sally Hendrickson Fine Art, Denver, CO Schenck Southwest, Santa Fe, NM

Awards: 2012 Silver – Painting

Billy Schenck has been known internationally for 43 years as one of the originators of the contemporary “Pop” western movement. Schenck has had over 100 solo shows and is included in 43 museum collections.

He is an American painter who incorporates techniques from PhotoRealism with a Pop Art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the west.

Career highlights for the artist include the 2013 Utah Museum of Fine Art’s Bierstadt to Warhol: American Indians in the West exhibit, the Denver Art Museum’s Western Horizons, and a retrospective of serigraphs created by Schenck from 1971 through 1996 at the Tucson Museum of Art. Museum collections include the Mesa Southwest Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, Museum of the Southwest in Midland, TX, Albuquerque Fine Arts Museum, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. Private collections include the estate

of Malcolm Forbes, Steve Forbes, Chris Everett, Elaine Horwitch, Louis Meisel, Martina Navritalova, Lawrence Rockefeller, the estate of Fritz Scholder, and Sylvester Stallone.

Corporate collections include American Airlines, I.B.M., Wells Fargo Bank, Hilton Hotels, Sturn Ruger, and The National Bank of Switzerland.

“What has remained constant throughout Schenck’s career is his individuality in dealing with the subject matter of the west. Using the artistic formula of classic western film direction and the photographically reliant systems of contemporary art, he has bridged two genres that resonate with the American experience. From early depictions of cinematic cowboys to real-life cowboys and cowgirls, to poetic reveries about the Native American existence in the Southwest, Schenck melds the real with the imagined, and autobiography with fantasy.”

-Julie Sasse, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Tucson Museum of Art.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Billy Schenck, The Evening Exodus, 2013. Oil on canvas, 30” x 45”.

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Bill Shepherd

Santa Fe, New Mexico 58

Galleries: www.williamshepherdpainter.com

Bill Shepherd was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. After high school he joined the Navy and when his enlistment was up, he enrolled at the University of Wyoming as an Art major. His art career began as a student when he began exhibiting his work at an art gallery in Denver, Colorado. After graduating with his Master of Fine Arts degree he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he now resides.

His early work was landscape painting that focused on streams and rocky streambeds. Bill’s later

work involved still life paintings of Native American objects although he has recently returned to painting streams and rocks.

His paintings can be seen throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Japan. In 2007, he was invited to participate in the Out West exhibit that traveled to the major museums of China.

Bill’s still-lifes can be seen in the current exhibition Common Elegance at the Tucson Museum of Art.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Bill Shepherd, Hoback, 2013. Oil on panel, 38” x 59”.

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Bob “Shoofly” Shufelt Hillsboro, New Mexico 60

Galleries: Legacy Galley, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY The Mountain Oyster Club, Tucson, AZ

Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt is the accomplished exponent of the pencil. His work has gained worldwide recognition saluting drawings as eminent works of art rather than envisionments for greater achievement by other media. A drawing is not only the bare bones of an artist’s craft; it is physical evidence of his insight and perception. Only a master or a fool would expose himself to a medium which compounds and multiplies imperfections and artistic limitations in a most glaring and obvious manner. Photo realism gives way to illusionary techniques and artistic style. Paper and pencil combine to create a range of values which are not achieved in more popular mediums. By removing the distractions of color, Shoofly’s mastery of color values is revealed.

Shoofly’s drawings are celebrations of a dreamer who has allowed his dream to become reality with all

its grit and honesty, yet still finds it endlessly interesting and satisfying – an artist’s vision of cowboys as they can only be around another cowboy, unposed and unselfconscious.

The Shufelts reside on a small ranch in Lake Valley, NM. “At an age when many retire, I’m enjoying “a calm within.” That catch-up-have-to-do scramble that bounced around in my subconscious for decades has subsided. Notions about achievement, reputation, goals, and results have disappeared. I’m satisfied! Even when cowboy’n, the guys I’ve worked with for so many years have commenced to treating me sorta’ tender now that I’m older than most. The longer I work, the more I understand my kinship and response to graphite.

I have no intention to lay down my pencil. If I can keep my hand steady, and find that little hole in the pencil sharpener...I’m good!”

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Bob “Shoofly” Shufelt, High Pockets, 2013. Graphite on paper, 23.3” x 15.5”.

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Gary Ernest Smith Highland, Utah 62

Galleries: Authentique Gallery, St. George, UT Hayden Hays Gallery, Colorado Springs, CO Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe NM Overland Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Trailside Galleries, Jackson Hole, WY

Lauded by critics and collectors alike, the art of Gary Ernest Smith resonates in the mind and memory of contemporary America. Over the past years, the artist’s one-man shows have attracted the attention of collectors from coast to coast.

His three-year exhibit Journey in Search of Lost Images hung in 22 museums and institutes across the United States.

Gary Ernest Smith was born and raised in a relatively isolated farm community 25 miles northeast of Baker City, OR. His interests and intensity for painting began at an early age and progressed

through college degrees, numerous commissions, and awards to a full time pursuit of painting. Although it defies precise classification, the artist considers his style “minimal” and seeks to express the essence and simplicity of each subject. His personal vision reflects a rural life-style that celebrates the values of hard work and self-reliance.

Smith paints at his studio and home nestled in the mountains of the Bull River in Highland, UT. Here he and his wife Judy, a professional musician, live and work amidst fields, gardens, and open spaces.

They have four children.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Gary Ernest Smith, Desert Solitude, 2013. Oil on linen, 20” x 30”.

63

Matt Smith

Scottsdale, Arizona 64

Galleries: Gallery 1261, Denver, CO Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ Whistle Pik Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX

Matt Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1960. At an early age he moved to Arizona. He later moved to Europe where he lived in France for two years and for one year in Switzerland. In subsequent years, Smith painted in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Smith has lived most of his life in Arizona where he has a deep attachment and respect for the Sonoran Desert.

Smith graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting. He spent a vast amount of time studying the traditional styles of such landscape masters as Maynard Dixon, William Herbert Dunton, and Edgar Payne.

Most of the time, Smith can be found painting en plein air from southern Arizona to the Canadian

Rockies. He also paints the California coast to the mountains of Colorado. “I appreciate traditional landscape painting and I am inspired by the pristine landscapes of the American west. I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without seeing the influence of man. When I paint, I feel I’ve hit the mark when I’ve captured a balance between mood, look, and feel.

You know you’ve succeeded when viewers sense the desert heat or the chill of a mountain snowfall.”

Smith currently lives in Arizona with his wife Tracy, who is also a painter.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Matt Smith, A World of Granite, 2013. Oil on canvas, 32” x 20”.

65

Don Stinson

Evergreen, Colorado 66

Galleries: David B Smith, Denver, CO Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Don Stinson is known for panoramic oil paintings that explore the physical and cultural geographies of the west. His work examines the dynamic elemental and creative forces that continue to shape this contested terrain.

Stinson received his B.F.A. from Colorado State University and his M.F.A. from Tufts University/School of Fine Arts in Boston. He was the recipient of Colorado Council on the Arts Director’s Grant and his work is placed in the collections of the Phoenix Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Art in Embassies Program in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has been featured both in extensive solo and group exhibitions in Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas, with prominent showings at The Joslyn Art Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, The Nicolaysen Art Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, and Artist Space in New York. Don’s work has been featured in the New York Times and Time magazine. He lives and works in Evergreen, Colorado.

Stinson is drawn to the elements of earth, air, fire, and water as shaped by human-made structures within the landscape. Painting subjects such as the ice park in Ouray, Colorado, a bonfire on the Black Rock Desert during the Burning Man festival, a wind farm on the Llano Estacado northwest of Abilene, Texas and a wild horse round-up conducted from the air along a highway south of Marfa, Texas, compels Stinson.

Each subject supplies Don with a picture of culture and elemental nature joined together within the west’s sublime landscape. The artist’s vision of this marriage leaves room to imagine that a successful union is within reach, if sometimes residing just beyond our attempts. Don Stinson’s encompassing views reveal much about shared myths of the west, notions of progress, individual creativity, and of our own beautiful, if often deeply flawed, nature.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Don Stinson, I-80 Energy Romance, 2013. Oil on linen, 28” x 64”. Image courtesy of Gerald Peters Gallery.

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Kent Ullberg

Corpus Christi, Texas 68

Galleries: Cavalier Galleries, Greenwich, CT and Nantucket, MA Collectors Covey, Dallas, TX Corpus Christi Art Connection, Corpus Christi, TX Helena Fox Fine Art, Charleston, SC Grapevine Gallery, Oklahoma City, OK Guy Harvey Gallery and Shoppe, George Town, Cayman Islands J. Russell Jinishian Gallery, Fairfield, CT Mustang Fine Art Gallery, Port Aransas, TX Mystic Maritime Gallery, Mystic, CT Paderewski Fine Art, Beaver Creek, CO Pitzer’s Fine Art, Wimberley, TX Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Trailside Galleries, Jackson Hole, WY and Scottsdale, AZ Whistle Pik Galleries, Fredericksburg, TX Wiford Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

A native of Sweden, Kent Ullberg is recognized as one of the world’s foremost wildlife sculptors. He studied at the Swedish University College of Art in Stockholm. He also worked at museums in Germany, the Netherlands, and France.

He was curator at the Botswana National Museum and Gallery and at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He has made his home in the US where he now lives on Padre Island, TX. He also maintains a studio in Loveland, CO. Ullberg is a member of numerous important art organizations that have honored him with many prestigious awards.

He is best known for the monumental works he has executed for museums and municipalities from Stockholm, Sweden to Cape Town, South Africa. His Fort Lauderdale, FL and Omaha, NE installations are the largest wildlife bronze compositions ever done, spanning several city blocks.

Ullberg’s work has been shown and can be found in major museums and corporate headquarters including the National Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, the Salon d’Automne in Paris, the National Gallery in Botswana, the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC, the Exhibition Hall in Beijing, the Guildhall in London, and numerous other museums. His sculptures can also be found in the private collections of world leaders and celebrities. Most recently his work was added to the collection of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, TX. Kent is a major supporter of many wildlife conservation efforts. In 1996 he received the Rungius Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, given to artists, authors, and conservationists who have made significant contributions to the interpretation and conservation of wildlife and its habitat.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Kent Ullberg, Pronghorn Pyramid, 2012. Bronze, 14.5” x 16.5” x 9”.

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Curt Walters Sedona, Arizona 70

Galleries: Claggett/Rey Gallery, Vail, CO Garlands’ Collector Room, Sedona, AZ Nedra Matteucci Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Trailside Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson Hole, WY

Awards: 2011 Gold – Painting 2011 Kieckhefer Best of Show

Curt Walters, whom Art of the West magazine declared the “greatest living Grand Canyon Artist” in 1997, and one of “Eight True Masters” in 2007, today makes his home in Sedona, Arizona.

European subjects and the massive centerpiece painting Niagra Falls.

Following this, Walters received a double win for his painting of Sedona, First Touch of Winter, at the Prix de West show.

Walters has garnered 21 major awards in the last fifteen years, and his work resides in the collections of the Autry Museum, the National Cowboy Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, and the Grand Canyon National Park. Walters won the Best of Show Award in the inaugural West Select Show for Sun-Shadow-Wind which is now held in the permanent collection of the Western Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, AZ.

Walters was honored to share a retrospective show with Veryl Goodnight at the Gilcrease Museum in 2011. At the 2008 Eiteljorg Museum’s Quest for the West, Walters was selected for the Artist of Distinction Award which honored the artist with the 2009 retrospective exhibition called Moments & Monuments.

2013 has been an amazing year for Walters. Starting with his one-man show at Nedra Matteucci’s gallery, Works From my Wishlist, which featured mostly plein aire works of

Walters believes that every great painting starts when the artist directly and personally connects to their subject. For he, it always begins on location...whether that be his backyard or on the other side of the world.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Curt Walters, November’s Trinity, 2013. Oil on canvas, 36” x 36”.

71

Benjamin Wu

San Francisco, California 72

Galleries: Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, CO Jones and Terwilliger Galleries, Carmel, CA

Born in 1961, Benjamin Wu studied art at the Guangzhou Fine Art Institute in China from 1978 to 1985.

Upon completion of the oil painting program in the institute, he became a teacher at the Guangzhou Fine Art Institute. Although he’s honored to receive many compliments for his work, he realized one must learn from the best to be the best. That’s when he decided to further his studies in the United States.

Benjamin Wu pursued his studies in painting and received his MFA degree from Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 1991. Since then, he has worked as a freelance illustrator and has continued to pursue fine art.

Benjamin Wu’s exquisite paintings have garnered many awards in exhibitions and competitions.

ARTISTS WEST SELECT 2013

Benjamin Wu, Sewing Girl, 2013. Oil on canvas, 24” X 18”.

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In Memoriam

Louisa McElwain 74

Louisa McElwain, 1953 - 2013, was a renowned New Mexico painter famous not only for her thickly impasted landscape paintings of the Southwest, but also her larger than life personality and adventurous, joyful soul. She was a passionate, generous, loving friend and mother.

Louisa lived fully with an extraordinary view and zest for life, which was unrivaled and contagious.

Internationally recognized as a master painter, Louisa was a highly creative, intellectual mind, fully immersed in her spirituality, a great humanitarian, a self-sufficient gardener and ranch woman with immense compassion for her animals and the land. Her presence was like the summer storms she painted with such understanding and familiarity – always a welcome and refreshing surprise.

She accurately dubbed herself an “extreme painter.” Her bliss and fulfillment came to her when she was painting. She frequently shared the stories of the power of nature pulsating through her body when she

was one with her environment, and her astonishment of the paintings that resulted.

Although she spent much time alone, she reveled in the company of friends, old and new. Her hunger for new experiences, knowledge, sharing herself and truly knowing others was insatiable. Our hope is that she is in a more exciting and extreme place with a clear view of our vast and unending appreciation of her contribution to our lives. Louisa left a legend.

The intense passion in which Louisa painted crossed over to all areas in her life; she was a bright burning flame that went out at her prime and the peak of her career. Her marks are not only found on her canvases, but on the hearts of each of us that knew her.

Kathrine Erickson, EVOKE Contemporary

2012 — WEST SELECT AWARD WINNERS

2012 Painting

GOLD WEST SELECT 2013

Rolf’s Place Howard Post

SILVER The Water Gatherers Billy Schenck

75

2012 Works on Paper

GOLD 76

Pima Relic Dean Mitchell

SILVER Fenceline and Ridges, Painted Desert, Arizona, 2011 Jay Dusard

2012 — WEST SELECT AWARD WINNERS

2012 Sculpture

GOLD WEST SELECT 2013

Trickster Transformation Steve Kestrel

SILVER Come Get Some Richard Loffler

77

2012 Kieckhefer Best of Show and Western Art Associates Museum Purchase

Kieckhefer Best Of Show Western Art Associates Museum Purchase 78

Pima Relic Dean Mitchell

2012 — WEST SELECT AWARD WINNERS

2011 Kieckhefer Best of Show

2011 WEST SELECT 2013

Sun-Shadow-Wind Curt Walters

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Founded in 1967, MAC’s signature events support the operating costs of Phoenix Art Museum. Since its inception, MAC has contributed more than $9.5 million to Phoenix Art Museum. www.mensartscouncil.com

Imagine a place that will engage your creativity and enhance your education and sense of cultural community.

A place where you can explore a collection of over 17,000 works and experience new exhibitions that are sure to enlighten your soul. Connect with Phoenix Art Museum—it’s a relationship like no other.

© 2013 Phoenix Art Museum.

All Rights Reserved. LEFT to RIGHT: Ed Mell, Sweeping Clouds, 1989. Oil on canvas. 53” h x 53” w. Museum purchase with funds from anonymous donors. Krishna and Radha under an Umbrella, Kangra School, 19th century. Ink and color on paper. 8.375” h x 6.375” w. Gift of George P. Bickford. Robert Henri, The Laundress, 1916. Oil on canvas. 36” h x 29” w. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hirschl.

EXPLORE ENGAGE ENJOY 1625 North Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004 phxart.org | @phxart

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© 2013

david mann

g. HarveY

kYle Polzin

JoHn coleman

Y o u r F i n e A rt S o u rc e F ro m t h e Beginning collector to the connoiSSeur To view additional works, please visit www.legacygallery.com

B ozeman , mT • J ackson H ole , WY • s co TTsdale , az 7178 main sTreeT, scoTTsdale, arizona 85251 • 480 945-1113 W W W . l e g a c Y g a l l e rY . c o m

T r A i L S i D E

g A L L E r i E S

P r E S E N T S

A RT O F T H E NAT I O NA L PA R K S GRAND CANYON EXHiBiTiON AND SALE

n e w wo r k s by:

bruce Aiken

e l i z A b e t h b l Ack

A rt u r o ch Á v e z

l i n dA G l ov e r G o o ch

M At t h e w h i G G i n b ot h A M

Peter holbrook

w i l l i A M s cot t J e n n i n G s

Merrill MAhAffey

to M M u r r Ay

Peter nisbet

dAv e s A n t i l l A n e s

c u rt wA lt e r s Curt Walters, a temple seraphiC, 36 x 36 inChes, Oil

ART OF THE NATIONAL PARKS: Historic Connections Contemporary Interpretations Jean Stern, Susan Hallsten McGarry, Terry Lawson Dunn

In Art of the National Parks, 70 painters and sculptors offer distinctive visions of eight of the nation’s most beloved wild lands: Acadia, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. With more than 450 artworks in 432 pages, this glorious, large-format book is a must for anyone who has hiked the trails, watched a sunset, marveled at buffalo herds, or yearned to experience our nation’s mythic and transforming vistas. It is also an indispensable compendium of artists who are at the forefront of twenty-first-century American landscape and wildlife art. To order the book please call Trailside Galleries at 480-945-7751. $85.00 plus shipping.

N ov e m b e r 4 - 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 | S c o t t S da l e A r t i s t s ’ r e c e P t i o n : s At u r d Ay, n o v e M b e r 9 , 2 0 1 3 f r o M 1 : 0 0 P M - 4 : 0 0 P M

ViEw ADDiTiONAL wOrKS by THiS ArTiST AND OTHErS AT www.TrAiLSiDEgALLEriES.COm

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l AW th At leA D s ™

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Fennemore Craig proudly supports The West Select Sale and Exhibition presented by the Men’s Arts Council (MAC) and the Phoenix Art Museum. Your visions of the West broaden the horizons of our community and showcase the beauty that surrounds us.

To learn more about Fennemore Craig, please contact Rhett Billingsley, Fennemore Craig Attorney and Chairman-Elect of the Men’s Arts Council or Christopher Gooch, Fennemore Craig Attorney and Past President of the Men’s Arts Council, at 602.916.5000 or visit us at FennemoreCraig.com.

ATTORNEYS PHOENIX DENVER L AS V EGAS N OGALES R ENO TUCSON

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In law, as in art, the difference is in the details.

Ryley Carlock & Applewhite is proud to support The West Select.

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Capture it.

Get the inside scoop on things to see and do in Scottsdale!

For free visitor information, call 480-421-1004 or visit ExperienceScottsdale.com.

Scottsdale

Clockwise from the top left: Dan Namingha, R. Tom Gilleon, John Nieto and Glenn Dean

Altamira Fine Art Opening Reception November 7th 7:00-9:00 PM

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Art of our region Art of our past Art of our time

Supporting Western American art at Phoenix Art Museum since 1968. www.waa-phoenix.org

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CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM

3131 East Camelback Road, Suite 415 Phoenix, AZ 85016 P: 602.255.0555 E: mpage@mpmicllc.com Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC

Freeport-McMoRan is pleased to support the Phoenix Art Museum and The West Select Exhibition in connecting people to great art from around the world to enrich their lives and communities.

Wherever we operate, we aim to work in partnership with the community as part of our commitment to transforming tomorrow together.

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Prisma

Northern Trust is proud to be a sponsor of the West Select at the Phoenix Art Museum and the Men’s Arts Council

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Notes

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Proud to be the Primary Media Sponsor of

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WEST SELECT 2013