Posts Tagged ‘Tetons’
Paul Bransom (1885-1979) -Jackson Hole, Wyo- 13 x 17″ Oil
You think you’ve seen everything, and suddenly a gem crosses your path. This gem is an oldie, but it shines. It’s history, and a wonderful window into our valley’s arts and wilderness tradition. We are a plein air paradise. A few days ago I paid a visit to Astoria Fine Art and visited the collection of plein air paintings of the Tetons currently in house. The collection is not a true show, but viewed together these works afford an excellent “view” of the many ways artists have painted this valley.
For me, the most exciting find was a scene painted by Paul Bransom (1885-1979). Bransom, notes the gallery (and the gallery credits the National Museum of Wildlife Art), “was a prominent early-American illustrator, having completed covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Country Gentleman and Good Housekeeping. Beginning in 1947, Bransom spent 16 summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He met many other artists and illustrators in Jackson, and together they taught classes and started Teton Artists Associated.” Another source says Bransom’s commissions included illustrations for Kipling’s “Just So Stories” and Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows.”
Teton Artists Association, circa 1947, Jackson Hole.
Astoria’s Bart Monson was kind enough to provide an historic photograph of plein air artists painting in the valley; the photo dates circa 1947. The image, from the Archives of American Art, is assumed to be a photograph of Teton Artists Associated members painting en plein air. Phenomenal!
Astoria, says owner Greg Fulton, recently acquired four historical paintings depicting the Teton Range. Those and other contemporary works are available to see; artists include Conrad Schwiering, Scott Christensen, Carol Swinney, Jim Wilcox, romantic landscape painter Linda Tuma Robertson, and more. www.astoriafineart.com
Jason Rich's Winning "Fall Arts Festival" Poster Artwork
“Jackson is one of the top three Western Art Markets: Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Jackson. It’s not quantifiable, but we may even be outpacing Scottsdale for both Western and Contemporary Western art. What other great Western art markets could there be?” ~Astute J.H. Gallery Owner.
Last year’s Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival poster artist Amy Ringholz expanded Fall Arts Festival artist parameters. This year, Legacy Gallery’s Jason Rich has been selected~~his composition falls into the illustration-based genre of painting, a more traditional choice. But I must say I think the work reflects a deep joy and pride Westerners take in being a part of a very specific culture and region: our region. Rich’s light is gold-warm, his painting dimensional, and the way Rich has painted the Tetons, softly but with a strong distant profile, reminds me of the best kind of nurturing mother. Mother Nature. Tenderness and togetherness are expressed. Congratulations, Jason! And congrats to Legacy Gallery, where Rich hangs his artistic hat. www.legacygallery.com
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Dear Erin O’Connor~~How I wish I could accompany you on your painting trip to Morocco! To be as intrepid as you, what a joy! Thank you of thinking of my two bunnies~~~they don’t wear fancy hats for Easter, but they will eat one if the hat’s made of straw.
Jackson plein air painter Erin O’Connor is off to Marrakesh, where she will explore the narrow passages of the old city, Medina, easel on her back. She’s looking forward to “acquainting herself with the local bacteria” and plans on enjoying as much local, spiced fare as possible. She’ll then head off across the Marrakesh Plain, into the High Atlas Mountains. She’ll “4×4″ it, she’ll hike it, and she plans on reaching “remote villages, waterfalls, springs and shrines to saints.” Plein air artist Aaron Schuerr, of Livingston, Montana, will accompany her on part of the trip; this arrangement was made by the Atlas Cultural Foundation. They’ll stay with a local sheik.
Diehl Gallery sends out announcements by the bushel; wisely, they’re letting the public know about artists new to the gallery as we move towards our busy summer season…YES, we are moving towards summer!
Artist Joe Andoe caught my eye. He paints horses (doesn’t he) among other subject matter, but what’s fascinating is his biography. He’s a wild man! He’s lucky to be alive! At least his press materials intimate as much.
New York Times columnist Janet Maslin wrote that Andoe lived a life “straight out of Chuck Palahniuk’s twisted imagination (the dude wrote “Fight Club.“) Mama was a gum-popping cutie. Little Joe was “a big slug of a baby.” Maslin writes Andoe’s mom rarely saw him during his younger years, and Andoe says his only explanation is that he “tried to stay the hell out of the way.” Popeye, the cartoon character, inspired Andoe to draw Popeye-like tattoos on his grandfather, and eventually Andoe became a “cowboy artist”. What an apt addition to Jackson Hole’s arts scene!
NPR’s All Things Considered said Andoe “talks the way he paints–in simple, direct phrases. He’s no horseman. He’s always preferred fast cars and motorcycles.” www.diehlgallery.com
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There’s a cairn in the world!
When children and free-spirited adults come across interactive public art happenings, it’s magic. It is STRONG medicine. Creating art-on-the-spot, coupled with the sense of leaving your own mark, forms indelible positive memories and connection. With luck, this is exactly what will occur when Jackson artist Bronwyn Minton unveils her Open Air Cairn exhibition project in downtown Jackson this summer.
Today’s post is a Jackson art quote quiz…..Fun! Leo d.V. ( NOT from Jackson) might have a quote here, but everyone else is anonymous. Enjoy!
“I guess I feel wildflowers are worthy of sainthood.”
“process, engagement, collaboration, instigation~~This year is marked by unique collaborations which engage me on ambiguous terrain and with conceptual duality. I exploit the magical/practical, which brims with repetition and surprise. And I continue to work as a bricoleur!”
“Art is not being recycled from one house to the other. There’s a place for all of it, but it’s nice to see more confidence in people about buying art, other than what they think they should be buying because they live in Jackson.”
“The colt sketch is so loose, but you know what it is; it’s more ethereal.”
“The only good art is post-referential art!”
“To know what you’re painting, everyone can pick up a tube of paint and squeeze. But to know what you’re squeezing, that takes book learning.”
“If someone innocently pulls into town and parks in the parking lot, needs to use the public facilities, they find my art wrapped
around the building!”
“If I avoid painting the Tetons for fear of their being trite, it would be dishonest.”
“Castellazzo got a piece of all the french roast coffee trucked into town, and he is the main supplier of nudes for life drawing classes.”
“The West is industrialized, it’s not perfect and beautiful…but what is tragic, or could be tragic, you weave that into a beautiful pattern of the landscapes.”
“Very few people know that those flowers were not there the day that painting was done. I know they weren’t there, and I know the reason Bob painted them in. But I can’t tell you, it’s a secret.”
Egrets and the Elephants - Oil - M. Roberson
From the Tetons to the Serengeti–that’s where Altamira Fine Art painter Mary Roberson has been lately. Her new show of works, “From the Tetons to the Serengeti,” opens with an artist’s reception on Thursday, August 16th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. The exhibition remains up through August 28th.
Roberson’s a free spirit, inspired by the “critters” that teach life’s greatest values. She doesn’t want color getting in the way of composition, because nature’s colors cannot be improved upon. Yet, Roberson plays with color. She uses it to emphasize her earthier tones, adding a little music to dusky backgrounds that range from nut-brown to tawny. She knows how to warm up a scene. Take “Egrets and the Elephants,” pictured above. Roberson’s huge, mystical elephants emerge from the recesses into a cloud of orange-golden dust. Shadows, dark points of elephant eyes, and negative space beneath the elephants’ girth all play across the painting; white tusks and egrets accompanying the herd move us around the piece. Despite their great size, these ethereal elephants are like a mirage.
