Through July 31, Trailside Galleries will present a showcase of works by artist Mike Malm —  new paintings will be available for viewing the latter part of the month.

Though he often paints landscapes, Malm is an avid romantic portraitist.  His softest, most sensitive works often recall Renoir’s reverence for the feminine.  Against rural backgrounds Malm portrays what he feels is one of God’s great creations:  the human figure.   To  Malm, a tilt of the head or tiny hand gesture can communicate universal thought and emotion.

In other words, painting is a calling for this artist, a testimony.   With every work, Malm strives to move his viewers by capturing the infinite subtleties of human nature.

A new showcase of paintings by artist Chris Owen follows, August 1-31 at Trailside.  The gallery says up to ten new works will be on display by the artist, whose work hangs in such collections as the Pearce Western Art Collection in Corsicana, Texas, the National Western Museum in Denver, Colorado, and the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Owen has moved to working with oils full time, and his passion is chronicling cowboy life.  In speaking about his art Owen falls into detailed descriptions of his observations of horses and ranches.

“There is nothing more satisfying to me than to bring a green colt up into a real nice saddle horse that knows how to handle himself and is a pleasure to be around. From the halter breaking and ground work right on up to all of the roping and getting gates and other ranch chores, each step presents its own challenges and the way it’s handled can vary quite a bit depending on the individual horse’s personality,” says the artist.

For information on both shows, contact Trailside’s Dawn Meckam by emailing dawn@trailsidegalleries.com, or phoning  307.733.3186.

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At Heather James Fine Art, Masters of Impressionism and Modern Art brings together exquisite examples of art by Berthe Morisot, Édouard Léon Cortès, Fernand Léger, René Magritte, Claude Monet, and Jackson Pollock among many others.

A highlight of the show, Monet’s Water Lily (c. 1915-1919), gives Jackson art lovers a chance to see one of Monet’s signature works; part of a series that defined the artist’s career.   ”Monet’s distinctive late palette and all of the pictorial tensions unique to the achievements of the artist’s final decades are on display with this prime example from the master Impressionist’s oeuvre,” says the gallery’s James Corona.

Specific works on exhibit include Pablo Picasso’s Buste de Femme Souriante (1901) and Fernand Léger’s La racine noire et fragments d’objets (1943-1950).  

For information: lyndsay@heatherjames.com.