Painting of the Day, November 27, 2011

By Donna Poulton

W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton (1878 – 1936), The Open Range, 1920s, oil on canvas.  Credit: 1ArtClub.com

W. Herbert  “Buck” Dunton was a successful illustrator working for Scribner’s, Harper’s, and for Zane Grey before settling in Taos and becoming founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. Before his work became more stylized toward the end of his career, Dunton used a softer more impressionistic approach to paint the sun-drenched landscape that surrounded him.

The value range of lights and darks can only be seen on the riders and horses.  There are no shadows because the sun seems to be directly overhead.  The abscence of value is more easily illustrated in this photo-shopped black and white image.

To see more of Herbert Buck Dunton, you might like our prior post on the painting Fall in the Foothills.

Painting of the Day, November 26, 2011

By Donna Poulton

“I say as much as I can about how an animal lives and interacts with its environment and other organisms.” -- Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen

Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen is a Master Member of the Society of Animal Artists. His intricately rendered paintings can be found in natural history and art magazines and although he has received numerous awards for his work, it is noteworthy that biology professors are among his greatest supporters.  

Carel P. Brest van Kempen, Prairie Sentinel—Prairie Rattlesnake, 2002, acrylic on board, 15 x 40 in. Credit: Carel P. Brest van Kempen

Purchase Rigor Vitae at Ken Sanders Bookstore

The Artist’s Studio: Part 1

By Donna Poulton

Even with the familiar smells of turpentine, linseed oil and paint dominating your sense of smell, the artist’s studio can be a mysterious place to visit—an alchemical chamber where elements are mixed, stirred and modeled to become valuable impressions of beauty. Although most studios have high ceilings, towering north facing windows and waxed wooden floors, they can tell a lot about how an artist chooses to work, the props they use and the ambiance they need to be inspired. 

Frederic Remington’s studio at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York. Credit: CarterMuseum.org

Frederic Remington Studio recreated and on view at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center 

Charles Russell Studio. Credit: Carter Museum

Joseph Sharp Studio. Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Joseph Sharp Cabin: The Absarokee Hut, recreated and on view at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Credit: Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Painting of the Day, November 25, 2011

By Donna Poulton

“Emaciated to a degree, my eyes sunken, and clothes all torn into tatters from hunting our animals through the brush.  My hands were in a dreadful state; my fingers were frost-bitten, and split at every joint; and suffering at the same time from diarrhea and symptoms of scurvy…” -- Solomon Nunes Carvalho

Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts.

Natural Obelisks, Steel engraving from the prospectus for John Charles Fremont’s Memoirs of “My Life,” based on a daguerreotype by Solomon Nunes Carvalho.

Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s journal chronicles his ill-fated expedition with John C. Fremont to assess a possible route for the transcontinental railroad in 1853. Carvalho was hired as the photographer because he could handle special chemicals that could withstand the obstacles of extreme cold and dampness. Caught by heavy winter storms, the group was reduced to eating the hides and hooves of their pack mules.

Shortly before the group stumbled into Parowan, Utah and were rescued, Carvalho wrote: “The nearer I approached the settlement, the less energy I had at my command…” He had lost a third of his body weight, weighing only 107 pounds, “I was emaciated to a degree, my eyes sunken, and clothes all torn into tatters from hunting our animals through the brush. My hands were in a dreadful state; my fingers were frost-bitten, and split at every joint; and suffering at the same time from diarrhea and symptoms of scurvy…”

Painting of the Day, November 24, 2011

By Donna Poulton

“My paintings reflect my fascination with the beauty found in the interaction between perception, painting, and the natural environment. Beauty is created when a composition achieves a balance within the tension between contrasting forms and stylistic representations.” -- Woody Shepherd 

Credit: Woody Shepherd

Woody Shepherd, Beaver Mountain, 2008, oil and acrylic on hardwood panel, 90 x 80 in.

Woody Shepherd studied at RISD and Yale before accepting a position as Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Woody explains that the formal elements in his work “are manipulated to generate the cerebral activity. Various contrasting transitions and combinations between formal elements such as light and dark, warm and cool, fast and slow, and rough and smooth, directly affect human emotions such as happy and sad, good and evil, anxious and calm, and sarcastic and serious. The array of forms functioning together thoroughly accesses the spectrum of human emotion.”