Cowboy country
Six artists from the Cowboy Artists of America will join forces for the group exhibition Cowboy Country at Trailside Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming, this February. The show will feature the works of Mikel Donahue, Phil Epp, Bruce Greene, Bill Nebeker, Dustin Payne and Clark Kelley Price, who all have found their own voices within themes of the West through paintings and sculptures.
Greene’s painting Twilight on the Sage depicts a cowboy taking a moment to observe the grandeur of the world around him. In describing the work, Greene says, “Twilight on the Sage was a result of sometime last summer that we spent in the Madison River Valley painting and fly-fishing. I couldn’t help but imagine being horseback in that grand and beautiful expanse.”
Catching the Late Light Home, by Price, is a nocturne scene with a cowboy continuing his trek home into the nighttime hours. “For a rider coming home, the light of a full moon is much appreciated. I know I’ve been mighty grateful for it many time,” Price shares. “You can travel faster and shorten the miles as we see this rider doing with his horse on a high rope. A dark, moonless night makes you love a night like this one all the more.”
Many of Epp’s paintings focus on the scale and openness of the West, which is easily noticed in his painting Western Sky that shows not only the wide-open field but the expansive sky that soars up to the billowing clouds. “When it was time to put paint on the large, 7-by-5-foot canvas, I wanted to maximize the
emptiness of a large Western landscape,” he says of the painting. “Distant horses on a hill contrasted with the large, singular hovering cloud seemed like the best way to make a strong visual impact.”
Other artists in the show, such as Donahue, turn their attention toward daily ranch life. “Spring on the South Rim depicts a cold, raw day preparing to gather bulls on the Babbitt Ranch north of Flagstaff, Arizona,” Donahue explains. “Its boundaries stretch across 700,000 acres of northern Arizona, kissing the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and brushing up against the vast expanse of the Navajo reservation.”
Cowboy Country will run February 11 to 23, with an open house taking place on closing day from 5 to 7 p.m.