50th annual Mountain Oyster Club Contemporary Western Art Show and Sale
Tucson, AZ
Fifty years ago the Mountain Oyster Club of Tucson, Arizona, launched its Contemporary Western Art Show and Sale as a way to promote sculpture and paintings that show the life and lands of the West. The one-day event spotlights new work by more than 200 emerging and nationally recognized artists at the organization’s home of Pond Mansion. For 2019, the show and sale will take place November 24 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. During that time, art collectors and artists can enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as well as have the opportunity to view and purchase works.
Participating in the show are artists such as Sue Krzyston, Bill Nebeker, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, Tom Dorr, Darcie Peet, Raymond Gibby and Howard Post.
Post, who has been an Honorary Artist Member since 2010, will exhibit his work Vintage, which depicts a wooden pen on a ranch. He says, “I’m a sucker for old working pens. I mean the old kind made of wood. The kind I grew up repairing at my dad’s place. Of course, now my own pens are made out of steel just like most people, but I still love the look of the ‘vintage’ corrals.”
Peet’s painting Mirrored in Aqua, Lake Louise was inspired by a scene she saw after a storm brought low clouds to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. “Not to be discouraged we continued our drive higher from the valley floor to Lake Louise, realizing we were climbing above the clouds, which soon opened up to a crystal-blue sky day. Our hiking goal that day was first to the Lake Agnes Tea House, then much higher to the Plain of the Six Glaciers Tea House,” Peet explains. “A wide, easy, well-worn trail initially edges Lake Louise so visitors of all ages, even handicap visitors, can get a glimpse of the extraordinary beauty of this valley. Once named Emerald Lake, Lake Louise is also referred to as the ‘Jewel of the Canadian Rockies,’ ‘Diamond in the Wilderness’ and ‘Hiking Capitol of Canada,’ and one can easily see why. Returning
from our day’s long, long hike, the angle of the sun turned the pristine lake’s waters to a milky aqua and turquoise with the massive wall of Mount Victoria subdued in backlighting. Pristine and serene, yet bold and powerful, the Canadian Rockies, especially the Lake Louise and Moraine Lake valleys are an overload of visual stimulation and my favorite to explore and paint.”
The Dynasty, by Gibby, who was named an Honorary Artist Member this year, depicts a mother and her ducklings as a symbol for the maternal relationship that all mothers have with their children. “The mother swims with confidence and experience while her ducklings stay close by her side with varying levels of courage and independence. They all trust her direction, so a few stay huddled close while others watch from a slightly further distance behind,” he says. “One even shows enough courage to vary briefly from the course to do his own thing [by] dunking his head underwater. The manner in which the ducklings follow and trust the mother hen’s direction is very much an allegorical representation of how my own kids follow, grow and gradually become more independent.”
Tickets for the Contemporary Western Art Show and Sale are available for $50 and must be purchased prior to the event.