RURAL METRO
Near a major city, but living a rural lifestyle, these California collectors have filled their home with Western art.
Our collectors were born and raised in west Los Angeles and spent the first decades of their 52-year marriage in the hustle and bustle of the city. They began to realize that, if it was possible, they wanted to create a more rural lifestyle. One of the ironies of the Southern California metropolis is that rural living is close by. In 1990 they purchased and remodeled a Mexican style home in nearby Malibu Canyon and built facilities for two horses.
“I was an upper-level dressage competitor,” she says. “When I stopped competing I didn’t ride for a year and later became interested in horse camping. I got a Rocky Mountain horse and began to go off on camping excursions with my friends. At about that time we saw Lisa Gordon’s Straight and Narrow, a horse moving from one point to another. I thought ‘That’s where I am in my life!’ Today I can ride right off our property and within a half hour I can be in National Park Service land. I look at a scene along the creeks and streams and up into the mountains and think about how an artist would paint it. I can then ride back and experience what they did in the paintings in our home.”
The couple’s collection reflects their interest in horses and other aspects of life in the West from the landscape to Plains Indian beadwork as well as rodeo buckles from the ’40s and ’50s which she loves to wear.
“When we were first married and needed hard case furniture for our home,” he says, “we looked for early English country oak furniture. We bought it piecemeal when we could afford it. We
took our time and enjoyed acquiring each piece. We’ve had some of the pieces for over 50 years and they integrate well into our collection.”
Their first art purchase was from the first Masters of the American West exhibition at the Autry Museum in 1997. She recalls, “I came around a corner and saw Terri Kelly Moyer’s painting High Desert Bloom of a woman on horseback. I stopped in my tracks and thought, ‘I’ve been there. I know what’s going on emotionally.’ Another time I saw a painting by Mark Maggiori of a horse and rider lurching up the mountain. He had really captured the physicality of the horse. When I met him I told him how much I appreciated that.”
Her husband comments, “The paintings complement how we live in nature. We’ve acquired most of the paintings through museum shows and have bought some through galleries. We haven’t bought because of an artist’s name. We’ve been attracted by what they’ve done. At the big shows, there’s always one piece that grabs you. R.S. Riddick’s paintings speak to both of us because of their color and subject matter, for instance. We try to settle on what both of us like. If we don’t agree, we don’t get it.”
She adds, “We acquire a piece if it speaks to us regardless of the artist’s name. My husband has more technical knowledge and I have the experiential aspect. We combine them and find something we both like. We have a lot of discussion!”
After a number of years as members of the Autry, they joined the Masters Committee headed by John Geraghty who was a co-founder of the exhibition and, before his death in 2015, a frequent contributor to this magazine.
They traveled to the Cowboy Artists of America exhibitions when they were held in Phoenix and frequently attend Prix de West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He recalls one year at the Prix de West when they had decided on the pieces they were interested in and put their names in the draw boxes next to the pieces. “It’s not totally easy to decide, and then you wait for your name to be drawn.” That year their name was drawn for five pieces. “We weren’t prepared to buy that many and finally
decided on paintings by Dennis Doheny and John Moyers.”
Their collection has expanded beyond the art of the West. Traveling through Canada they discovered Inuit stone carvings, eight of which now grace their home. At a show in Pasadena, California, they discovered a rare pot by Juan Quezada, the Mexican potter who, inspired by the shards of ancient Casas Grandes pottery he found near his home, established the now flourishing pottery tradition in Mata Ortiz.
Their children and grandchildren enjoy the relaxed ambiance of their home and the art that contributes to it. In fact, their daughter and her husband have moved into a mid-century house and are starting to collect Western art.
The couple agree that “it’s fun to build a collection around how you live. Collecting anything is fun.”