Western Art Collector

HIGH-TAILIN’ IT

- By John O’hern

If you’ve ever seen a white-tailed deer running across a field or through the woods, you know what “high-tailin’” means. The underside of their tails is white, which they display when they’re on alert. Cattle curve and raise their tails when they’re on alert as well.

Bill Nebeker began whittling animals when he was growing up in Prescott, Arizona. Today he is a member of the Cowboy Artists of America, an organizati­on that has awarded him gold and silver medals. His father was a rancher and Nebeker has spent nearly 50 years bringing the activities of ranching to life in his sculpture.

The mission of the CAA is “to authentica­lly preserve and perpetuate the culture of Western life in fine art.” Nebeker developed a reverence for this way of life through his father who was a cowboy in Prescott. The fine art aspect of his work began in 1964 when he saw an exhibition of sculptures by George Phippen (1915-1966) who was a co-founder of CAA. Nebeker set to work and when he showed it to Phippen’s widow, she hired him to work with her son to learn bronze casting.

High Tailin’ It depicts a cowpuncher hired to gather wild cattle missed in a roundup. The cattle’s determinat­ion to elude capture is no match for the cowboy’s own determinat­ion. In his sculpture, Nebeker shows the cowboy aiming his lasso first at the cow because if he captures her, he knows the calf will stay nearby.

Horses and cowboys need to rest. Rick Terry portrays this rare moment in his sculpture Trail Break.

For 10 years, Terry was a rancher in Montana. His art career took off when he secured a job in a foundry in Sedona, Arizona, and he graduated from firing his

clay sculptures at a local pottery shop.

Along the way he worked in the oil fields to make money while riding horses and bulls in rodeos. He received a boost from Blaine Gibson (1918-2015), an animator and sculptor for Walt Disney. “It was on Blaine’s recommenda­tion to Disney,” he says, “that I was able to work for many years on sculptures for Disney’s theme parks.”

Trail Break embodies the stylized sleekness of Art Deco and a bit of cubism, characteri­stics that often appear in his sculptures. The cubist leaves and branches of the tree diminish toward the right and the horse faces left, bringing the eye back to the dozing cowboy.

Throughout this special section collectors can explore the talents of other Western sculptors, from bronze artists to wood carvers, crafting three-dimensiona­l representa­tions of Western life.

Bronze sculptor Raymond Gibby is wellknown in the world of Western sculpture, creating both miniatures and larger-than-life figures. “It isn’t hard to find good subject matter since the history of the West is so rich with good stories. This is why I love this genre,” he says. “Creating and collecting this type of art easily takes us away to another time and place when the pursuit of freedom and a

better life motivated incredible actions of grit, bravery and sacrifice.”

Available through agent Pam Eggemeyer is sculptor Michael Hamby’s work Cowboys Day Off. Hamby has a unique combinatio­n of talents he has actively pursued throughout his life—artist, musician, published illustrato­r and retired profession­al football player. Born and raised in Utah, Hamby has always had an appreciati­on for Native American culture, wildlife and the history that shaped the land that surrounded him, which he strives to incorporat­e into his art. “All my intensity and energy goes into my art now. I’ve found what I love to do,” says the artist.

The Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, Texas, holds an exhibition for the whimsical woodcarvin­gs of Gene Zesch, titled Looks

Like We’ll Just Have to Tighten Our Belts Again, running through August 1. Zesch started working as an artist in 1954 and has made a living out of carving caricature figurines of Texas cowboys and cattlemen. His work has been featured in oneman shows at prominent national museums and has been displayed in special exhibits at the Smithsonia­n Institutio­n’s National Portrait Gallery and museums worldwide. The exhibition at the Museum of Western Art will be Zesch’s fifth one-person museum exhibition and will feature more than 50 of his original wood carvings.

Daniel Parker of Daniel Parker

Bronze captures the spirit of the West through his bronzes of cowboys on horseback, Native American figures and various North American beasts. Raised in northweste­rn Montana, Parker is a self-taught artist. His studio is the wilderness and National Parks that surround him. The artist has devoted much of his life to immersing himself in the woods, spending time with and studying each animal in its natural habitat.

Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, represents a range of esteemed Western artists, both historic and contempora­ry. Among the modern-day artists are sculptors

Paul Moore, John Coleman, Scott Rogers and Tim Shinabarge­r, as well as Terry.

Moore is a fifth-generation

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1. Legacy Gallery, Trail Break, bronze, ed. of 10, 13 x 27 x 7", by Rick Terry. 2. Trailside Galleries, High Tailin’ It, bronze, ed. of 30, 27 x 45 x 16", by Bill Nebeker. 3. Raymond Gibby, Big Iron, bronze (still in clay process), ed. of 20, 26 x 9 x 12" 4. Raymond Gibby, Still Standing, bronze, ed. of 20, 25 x 11 x 12"
5. Museum of Western Art, Look, if I’m boring you people, just say so, woodcarvin­g, 7½ x 12½", by Gene Zesch.
4 5 1. Legacy Gallery, Trail Break, bronze, ed. of 10, 13 x 27 x 7", by Rick Terry. 2. Trailside Galleries, High Tailin’ It, bronze, ed. of 30, 27 x 45 x 16", by Bill Nebeker. 3. Raymond Gibby, Big Iron, bronze (still in clay process), ed. of 20, 26 x 9 x 12" 4. Raymond Gibby, Still Standing, bronze, ed. of 20, 25 x 11 x 12" 5. Museum of Western Art, Look, if I’m boring you people, just say so, woodcarvin­g, 7½ x 12½", by Gene Zesch.
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