The Four Amigos
A four-artist retrospective with an emphasis on plein air painting opens December 4 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
United in their love of the outdoors, and capturing what they see in paint, four artists are coming together for a unique new retrospective exhibition December 4 at Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The exhibition, titled Four Directions – Common Paths, will feature the work of Ralph Oberg, Matt Smith, Skip Whitcomb and Dan Young.
“The Steamboat Art Museum is honored to present Four Directions – Common Paths:
Oberg, Smith, Whitcomb, Young bringing together the work of these four preeminent plein air painters of the West,” says Betse Grassby, executive director at Steamboat Art Museum. “This exhibition demonstrates the wonderful synergistic impact of their 30-year relationships—a story of kinship, adventure and cross-pollination to become their best. We look forward to sharing this experience.”
The artists, dubbed the “Four Amigos” by Booth Western Art Museum executive director
Seth Hopkins, started intersecting in each other’s lives as far back as 30 years ago. Some would show in galleries together, others would take trips, but they would often reconvene out of a mutual admiration for each other’s works. “Above all, we have maintained a warm and enjoyable relationship over these years,” Whitcomb says. “I would like to think we all have grown as painters because of our friendship and deep love of what we do. Basically I consider these guys three of my best friends.”
Young adds, “We have traveled together on countless paint trips from the East Coast to the West Coast and from the northern border to the southern border,” he says. “Time spent with this group is not only important for the kindred spirt we share, but also the support in this crazy business. Yes, we are known to have a few laughs and possibly a glass of wine, but when the easels go up, we go to work. It’s so important to spend time with people you really connect with. These guys are my people.”
The works in the show will include older pieces, as well as new works created specifically for Steamboat Art Museum. For Young, the retrospective works presented unique opportunities to thank his supporters. “…One of the pieces is from a collector that has been supporting me for years and started buying my work very early in my career. I wanted to thank him by including one of the pieces he bought years ago that has always been special to him. Quite a few of the smaller field pieces are in my private collection. I was excited to be able to display them in public and the opportunity to do it in a museum setting was even better,” he says. “Many of these I have had for years and I feel are some of my best work. I hope this show allows people to get a peek into
my world. Hopefully it will also show the connection the four of us have to the West and our different perspectives on it.”
For Whitcomb, he wanted to choose works that would show his growth as an artist. “I have tried to select a cross section of work from approximately the last 30 to 35 years that will show a refinement of process and thinking. And, of course, to represent some of our locations we have traveled to on our painting trips together so the viewers will have a sense of observing a common subject filtered through four sets of eyes,” he says. “I’m a Western geographic painter—this country is in my DNA. In recent years, I find my focus is increasingly on the geology and weather of this country I love. My hope is the visitors to our show will connect to the work in ways they maybe had not considered, [and] take away a new way of seeing and enjoying what we have here…even just a little bit.”
The exhibition will also shine a bright spotlight on plein air painting of the highest quality. “I have found that painting from life is