Made in Arizona
Mountain Trails Galleries
Arizona artists gather at Mountain Trails Gallery for the month of January to present works of art dedicated to the Grand Canyon State. Artists including Susan Kliewer, Doyle Hostetler, Gregory Stocks, Lisa Danielle, Marcia Molnar and Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, bring their varied themes and styles in paintings and sculpture, to the aptly named show, Made in Arizona.
“Our show is a great opportunity to shine a light on our region and our remarkable artists,” says Julie R. Williams, director of Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona. “Living in Arizona, one realizes there is something about the land, the history, the activities, the wildlife and the people that is intriguing and worth remembering. Our intrepid artists live life immersed in all the unique qualities as well as the everyday activities, and those experiences show up in marvelous ways in their artwork.”
This is true of Molnar from Prescott, Arizona, who spends a lot of time at the Grand Canyon “walking and waiting for something to capture me,” she says. “The things that stick in my head begin my paintings. I take a lot of pictures and then I crop and paste things together to get a composition I love.”
Molnar beautifully captures the essence of Arizona in Enchantment. This stunningly unique oil painting depicts shadowed canyons in the background, with trees and rock composing the foreground, and a deer in the middle, starring off into the distance.
Painter turned sculptor Kliewer from Sedona, Arizona, has a new series of small free-standing bronze pieces depicting Navajo life in the late 1800s. Kliewer hopes to “preserve the customs and lifestyles of the vanishing West…and to show the common thread that underlies all human experience.”
Another bronze artist, Fellows, also finds preservation important. “Portrayal of historic and contemporary Western scenes based on authenticity in detail is extremely important to me,” she explains. “My style allows for
discernment without compromising art.”
Viewers can also expect work such as Descent by Hostetler, featuring a mountain lion working its way down a steep cliff. With his subject matter in wildlife and some Western depictions, “my concentration has been on the dichotomy of the painting,” he explains. “The subject matter is focused and the background neutral, and at times, non-existent.”
For the full month of January, Made in Arizona will be on view at Mountain Trails Gallery in Sedona, Arizona.