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Great Art Weekend in Great Falls
Great Falls, Montana is one of those cities you hear about when you are studying the Lewis & Clark expedition and the many travails they experienced along the Missouri River, but you probably would never go there for the weekend. However, it happens to be the final resting place of the great 19th century cowboy painter, Charles Russell and is now the home of the museum bearing his name. The museum invited me to come last weekend to their annual art auction where one of my recent paintings was exhibited and was to be sold.
The End of Summer is Sold at Auction
The End of Summer - egg tempera on panel, 20 x 30", SOLD
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reat Falls, Montana is one of those cities you hear about when you are studying the Lewis & Clark expedition and the many travails they experienced along the Missouri River, but you would probably never go there for the weekend. But it happens to be the final resting place of the great 19th century cowboy painter, Charles Russell and is now the home of the museum bearing his name. I was invited me to come last weekend to their annual art auction where one of my recent paintings was exhibited and was to be sold.
I have been in 47 of the states in the U.S. and Montana is one of the three remaining, so this was a marked occasion for me. Checking this one off my list turned out to be a very enjoyable trip I will never forget.
Last September I was encouraged to enter a painting in the annual show that is held to raise funds for the C.M. Russell Museum. I was quite pleased when my egg tempera piece, The End of Summer, was accepted. After flying out last Thursday, I mingled with the hundreds of artists and guests to preview the show and was overwhelmed at the number of paintings hanging in the museum that represents the tremendous quality of realistic work available from some of the top western artists in the country today. I was humbled to be showing my work among this esteemed group.
Dedicated to Charles M. Russell and other significant Western artists, the museum holds over 3,000 pieces of fine art in its permanent collection in addition to documents, photographs, books, firearms, and collected pieces that represent the old west and Western art. It also includes the artist’s log cabin studio and gallery addition and encompasses 65,000 square feet of space for exhibition and education.
The auction took place Friday and Saturday nights and was well attended with over 500 art collectors ready to buy. I have to admit, I got a rush of nerves when my painting was announced and the young lady walked out on stage holding it up for all to see. The bidding was brisk and the auctioneer was animated. The price kept going up, and before the auctioneer yelled “sold”, it had reached $5,000. By the time the weekend was over, the museum took in over $6.3 million in sales.
“While selling my painting was my primary purpose for participating in The Russell, I was also there to meet people closely involved in the art world and especially artists whose work is highly valued. ”
Artist Chad Poppleton finishes a painting to be auctioned while interested buyers eagerly watch.
While selling my painting was my primary purpose for participating in The Russell, I was also there to meet many people involved in the world of art and especially artists whose work is highly valued. The city of Great Falls has hosted art shows on this weekend for over 45 years and for this short time, the city seems caught up in western art. Several local hotels empty out guest rooms so that artists can set up and show and buyers come from all over to see and buy great paintings and sculptures. Galleries take over the larger spaces and also display works for sale while cowboy bands blare out the tunes for the many patrons who love the music.
The Russell also hosted an event called "Artists in Action" where potential buyers could watch selected artists finish up a painting, frame it, then offer it in a private auction where 100% of the proceeds would benefit the museum. Famed artist/illustrator C. Michael Dudash, Joe Kronenberg, Jill Soukup, and the very popular Andy Thomas where among the painters who set up easels and chatted while guests sipped complementary beverages at the Meadow Lark Country Club.
C. Michael Dudash
Joe Kronenberg
Jill Soukup
There is no shortage of cowboy boots and hats in Great Falls on a weekend like this. This is western art in its prime. The very affable Chairman of the Board, Christina Blackwell suggested to me however, that the genre should accept a name change to more ably reflect why so many people are attracted to it. “Western Art is not the right name for it,” she said. “Instead it should be called, ‘The Art of Western Living.’”
I really enjoyed being in Great Falls this weekend and even if I do not own a cowboy hat, I think she is right.
To learn more about the C.M. Russell Museum, go to their website. For more about the auction, and to view video by local television station, KRTV go to their website.
Why We Paint
Buck Lake North Shore - oil on panel, 22 x 30"
The creation of beauty is a worthy goal of an artist, whether painter, sculptor, musician or performer. But inevitably the question comes up – "what is beauty?" Isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder and a subjective standard of measurement?
The depiction of beauty used to be the most common characteristic of representational art through each phase in modern history until the birth of impressionism. Is impressionistic art not beautiful? I am not suggesting that. But you can't examine art of the 19th century without examining the development of philosophy that was also engulfing the intellectual world at that time and which was a great influence on art. This change in philosophy, carried largely by existentialism, saw the world as fragmented, and man as a fragmented part of it. Impressionist art became a vehicle to express modern man's view of the fragmentation of truth and life.
Did I interject the word "truth" in this discussion? Can't there be a discussion about art without messing it up with a dissertation on the nature of truth? I don't believe you can. By the time Cezanne had painted "Poplars at Giverney, Sunrise" (1888) modern philosophy had deconstructed truth and so, the natural corollary was the deconstruction of reality. Impressionism was not just a new technique in painting. It expressed a world view. Nature was reduced to basic geometric forms, a fragmented and broken appearance. Certainly impressionistic paintings often depict a vitality and freshness that is appealing, but the fragmentation of reality brought fragmentation to the appearance of man himself.
I am not ready to denounce all impressionism as evil or deleterious to the quality of art. There are many artists who use impressionistic techniques that depict a realistic subject with broken color that, when viewed from any distance looks beautiful. But as the impressionistic movement showed man as a broken and fragmented object, it was soon replaced by the abstract movement that eventually honored anything as art without regard for beauty. The piece of art that was voted the most influential of the 20th century was "Fountain" by Duchamp (1917) where a common porcelain urinal was displayed as art. When you abandoned your belief as to what is beauty in art, and you are guided by an anti-rational, anti-art philosophy, you will accept anything as art.
Without the foundation of truth, art becomes an expression of philosophical abandon, where reality becomes so fragmented that it disappears.
Without the foundation of truth, art becomes an expression of philosophical abandon, where reality becomes so fragmented that it disappears. There is no mistake that the technique in art fits the world view being presented. Where the realism in art of the Renaissance depicted man's hope, the technique of modern art is to depict people who are made to be less than people, and as such, their humanity is lost.
Is art a reflection of the artist's worldview and thus his statement on the nature of truth? In his book Picasso's Picasso, David Duncan sums up Picasso's work this way. "Of course, not one of these pictures was actually a portrait but his prophecy of a ruined world."
So why do we paint? Is it to depict some philosophers statement and thus to infer hidden meaning in our subject?
With the resurgence of classical realism in the painting world, I welcome the exaltation of beauty and would consider it a worthy goal for any painter. And with the depiction of beauty comes a statement confirming the nature of truth – truth that is founded in a realistic worldview. I don't believe we are here by chance and therefore, my work does not depict a fragmented world but one bound together by reason and hope.