When Georgia Rowswell’s landscape Thunderhead Off Happy Jack Road won Best of Show during last spring’s Cowgirl Up! exhibition at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, the judges described it as “mind-blowing.” That’s a term not often used in museum-speak. Yet, it sums...
James Penfield’s paintings often possess the kinetic energy of a live performance, taking viewers’ eyes on a dynamic journey across canvases that simultaneously feel like abstract compositions and convincingly realistic images of Western wildlife, people, and landscapes. His 2024 painting Minerva, for example, offers dramatic...
Steve Hastings feels driven by some higher power to conceive and create his magically realistic paintings of desert flora backed by the Southwest’s rugged landscape and skies. “If I see a cactus or I’m out on a road trip taking pictures, I might actually hear...
Morgan Irons pays tribute to the timeless spirit of Western women and men in oil-on-linen scenes in the realistic yet romantic style of 19th-century Naturalist artists, including France’s Jean-François Millet and Americans Thomas Cole and Winslow Homer. Her paintings engage viewers with such quietly assured...
Thank the arrival of the digital age for impelling Peter Campbell to become a hands-on expert in oil paintings that portray the grandeur of Western landscapes, most of them crowned by glorious sunrise or sunset skies. “I’m old school, a tinkerer, all about tactile experience,”...
Stephanie Rose’s ethereal oil paintings reimagine the Western landscape as dreamlike scenes existing in a liminal space between realism and abstraction. “I’m more interested in non-visual sensory observation of nature,” she says of paintings that aim to capture more of the feeling of scenes she...
Maia Chávez Larkin simultaneously pays tribute to the past while looking to the future in oil-and-ink paintings of contemporary Western life. She achieves that challenging feat through a self-assured style that combines the restrained elegance of classic early- and mid-20th-century illustrators, the exuberance of greats...
Jesse Littlebird’s joyfully provocative paintings remind some viewers of urban street murals. Still others note the undeniable influence of his Indigenous Southwestern heritage, evident in tribal figures, symbols, and patterns. Those with a taste for subversion might also savor his appropriate approach, championed by 20th-century...
Christy Stallop focuses on depicting Central Texas icons in vivid oil paintings that combine eye-catching realism and good humor. Take, for instance, Feathered Vigilante, from her series featuring the unofficial bird of Austin, where she lives 20 minutes west of downtown. “Grackles are everywhere here,”...
Bob Guelich’s monumental animal bronzes belong to the public, standing ready to be enjoyed and admired at zoos, botanical gardens, art museums, and college campuses nationwide. From a magnificent pride of lions that greets visitors at the San Antonio Zoo, not far from the sculptor’s...