Many years ago, when David A Leffel moved into a studio on Union Square in New York City, the walls were white and the landlord refused to let him repaint them. But white studio walls don’t work for artists who paint from life. Reflected light...
When artist Mark Maggiori attended Académie Julian in Paris, he’d never heard of the Taos Society of Artists. The venerable art organization, founded in 1915, was where Joseph Henry Sharp, Bert G. Phillips, Ernest Blumenschein, Herbert Dunton, Oscar E. Berninghaus, and Eanger Irving Couse, the...
It’s not your average artist who creates a series of paintings that becomes popular, then refuses to sell even one. But Poteet Victory is not your average artist. Of Cherokee and Choctaw ancestry, Victory, named Robert Poteet at birth, was born in Idabel, Oklahoma. His name...
The siding on the building that houses Kevin Red Star’s studio is burnished wood, giving it the look of an old weathered barn. Unassuming. Natural. Two words that could easily apply to Red Star himself, despite his reputation as one of the most highly respected...
Steve Kestrel’s minute-long stroll from his house to the studio on 63 acres in Colorado’s Redstone Canyon, about 15 miles west of Fort Collins, often resembles more of a nature trek than a commute. “I almost always take my field glasses,” he says, the better...
In an area of mostly single-story adobe houses in Taos, New Mexico, Thom “Tex” Wheeler’s home and studio is an architectural anomaly. Visitors drive through an arched entry gate with a weathered wooden sign declaring “Happy Trails,” and they are indeed about to embark on...
Artist William “Lucky” Davis stands by the window in his restored 1920s-era cabin-turned-studio in Paradise Valley, Montana. He’s gazing out at an open meadow that leads to forested land and the Absaroka Mountains in the distance. The sound of running water — riffles from nearby...
An unfortunate event in 1936 turned out to be a boon for a Phoenix, Arizona, artist who wasn’t even born yet when it happened. A grocer renting a neighborhood corner store had plumbing issues, and instead of offering assistance, the landlord told him to “fix...
For half a century, Tom Killion’s Japanese-inspired woodblock and linocut prints have celebrated the wild places of California, from the High Sierra’s rugged peaks and ancient forests to the Pacific coastline’s peaceful beaches and rocky coves. So, in a genuine sense, Killion’s first and foremost...
When the sun rises and a pink and orange sky stretches over the pastures that surround artist Bruce Greene’s ranch in Bosque County, Texas, he’s almost always there to witness it, either on horseback or from the large windows in his studio. “I like to...