In 2017, humanitarian and visionary Joan Agajanian Quinn received the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is presented to U.S. citizens who exemplify American values while distinguishing themselves in their ethnic group. The Los Angeles affiliate of the Armenian International Women’s Association honored Quinn...
Ahh… Monterey County, home of the Lone Cypress tree, aquamarine surf, and perennially happy sea otters. Visitors relish the sublime essence of this central California region, an agricultural basket that boasts fields and farm stands burgeoning with artichokes, strawberries, and apples. In addition to savoring...
Watching your house take shape from foundation to fully furnished can be an informative experience. In Laura Umansky’s case, it sparked a lifetime passion for design. “I watched my father design and build our childhood homes [in Texas],” the founder and CEO of Laura U Design...
Western art shows and sales in early spring were infused with a celebratory atmosphere as organizers, artists, and buyers in some cases gathered in person for the first time in many months. With Covid-19 safety practices in place, online platforms also remained available for those...
In 1987, Kevin Macpherson joined a group of artists who became known as the Plein Air Painters of America. Under the auspices of the Catalina Art Association, they painted as the Impressionists did: outdoors and from life. Serving as the organization’s first president in 1996,...
David Phelps sculpts mostly larger-than-life yet realistic bronzes of humans and animals that often seem to rise up from or sink below the surfaces on which they’re displayed. He traces such distinctive works back to his boyhood on the farm his grandfather first settled in...
Rebecca Haines resolutely resists the labels many people feel inclined to attach to an artist’s work. One glance at her dreamlike, colorful, and boldly delineated images of wild creatures, drawn in oil sticks on wood panels, gives a good sense of why. “I resist the...
One day last autumn, Jim Bortz was fly fishing on the Shoshone River near his home in Cody, Wyoming. “I got so wrapped up in it,” he recalls, “that I suddenly looked up, and there was a grizzly standing on the opposite bank. He started...
Judith Brunko conveys deeply felt connections to the Native American dancers and other traditionally clad figures she captures with spirited verisimilitude through oil paintings created in a style she describes as “contemporary impressionism, rendered accurately but painted loosely.” Her 2020 work The Protector, for example,...
Robin Cole enthusiastically declares herself “primarily an oil painter now,” but she quickly adds that all her work continues to be “very much informed by my original love affair with drawing.” Both elements come dynamically into play in recent works the artist describes as “vignettes...