"When dawn spreads its paintbrush on the plain, spilling purple... ," Sons of the Pioneers theme for TV show "Wagon Train." Dawn on the mythic Santa Fe Trail, New Mexico, looking toward Raton from Cimarron. -- Clarkphoto. A curmudgeon artist's musings melding metaphors and journalism, for readers in more than 150 countries.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Journalism and art...what a treat

I'm covering the Prix de West art weekend at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum today and tomorrow. Two articles for the magazine Persimmon Hill.

I think I'm in heaven, mixing journalism and art. This morning's assignment was covering Dr. Bob Pickering, senior curator of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa and a forensic anthropologist, talking about the art of the bison through the ages.

Did you know that the oldest art in America is from Oklahoma? A lighting slash painted on a 9,000-year-old buffalo skull found at the Cooper kill site in northwest Oklahoma!

And tomorrow I cover Canadian Richard Loffler,  wildlife sculptor. He will be demonstrating sculpting wildlife from life, outdoors, and he's using a live eagle.

By the way, this year's art continues to be magnificent. My favorite is by  Greg Beecham of Wyoming. It's a magnificent 30" by 50" oil on linen of four white wolves at full run through the snow, chasing prey. "The Chase." The wolves are alive. Everybody I saw looking at  the painting said what I did: "Wow!"

And then there are more watercolors than before. I don't use the word awesome. But this is awesome--it fills you with awe and makes you feel good. This is the 37th annual show, and the largest so far, with 356 paintings, drawings a d sculptures from 110 artists.

Go see it.

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