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.