While other destinations in the country are still blanketed in snow and ice in February, Arizona awakens for an early spring with gorgeous weather, mild temperatures and clear skies. The element that pops for visitors and Arizonans alike, though, is the color in nature as the desert comes back to life. It’s vivid and radiant, and it spills out of nature like paint from a can. 
Bill Anton, Eye to Eye, oil, 30 x 36"
Legacy Gallery is asking visitors to think of the color with its new show The Painted West, opening February 12 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The group show will feature works from some of the gallery’s biggest Western artists: Bill Anton, G. Russell Case, Glenn Dean, John Moyers, Terri Kelly Moyers, Kyle Polzin, Jason Rich, Matt Smith and Morgan Weistling. Each artist will be presenting five to seven new works apiece. And their work runs the gamut: plein air landscapes and cowboy pictures to Western still lifes and images of Native Americans. 
Terri Kelly Moyers, A Sudden Change, oil on canvas, 24 x 36"
For Anton, an Arizonan himself, he will be showing Eye to Eye, an image of two cowboys having a discussion on horseback as a magnificent wall of rock frames their shapes amid late-afternoon shadows. Anton’s keen sense of light has brought out stunning color, from the brown in the horse to the blue in one of the figure’s shirts. “‘Not all ranching takes place in stirrup-deep grass, especially here in Arizona. Huge pastures needed for grazing mean a variety of topography is ridden, from canyons and creek beds to grass-strewn mesas,” he says. “Late-afternoon light weaving through and around rimrock gilds a couple of cowboys talking over ‘their country.’ As someone once said, ‘A banker is not more at home in his bank than a cowboy is in 100,000 acres.’”
Glenn Dean, The Pathfinder, oil, 30 x 24"
Dean, a California painter who spends a great deal of time in the Southwest, will be offering The Pathfinder, showing a horse and rider pushing through a rocky trail alongside rock formations. The artist has painted the brush and rock with a light touch that reveals the softness of the desert color. “The Pathfinder title came to mind while I was working on the piece as I wanted to give that solitary feel of the rider…like he was alone in his corner of the desert, perhaps exploring a new way, a new path,” Dean says.
“I was inspired by the shape relationship between rider, the monolith and the background cliffs and the subtle shadow from the rock that he is passing through. The painting has an overall pretty high color key but I wanted to use the richer, darker and similar colors in the rider and rock formation to bring them together or to draw a connection between them, as in man’s connection to nature.”
John Moyers, Navajo Blankets, oil on canvas, 40 x 40"
Elsewhere in the sale will be Smith’s North Wash Autumn, a landscape showing iconic desert features at every layer: bleached rocks in the foreground, fall color in the middle of the composition and majestic cliffs in the background. Case, also known for his landscape paintings, will be presenting Fading Fast, which shows evening light raking across the edge of a canyon as several sheepherders gather their flock near the rim. Rich’s huge 48-by-60-inch piece Canyon Whispers could almost take place within Case’s work, as a Native American figure looks up at light and shadow that fill the walls of a box canyon.
Matt Smith, North Wash Autumn, oil, 20 x 24"
Terri Kelly Moyers will be presenting A Sudden Change, showing a Native American figure wrapped in a blanket while on horseback. The figure is painted in front of a cluster of aspens with yellow leaves. “The change from fall to winter is one of my favorite times of the year,” she says. “Hopefully you can imagine the wind coming up and the change in temperature with the leaves blowing off the aspens. In late fall, when the wind blows, the leaves disappear overnight and the temperature can change rapidly.”
Jason Rich, Canyon Whispers, oil, 48 x 60"
Terri’s husband, John Moyers, will be showing Navajo Blankets with its three figures, each wearing a Navajo blanket in a unique design. The Moyers’ fascination in Native American weavings has long been evident in their work and their lives. John paints another blanket in Quiet Time. “This painting is just a simple statement. Sometimes my most successful work involves simple compositions,” he says. “I did this composition in a small format and realized it would make a nice, larger piece. So it was actually done from a color study.”
G. Russell Case, Fading Fast, oil, 24 x 36"
The Painted West opens February 12 and hangs through February 21 in Scottsdale, Arizona. A reception and sale will take place on February 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Upcoming Show
Up to 60 works
February 12-21, 2021
Legacy Gallery
7178 Main Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 945-1113
www.legacygallery.com
Powered by Froala Editor
