Just in time for fall, Legacy Gallery mounts a two-man show at its newly renovated Canyon Road space. Palette knife painter Douglas Aagard’s rich interpretations of autumn foliage join forces with lifelike wildlife sculptures by Jim Eppler in Nature’s Muse, opening September 9.
Raised in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, now living in rural Utah, Aagard has always been inspired by the outdoors. “You have to be out there looking. That’s the key,” he says, recalling times gathering sheep with his grandfather, hiking, and fishing. “That’s the most fun part of my job, fishing for new subjects,” he laughs. 
Jim Eppler, Raccoon, bronze, ed. of 50, 13 x 22 x 7½”
Perhaps most celebrated for his paintings of aspens in vibrant fall colors, Aagard’s latest body of work also includes ethereal, vertical-format pieces he calls sky paintings. “I like to paint minimally, but I’m not a minimalist,” says Aagard, referencing the “little bit of ground and a whole bunch of sky” in his Twilight series. “It kind of gives you the idea that we’re just down here on this little earth. Compared to the whole sky, we’re just small and the universe is huge,” he says.
“Any of us can take a photo of a place that we fell in love with, but he captures the emotion,” says Legacy Santa Fe’s associate director Cyndi Hall. “By partnering Douglas with Jim Eppler, we feel that Jim does the same in his sculpture. Any one of Jim’s animals, you can take and put into one of Douglas’ paintings.”
“Jim is a Texas guy, tried and true,” says Hall. “He’s a Western renaissance man. That’s what we love about Jim,” she continues, touting the multi-hyphenate’s prowess as a painter, sculptor, and singer. To his list of talents, she adds one more thing, “We call him the raven whisperer.”
Douglas Aagard, Twilight, oil, 35 x 18”
“Ravens are really intelligent and everything from thieves to playful,” says Eppler. Along with a raccoon and a grizzly family, the forthcoming show includes an edition of ravens with turquoise nuggets—thieves with good taste, if you will. “It isn’t just about the anatomy, it’s about the spirit of the animal,” says Hall, pointing to the sculptor’s love of gesture and expression. 
Douglas Aagard, Lazy Afternoon, oil, 18 x 24”
For the storied Canyon Road space, this show continues its transition from Manitou Galleries to the growing Legacy brand. “Manitou is kind of known for their animal sculptors like Eppler, like Paul Rhymer, Liz Wolf…so we didn’t want to lose that,” Hall says. “For this particular show, these are two artists that are traditionally Manitou artists, but we feel fit into the Legacy family really well,” she says, excited to share Aagard and Eppler’s work with new collectors.
In its next chapter, Legacy’s Santa Fe programming will likely reflect a melding of the two galleries’ stables with a continuation of the popular one-painter/one-sculptor show format. “People who buy original art want to surround themselves in beauty, whether it’s three dimensional or two,” Hall says. The warm, lived-in energy of a show with both paintings and sculptures really brings “the best of what the West has to offer.” 
Jim Eppler, Grizzly Family, bronze
Eppler, who has been showing at the Canyon Road space since the 1990s, looks forward to ushering in a new era with Legacy’s Scottsdale artists in the mix. “I’ve followed them and have been fans of some of those guys for a long time, so that’ll be fun having them around,” he says. —
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