Matt Smith rightfully titles his paintings of saguaro cacti in the Arizona desert, Icons of the West. The icons often appear in travel brochures as if they occur throughout the Southwest. From time to time they appear in promotions for New Mexico where they don’t even grow.Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, Icons of the West, oil, 14½ x 16½", by Matt Smith.The habitat of the saguaro is the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico with a few appearing in southeastern California. Their habitat is limited not only by geography but by elevation, growing from sea level to about 4,000 feet. When driving down out of the mountains in Arizona, saguaro begin to appear one by one and soon become a dominant feature of the landscape. Their scientific name is Carnegiea gigantea, honoring the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie whose Carnegie Institution established the Desert Botanical Laboratory in Tucson in 1903.

Susanne Nyberg shows the appearance of the cactus at lower elevations in her painting Catalinas. She was born in Massachusetts and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She lives in Carefree, Arizona, and paints with a palette knife, most often in plein air. She chooses times of day when the light is most dramatic as in Catalinas, in which a low light sweeps across the mountains illuminating the distant cactus and casting the foreground into shadow.Steve Hastings, Two Fingers, oil on canvas, 60 x 48"

Mountain Trails Gallery, Catalinas, oil, 12 x 16", by Susanne Nyberg.

Matt Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but moved to Arizona where he received his BFA degree from Arizona State University. He often paints in plein air in sites far from the madding crowd. He says, “I appreciate traditional landscape painting and I am inspired by the pristine landscapes of the American West. I enjoy working in areas where one can travel for miles without seeing the influence of man.”Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Born by the River, oil, 24 x 48", by Len Chmiel.Steve Hastings was born in Munich, Germany, and received his BFA degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. He now lives in Texas and paints the Southwest landscape. In Two Fingers, ephemeral saguaro blossoms are silhouetted against the formidable and rocky mountains. He writes about painting the landscape “and in particular, its cactus plants. To me, they represent the primal search for survival in a hostile world where conditions are extreme and water is scarce. Survival in the desert requires knowledge of how to avoid the painful needles of the cactus in order to obtain the life-giving water found inside. This was a well-known fact of life to even the ancient dwellers of the desert, but as I age, my attention has turned from just surviving life, to celebrating it and painting the truth that consumes it.”Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Cloudburst, oil, 32 x 35", by Josh Elliott.In the pages of this special section, enjoy landscape works from artists and galleries around the country. The images offer a stunning portrait of the natural lands all around, and even beyond, the West.

At Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles, landscape paintings play a large role within the gallery’s stunning roster of artists, which includes Logan Maxwell Hagege, Brett Allen Johnson, Len Chmiel, Josh Elliott, Danny Galieote and many others. “In my opinion, a painting should look like a painting, whether it’s a human face or the landscapes of the American West. My suggestion to collectors is to find an artist that has a voice and one that paints with a style so unique that you can’t help but revisit it on a daily basis,” says gallery owner and director Beau Alexander. “Don’t look for paintings that make you say, ‘This looks like a photograph.’ Look for paintings that give you that pit-of-the-stomach butterfly feeling. Look at the compositions of a painting, the light and darkness in the colors used (value), look for the brushstrokes that carry purpose. That is the type of art you want in your collection.”Top row: Scottsdale Art Auction, January’s Deposit, oil, 26 x 28”, by T. Allen Lawson. Estimate: $25/35,000;  Scottsdale Art Auction, Mount Moran, oil, 36 x 48”, by Conrad Schwiering (1916-1986). Estimate: $30/40,000;  Broadmoor Galleries, Silver Run, oil, 16 x 19”, by Charles Fritz. Bottom row: Broadmoor Galleries, Packing Near Timberline, oil, 16 x 24”, by Charles Fritz; Broadmoor Galleries, The Answer, oil, 25 x 30”, by Charles Fritz.Several magnificent landscapes will be available at this year’s Scottsdale Art Auction, which takes place on April 14 and 15 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Works in the sale include stunning examples from Sydney Laurence, Edgar Payne, Porfirio Salinas, Clark Hulings, T. Allen Lawson and many others. Ed Mell’s Canyon Flow will be in the sale with estimates of $14,000 to $18,000. “I work from nature, and sometimes I push it a little further,” Mell says. “Seeing the real thing has much more impact than a photographic representation of nature, so in order to duplicate nature, I like to push it a little further and bring back some of the impact that nature has in real life.” Another artist represented in the sale is Conrad Schwiering, who believed in the importance of painting outdoors every day, regardless of weather or conditions. Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Train Mountain, oil, 32 x 32”, by Danny Galieote.

Scottsdale Art Auction, Canyon Flow, oil, 16 x 22”, by Ed Mell. Estimate: $14/18,000

Currently on view at Broadmoor Galleries in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a selection of works by Charles Fritz, who is fond of painting the land and the characters that try to explore it from end to end. “Charles Fritz is directly connected to the historic American West through his work. Beginning in 2003, his collection of 100 pieces, An Artist with the Corps of Discover, a visual journal that comprehensively illustrates the Lewis and Clark journals, has been viewed by millions during its continuous exhibitions across the country,” the gallery notes. “His preference to paint outside and on-site also connects him with the rugged artists of the past who communed with their natural subject matter as they captured it, distilling compositions to their essence while conveying a sense of honesty and accuracy. As a viewer one can almost smell the fresh air and feel the temperature in his pieces. His Western landscape feels historic, perhaps from his own admiration of those great American Western Artists like Carl Rungius, Maynard Dixon, William H. “Buck’ Dunton and many more that subconsciously seep into his pieces.”Naomi Brown, Serendipity Sky, oil and acrylic, 36 x 24"Arizona-based painter Naomi Brown is a landscape artist who is being discovered by more and more collectors. “I simply paint to make people happy. To inspire the viewer and help connect them emotionally to a landscape that might be familiar to them and bring back memories. I want my work to connect to the past and the present and bring peace to their soul,” she says. “Most of my work tends to have a more vibrant color palette, especially when I am capturing the mood of the romantic colors that are often found in a sunset or sunrise. Some of my new work this year will focus on some more subdued, mid-day color palettes.”Naomi Brown, Pink Sand in Monument Valley, oil, 18 x 30"The Tehachapi Arts Commission works closely with a number of landscape artists for its annual show, this year titled Art 2023. Artists participating in this year’s show include Karen Winters, Charles Muench and Peter Adams, who painted Sentinel Oaks Overseeing a Cloudburst in the Valley. “Kern County is known for its majestic oak trees that give the landscape a strength and sense of scale,” Adams says. “I loved painting these two oak trees, one of which had fallen and was supported by the other. They both stand as guardians to a long and distant canyon that is vast and untouched by human development. A late afternoon cloudburst seen behind the trees cools the hot day, and brings rain and wind to a scorched earth.”Tehachapi Arts Commission, Golden Hills Forever, oil, 18 x 24", by Karen Winters.

The Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve has an astrounding collection of Western art, including numerous landscape pieces by artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran and Wilson Hurley. “These pieces are a perfect representation of the amazing collection at Woolaroc,” says Shiloh Thurman, the museum’s director. “They show the grandeur and beauty of the American West through the eyes of some of the world’s greatest landscape painters.” Top row: Naomi Brown, Spanish Daggers, acrylic and oil, 30 x 24”; Tehachapi Arts Commission, Sentinel Oaks Overseeing a Cloudburst in the Valley, oil on panel, 16 x 20”, by Peter Adams.  Bottom row: Tehachapi Arts Commission, Bear Mountain Overlook,  oil, 16 x 20”, by Charles Muench; Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, Grand Canyon, oil on canvas, 24 x 20”, by Thomas Moran (1837-1926).Another museum that represents this genre well is the Phippen Museum in Prescott, Arizona. “When most of the eastern half of the United States thinks about Arizona and the Southwest, the image of parched, barren wastelands of desert sand, saguaro cactus and not much else comes to mind. But those of us who live here, and especially we lucky few who live in Northern Arizona, we know the incredible diversity that can be found in the landscapes of the American West,” says the museum’s executive director Edd Kellerman. “We have witnessed the incredible swaths of colorful wildflowers that blanket some of the most desolate regions of our state in the early spring. We’ve also seen the vitality and vibrancy the area experiences after the monsoon season. But no matter the time of year, there is nothing static about the stunning panoramas we are continually blessed with, offering some of the world’s most amazing vistas.”Jan Marie DeLipsey, Cedar Shadows, oil, 14 x 14”

Museum of the Big Bend, Cattle on an Early Mexican Hacienda, 1945-1946, oil on canvas-covered Masonite, 20 x 33¾", by Tom Lea (1907-2001), Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Life Magazine, 1950.32.Another area with glorious vistas is West Texas, the home of the Museum of the Big Bend on the campus of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. The museum is opening the second Emmett and Miriam McCoy Museum building on March 11. “This contemporary building will showcase art and one of the most anticipated exhibits featuring works by the late El Paso artist Tom Lea,” the museum notes. “Lea wrote about the history of cattle in the Americas and painted 11 paintings to accompany the article for Life Magazine in the late 1940s. On loan from the Dallas Museum of Art, the museum is honored to showcase the mastery of Tom Lea and to celebrate our ranching heritage.”Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, West Wind, oil on canvas, 36 x 60”, by Wilson Hurley (1924-2008).

Sally McDevitt, Arroyo, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60"Jan Marie DeLipsey is a landscape artist worth watching as she paints images from all around the American West, including majestic desert scenes. “I bring my love of the land to each of my paintings, you can see the celebration of life in my work,” the artist says. “I want to bring collectors a feeling of intimate reverence of nature’s quiet beauty through the language of light and color. I have been told that my work is elegantly honest. Painting the land is my way of experiencing the joy of living. I tell collectors that falling love in with a particular work is what matters most. It is nice to have all the technical aspects of good work met, but the most vital aspect of buying work is how it makes you feel when you see it. If you love it, don’t let it get away. It will bring you a lifetime of bliss.”Top row: Phippen Museum, River Ford, oil, 24 x 32”, by George Phippen (1915-1966); Phippen Museum, A Desert View, oil, 60 x 40”, by Ray Swanson (1937-2004).  Bottom row: Museum of the Big Bend, Range Cow and Beef Calf, 1945-1946, oil on canvas-covered Masonite, 18 x 32”, by Tom Lea (1907-2001), Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Life Magazine, 1950.36;  Jan Marie DeLipsey, Sand, Sun and Stone, oil, 16 x 22”For painter Sally McDevitt, her passion for art was obvious to her early in life. “Working in oils and acrylics, I capture the New Mexico landscape in a realistic style,” she says. “Most mornings I go to my studio anticipating my next brushstrokes on paintings in progress.Sally McDevitt, Foothills Fauna, acrylic on canvas, 43 x 40"

I tie on an apron, place paint on a palette and stand before my easel. After turning on music I love, I leave the world behind and enter a landscape on my canvas, feeling the warmth of the light I have painted, or the cool shadows. Dwelling in my canvas, I am enchanted with how the light transforms common plants and objects into magnificent objects of nature. I am inspired to capture that light and express it on my canvas.”  —

Featured Artists & Galleries

Broadmoor Galleries
The Broadmoor, 1 Lake Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80906
(719) 577-5744, info@broadmoorgalleries.com
www.broadmoorgalleries.com 

Jan Marie DeLipsey
(214) 212-3188, www.jdelipsey.com
Represented by: Legends of the West Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Karen Wray Gallery, Los Alamos, NM

Steve Hastings
(917) 806-8494, hastingsteve@gmail.com
www.stevehastingsworks.com 

Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery
6872 E. Sunrise Drive, Suite 130, Tucson, AZ 85750
(520) 722-7798, www.medicinemangallery.com 

Mountain Trails Gallery
336 SR 179, Suite A201, Sedona, AZ 86336
(928) 282-3225, www.mountaintrailssedona.com 

Maxwell Alexander Gallery
406 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90015
(213) 275-1060, www.maxwellalexandergallery.com 

Sally McDevitt
Albuquerque, NM, (505) 205-0093,
mcdevittsally@gmail.com
www.sallymcdevitt.com 

Museum of the Big Bend
Sul Ross State University, Entrance #4, Box C-101
400 N. Harrison Street, Alpine, TX 79832
(432) 837-8730, www.museumofthebigbend.com 

Naomi Brown
www.naomibrownart.com 

Phippen Museum
4701 Highway 89 North, Prescott, AZ 86301
(928) 778-1385, www.phippenartmuseum.org 

Scottsdale Art Auction
7176 Main Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 945-0225, www.scottsdaleartauction.com 

Tehachapi Arts Commission
(626) 945-3753, info@artstehachapi.org
www.artstehachapi.org 

Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve
1925 Woolaroc Ranch Road, Bartlesville, OK 74003
(918) 336-0307, www.woolaroc.org 

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