Gerald Peters Gallery, Landing Teal, bronze, 65 x 27 x 14”, by Walter Matia. 

Biological accuracy and abstract form have animated sculpture ever since. In his marble sculpture The Rape of Proserpina, 1622, Gian Lorenzo Bernini carved the strong fingers of Pluto pressing into the thigh of Proserpina as if the marble were flesh itself. At the Art Gallery of Ontario, you can wander among a sea of large plaster and bronze maquettes for his abstractions of human form inspired by skulls and bones.

Top: Meyer Gallery, Winter Waxwing, bronze on black granite, 13½”, by David Richardson.; Manitou Galleries, Tatanka Iyotake - Sitting Bull, bronze, ed. of 15, 25 x 22 x 20”, by Ed Natiya. Bottom: Gallery MAR, Con Brillo, bronze, ed. of 21, 55 x 36 x 15”, by Stephanie Revennaugh; Manitou Galleries, Bear Medicine, bronze, ed. of 15, 11 x 14 x 14”, by Ed Natiya.

The vitality of her modeling the original clay, later cast in bronze, depicts the natural grace of the horse in Con Brio, balanced on the manufactured eternal symbol of the circle. She notes that in music, con brio means performed “with liveliness, spirit or brilliance.”

Manitou Galleries, Stories of our People, bronze, ed. of 15, 16 x 12 x 10”, by Ed Natiya; Barbara Meikle, Hi There Bear, bronze with unique color patina (in a “redwood” patina), ed. of 24, 23 x 14 x 14”; Chris Turri, Mirage, patina on reclaimed steel and copper, 42 x 9 x 8”  

Walter Matia’s Landing Teal rests among a stand of cattails and marsh grass. Matia studied biology and art design in college, and worked in the exhibits department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History as well as for the Nature Conservancy. His years of careful observation come together in works that often depict the fauna in ephemeral flora.

Chris Navarro, King of the Forest, bronze 66 x 67 x 26"

Manitou Galleries on Palace Avenue in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represents the works of Navajo artist Ed Natiya. Associate director Cyndi Hall comments, “Ed Natiya is driven by the need to explore the wisdom of long ago and the genuine nature of Native peoples. Inspired by his well-known ancestors, such as his great-great-grandfather, Bullet Manuelito, who was one of the last four chiefs of the Navajo Nation, he sculpts their stories and Native wisdom as it once was, in hopes that these teachings and values may be remembered and appreciated for years to come.”

Chris Turri, Seguridad, patina on reclaimed steel and copper, 58 x 25 x 4" 

Barbara Meikle of Barbara Meikle Fine Art is both a painter and a sculptor. She began creating bronze sculptures in 2009. “I always remembered the quote from Edward Degas, which read, ‘If you want to learn to paint a horse, you must first sculpt it.’ And I have to say, working in three dimensions has benefitted my two-dimensional art immensely,” she says. “I immediately began incorporating hot color patinas onto my bronzes as a way to connect the sculpture with my paintings, which are very colorful. The process of patinating my bronzes this way requires heat, daring and patience. Each time I am creating not only a sculpture but a painting as the heat patinas are unique in their process.” 

Top: Barbara Meikle, Sunset Storm, bronze with unique color patina, ed. of 30, 13 x 34 x 12”; Barbara Meikle, Hi There Bear (detail), (in an “ancient blue” patina), ed. of 24, 23 x 14 x 14”  Bottom: Oreland Joe, Blackfoot Horsemen, Utah alabaster, 26”; Oreland Joe, Calling upon Thunder, white Italian marble, 27”

Navajo/Southern Ute artist Oreland Joe is world-renowned for his sculptures of stone and bronze. His family and heritage continue to inspire his work. “My grandfather’s power descended upon me at 5½ years old. I have clear memories of him rolling his smoke with Prince Albert tobacco,” Joe reflects. “He often tapped his knee to keep the rhythm with his singing. The Ute songs instilled visions and dreams to me as a youngster. I still have the power today to reach back in time and feel that special period that my grandfather lived and witnessed the power of song and dance and storytelling. It is the basis for every medium I explore and experiment with.”

Legacy Gallery, Morning Whoas, bronze, 11½ x 11 x 3½", by Rick Terry. 

Jim Stuckenberg is known as one of the true “cowboy artists.” Born deaf in 1943 on a farm in St. Louis, Stuckenberg learned to read lips at age 4. Earning a degree in animal science from Fresno State University, the artist has had a lifelong love of horses that led him to working for famed racehorse trainer D. Wayne Lukas. This is also where he began experimenting with watercolor painting, which eventually evolved into his work in Western sculpture, as well as oils and other mediums. Since then, Stuckenberg has shown in galleries and museums nationwide. 

 Legacy Gallery, Off the Mogollon Rim, bronze, ed. of 30, 18½ x 36 x 6", by Scott Rogers. 

“My interest and inspiration come from my love of Native culture, the landscape and the stuff people leave behind,” says artist Chris Turri. “I’ve always been drawn to the sculpture in nature from the wind-blown ripples in the sand dunes at White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico where I grew up, to the sandstone monoliths and hoodoos in Northern New Mexico. Through the years of exploring the landscape I have collected so much metal and at some point all these elements just collided with my creative energy. I use reclaimed metals, especially from old vehicles, and I let the patina, shapes and character of the metal move me. Most of my sculptures start there.”

 Jim Stuckenberg, The Brave and the Majestic, bronze, ed. of 45, 14 x 17½" 

Originally from Utah, Ed Fraughton is a sculptor of Western and historical subjects, working with bronze and stone. He has a major interest in cowboys and horses, especially cowboys and horses in action.The artist once said, “The cowboy comes closest to being a Greek centaur, man and horse working together almost as one body.” 

Chris Turri, Morning Star, patina on reclaimed steel and copper, 44 x 15 x 2”; Oreland Joe, Picking Choke Cherries along Pine River, Italian marble, 38”; Legacy Gallery, The Spirit of Wyoming, bronze, ed. 15 of 30, 43 x 34 x 25”, by Ed Fraughton.  

Hoping to expand his art into bronze, he began an art program at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. After working many years as a roughneck in Montana and Wyoming, an injury allowed Terry the downtime to go back to school and master his craft.