The display for the 2022 Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale.

“The Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale was established over 30 years ago to underscore the National Western Stock Show’s mission to celebrate Western heritage,” explains the new event curator, Kate Hlavin. “A range of traditional and contemporary art showcases the rich tapestry of the West; its people, wildlife and landscapes. Today’s Coors artists both preserve tradition and reimagine conventional Western imagery.”

Raj Chaudhuri, Haystack Horses, oil on linen, 28 x 40”

Visitors to the Coors event can expect a sensational experience that includes an artist talk by Jie Wei Zhou, a well-known realist painter that excels in Western figurative work; and painter Raj Chaudhuri, who has six pieces of his own in the show and will be giving a demonstration. “My work comes from my life as a human being,” Chaudhauri says. “Capturing people and their interaction with the environment interests me—be it urban or rural, cityscape or landscape…Twenty-five years ago, Colorado became home, giving me a longstanding enjoyment of the mountains, the brilliance of sunshine and the rich history of the West…”

Ben Steele, Great Western Bier…Stadt, oil on canvas, 38 x 38”

His piece Haystack Horses, depict horses on a friend’s ranch near Boulder, Colorado. “I spent a half day painting these horses from life, doing little color sketches of each horse,” Chaudhauri notes. “It was very challenging as horses do not hold still! But my goal is to collect color and value information more than the drawing itself… Each painting I make has a story behind it. I hope when someone spends time looking at each of them, they connect with the design as well as narrative of the painting. My work has strong design and color, it tells a story but still leaves enough for viewers to make up the rest…”

Dan Knepper, Heading and Heeling, oil on canvas, 36 x 36”

The featured artist this year is the talented landscape painter Joseph McGurl, who will have 13 fresh paintings for the show. “We feel his paintings capture the essence of the West,” says Hlavin. “His expansive landscapes combined with his use of color and light vividly depict the West. The featured painting, Morning Light on a Western Landscape illustrates a covered wagon against a bluff with the morning light reflecting on the water. It beautifully shows time and place.”

Joseph McGurl, Morning Light on a Western Landscape, oil on linen, 28 x 34”

“[This piece] is from my imagination, sketches and memory,” McGurl explains. “The composition is completely imaginary as that scene doesn’t actually exist. The lighting and landscape are from memory, but it’s all based on years of painting the Western landscape on location. I made two painting trips out West last year. One was to Glen Canyon, and the other was to Capitol Reef with a group of my fellow artists in the Plein Air Painters of America. This painting is a synthesis of scenes I saw and what I felt on those trips. My paintings are similar to an author who writes novels of fiction based on fact. Like the author, I go to the location to gather the facts—my on-location sketches. Back at the studio, I use these, along with my imagination, to create a scene that often has more truth than a literal interpretation would have.”

Sean Michael Chavez, Eye to Eye, 22 x 18”

The event begins with the Red Carpet Gala Reception on January 3, and will be on view to the public from January 6 to 21 at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado. Please visit the event website for tickets and additional details. —