Bill Anton, Headed for Parts Unknown, oil, 42 x 45”

The show, which will highlight 35 artists and more than 100 works of art, features a suite of events both at the gallery and at the museum, which is a short walk down Scottsdale’s famous gallery-lined Main Street. Events include a tour of the museum, an art demonstration led by John Coleman, artist interviews with John and Terri Kelly Moyers, a preview party and Sundown Roundup, a gala-like dinner event held at the museum. All of this is on top of the preview party and sale, which will include a by-draw portion and live auction.

Kim Wiggins, Afternoon Showers ‒ Taos Plaza, oil, 24 x 36”

“The market can be more interactive, which is why we’re hosting a big event with lots of parts to it,” Richardson says. “We want to give collectors a reason to get on a plane and come spend the weekend with us. We’ve done it with single-artist shows, we’ve done it with auctions and now we want to try it with the group show. We’re not reinventing the group show, but we are enhancing it.” Serving as a consultant on the show is Dan Corazzi, who was previously the committee chair for the Prix de West in Oklahoma City. “As we were building this show, it became obvious that we needed to do something special, and Western Spirit should be a part of it. We put our heads together and brainstormed Western Horizons, which we feel is an innovative way of presenting a group show,” Corazzi says. “Brad is always looking for different ways of presenting shows, and this one is very unique. It is a gallery show, but a gallery show with a museum partnership.”

G. Russell Case, Taos Sage, oil, 40 x 40”

Artists in the show include many of the top artists working within Western art: Greg Beecham, Tom Browning, John Coleman, Brent Cotton, C. Michael Dudash, Teresa Elliott, Phil Epp, Martin Grelle, Jerry Jordan, Z.S. Liang, Jeremy Lipking, Huihan Liu, Grant Redden, Jason Rich, Scott Rogers, Dan Smith, Matt Smith, Curt Walters, Jeremy Winborg and many others.

Z.S. Liang, Grandma’s Lesson, oil, 42 x 32”

G. Russell Case will be showing a 40-inch-square work Taos Sage, showing fall color against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Case was inspired to paint the piece after a Taos visit to his painter friend, Chris Morel. “He took me out and showed me around and we hit it perfect that evening—great light, perfect subject and some fantastic Mexican food that night,” Case says. “This was one of the spots he showed me. I couldn’t resist adding some figures for interest. The big juniper-covered mountains around Taos make for sweet contrast against the high key of autumn cottonwoods.”

Carrie Ballantyne, Velvet and Steel, oil, 16 x 12”

Also referencing Taos is modernist painter Kim Wiggins, who is presenting Afternoon Showers – Taos Plaza. “The importance of Taos, New Mexico, and its influence on American art cannot be overstated. By the end of the 19th century, American artists were searching desperately for a place and subject matter that would set their work apart from the European school of art. Two meccas emerged in America in conjunction with the modernist movement in the United States. By 1920, New York City and Taos were firmly established as polar opposites in what the art world considered truly ‘American Art,’” Wiggins says. “New York epitomized the modern mechanized world with its massive skyscrapers. Taos represented the untamed, Eden reborn, multicultural West. As a modernist painter I find this to be one of the key reasons for documenting the Taos area. I’m building upon a foundation laid by artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Ernest L. Blumenschein, John Marin, Alexandre Hogue and other creative masters in documenting this unique American Mecca. Last year, I ran across a vintage photograph of the Taos Plaza from the 1920-30s era. This rare snapshot in time inspired Afternoon Showers – Taos Plaza. Although I’ve painted Taos and its environs for many years, this is one of the few paintings I’ve created focused on the historic Taos Plaza. I just love the way it turned out.”

Josh Elliott, In Between Winter and Spring, oil, 35 x 32”

Bill Anton will be offering his large cowboy piece Headed for Parts Unknown,showing several riders against rocky cliffs and moody late-afternoon shadows. “Riding outta ranch means familiarizing yourself with the various pastures, gates, stock tanks and general drift of the cattle; it usually happens when an outfit changes hands and one of the former owners’ hired men points out the boundaries to the new manager,” Anton says. “I imagined this scene from a high point where the new rangeland is spread out before them leading to parts unknown.”

Billy Schenck, Sheep on the Horizon, oil, 34 x 45”

Getting much closer to her subjects is Carrie Ballantyne, who will be presenting Velvet and Steel, a portrait of a woman with a long braid of hair flowing down one of her shoulders. “This contemporary cowgirl is wearing a black velvet vest and a steely blue-eyed look,” the artist says. “Smooth feminine confidence combined with classic Western textures of felt and denim is a favorite theme.”

John Coleman, Warrior Spirit, Crazy Horse, bronze, ed. 5 of 5, 99 x 52 x 30”

Greg Beecham’s painting Watching and Waiting shows why the artist is one of the top wildlife painters working today. “After 40-some years of painting, coming up with a different but good title for every single piece can be challenging. Sometimes, it comes with the idea for the painting itself. Often, I must wait and let the piece progress, and hope that it will eventually tell me who it is. I take titles seriously, as I have found that people both remember them—better than I do!—and find value in them,” Beecham says. “While I strayed further and further from my photo reference with this painting, completely changing the background—and then adding a rim-light on the fox—the good gesture having been photographed on a cloudy day, it began to speak. I hadn’t intended any sort of spiritual connotations, but the painting began to take shape, and I realized it was a metaphor for the hope many of us have as we anxiously ‘watch and wait’ for the Lord’s return.”

Kyle Polzin, The Last Go-Round, oil, 54 x 36”

The show will also offer Kyle Polzin’s newest work, The Last Go-Around, showing a pair of chaps hanging on a wall with a rodeo poster. The artist notes about the work: “Inspired by 1930s and 1940s advertising, I created this poster to capture the action of an old rodeo scene, and to go along with these ‘Lucky Dice’ chaps that I found.”