Beginning March 16, the Plainsmen Gallery in Dunedin, Florida, will present Western Classic,a group show featuring a wide variety of Western artwork. More than 15 artists will be represented across 65 works.
Greg Olsen, The Cattle Drive, oil, 15 x 24”Artists include John Coleman, Tim Cox, Jim Eppler, Grant Hacking, Hyrum Joe, Denny Karchner, Steven Lang, Herb Mignery, Jack Muir, Ed Natiya, Bill Nebeker, Dustin Payne, Terry Smith and David Yorke.
The gallery has an exciting grouping of older works by painter Greg Olsen. The artist has been largely focused on religious and spiritual work, but in the 1980s he did a collection of Western pieces that reflected the life of a modern cowboy and called back to Olsen’s past growing up on a ranch in Idaho. “I saw it all,” he says. “Cattle, horsemen and sheep. Western art was a big thing at that time and I had a lot of success, including in Scottsdale with Trailside Galleries. For the better part of the 1980s, Western art is what I did.”
Tim Cox, Herding Cattle in the Spring, oil, 16 x 24”
Greg Olsen, The Outsiders, oil, 24 x 36”The artist admits that it was one of his Western collectors who urged him to go to Israel, which is how he started experimenting with Biblical imagery. But even as his studio has shifted gears, he looks back on the Western pieces fondly. Images in the Plainsmen show include The Arm Wrestle, showing two cowboys killing some time by testing their strength on the ground. The same figures appear in Eating Beans, which shows the men gazing into a fire. Other images in the show, including The Outsiders and The Cattle Drive, show the majestic iconography of the working cowboy as riders herd cattle in tranquil desert settings. “In a rare opportunity for collectors, we’re excited to present a few of Greg Olsen’s elusive Western paintings at our upcoming Western Classic group show,” says co-owner Jill Berry.
Greg Olsen, The Arm Wrestle, oil, 24 x 48”
Ed Natiya, Shared Memories, bronze, ed. of 15, 27 x 14 x 8”
The show hangs through March 30. —
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