In 2013, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Josh Elliott and Glenn Dean were featured in a show called Young Guns. Although it wasn’t that far into the past—the olde yonder times of 12 years ago—the trio of painters think back on the name of the show and they can’t help but crack a smile. “We’re not really young anymore,” Elliott laughs.
Josh Elliott, left, Logan Maxwell Hagege and Glenn Dean in Taos, New Mexico, April 2025. Photo by Davison Koenig.
That first show was at Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, and then another joint show took place in 2015 at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. But their history goes back even further, to the old Maynard Dixon Country shows in Utah, the California Art Club and plein air shows in Carmel-by-the-Sea. They estimate they had all met by 2003, and the first painting trip together was in 2007. They’ve been close friends for more than two decades.
“It was just kind of an instant friendship,” Hagege says. “I mean, number one, we were younger artists then, so we gravitated toward each other in these groups of older artists. And then we all quickly realized that we were very serious about it…We had a hunger to get better and improve, and we could sense that immediately within each of us. It allowed us to become fast friends in a really organic way.”
Glenn Dean, Josh Elliott and Logan Maxwell Hagege, Taos Perspective (triptych), oil, 12 x 12 in. (each)
The trio are reuniting once again, this time at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos, New Mexico, on June 27. The show will feature an updated title, one that suits them better at this point in their careers: Sun Brothers: Dean, Elliott, Hagege in the Land of Enchantment. Each artist will present six to eight new works for the exhibition, all of which will available for purchase. In addition, they are showing a new triptych with one work by each painter—it’s the fourth such triptych they have created in the dozen years they have been showing together.
Glenn Dean, Sun of Taos, oil, 32 x 25 in.
All three painters concede that their friendship exists on many levels: artistically through their work, professionally through their drive and personally through their shared histories. There is also their wit and humor, which has likely served them well during their long drives and painting sessions in remote desert locations. It also helps that they paint different subjects in unique styles: Hagege leans more contemporary with simplified land and sky forms stacked behind realistic Native American figures and horses. Dean focuses more on the desert and its reverent vastness, and he has a looseness with his paint that calls back to historic painters like Laverne Nelson Black and Gerald Cassidy. Elliott paints the landscape and how it interacts with light and atmosphere of all types, in all seasons.
“It’s great that we are inspired by each other, but also not trying to emulate each other’s paintings, at least not directly. There’s been times where I’ve looked over at their work and thought, ‘Damn, that is a great composition,’ but we’re always trying to do our own original work,” Dean says. “They inspire me and push me.”
Hagege agrees. “It’s a learning experience going out with these guys. We generally set up and start painting on our own until we’re about three-quarters of the way done, and then we start walking over to the other paintings. I’ll take one look at their work and think, ‘That’s what I’m trying to do.’ You learn a lot from just seeing how they handle their paint,” he says. “I see them as strong artists, and that’s what I’m attracted to about their work.”
Josh Elliott, The Expanse, oil, 16 x 48 in.
And because they have known each other for so long time, they can identify with their united passion for painting and all that comes with that—the successes and the failures. Hagege relates how, when he first met Dean, he watched him paint an old mission with a stone archway. “It’s burnt in my mind, because I was blown away by the painting,” he says. “Further in the session, I watched him scrape the painting and wipe it clean. It definitely should not have been scraped, but he just did it.”
Dean seems surprised by this. “You should have stopped me,” he says.
Logan Maxwell Hagege, Rising Bloom, Falling Rain, oil, 14 x 14 in.
For Elliott, their lasting place in the art world was not as calculated as some might think. “We never followed our careers, but I think the better way of saying it is we followed opportunities. We never knew if we were going to make it, and if we could see where we are today as younger men we would be surprised. So much of what you think is possible when you’re a young artist is less about career and more about painting decent paintings. You paint and you hope they sell, and when they do that’s motivation to keep going,” he says. “People think artists have this stuff all figured out, but in no way is it even possible to do that.”
Elliott, who is based in Montana (Dean and Hagege both live in California), notes that they have all known each other long enough that they have experienced life events together, including marriages and children. “It was definitely easier to get out and paint together back then,” he says. “Now we talk about the good ol’ days when we used to be able to go on painting trips whenever we wanted.”
Glenn Dean, Call of the Mountains, oil, 30 x 30 in.
All three agree that it’s the struggles that make an artist. It thickens skin and it also breeds doubt, which is something every artist must push through on their own terms. This strikes home for Hagege. “Early on I had this boost where I had one really great year where I think I made something like $50,000 that year. And I was like, ‘That’s it, I made it.’ And then I had a 10-year slump,” he says. “At that time there was so much doubt. I remember talking to Glenn when I was really having a hard time. And I told him I was thinking of getting a job because I couldn’t even get through the month. And so Glenn sent me a check for $1,500, just out of the blue. And he’s like, ‘This will just get you through the month.’ That money did get me through the month and I kept going.”
Josh Elliott, Intersections, oil, 30 x 30 in.
The phrase “imposter syndrome” comes up among the trio. It’s this idea they are somehow frauds waiting to be discovered. It’s a real phenomenon experienced by professional actors, athletes and, yes, even award-winning, top-selling artists. “This is why it’s great to have other artists to talk to, artists you trust,” Elliott says. “It can be a mental struggle to make art. But that’s what makes it so rewarding when things go well. And I’m not talking sales. I’m talking about art that you’re happy with. I think that’s the biggest triumph an artist can have.”
Sun Brothers will not only reunite the three artists, but it will also bring them together in Taos, a destination made famous by a different generation of collaborative, like-minded painters. Those artists were known as the Taos Society of Artists. Hagege, Dean and Elliott acknowledge the link, albeit modestly and with caution. “I do feel this invisible connection to these artists of the past. I look at them as long-lost brothers and sisters. We respect those artists so much and they’re big influences on our work. I think the connection really goes to Taos, which has this great lineage that’s a continuation of what the TSA started,” Hagege says. “It’s special to have a show there because it’s getting back to what that group started.”
Logan Maxwell Hagege, Land Undulations, oil, 30 x 30 in.
Elliott adds, “This is a celebration of their work. Those artists charged us up. And when you go to Taos, you still see what they saw: the shapes of the trees, the color of the sky, the rabbit brush. It’s a pilgrimage for us.”
Sun Brothers continues through November 15 at the Couse-Sharp Historic Site. —
Sun Brothers: Dean, Elliott, Hagege in the Land of Enchantment
June 27-November 15, 2025
Couse-Sharp Historic Site
146 Kit Carson Road, Taos, NM 87571
(575) 751-0369, www.couse-sharp.org
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