Tucker Smith, Crossing the Green, oil, 18 x 16 in.

This show, as well as the gallery’s Black Friday show, also reveals the depth and diversity of the Maxwell Alexander stable. There is a little bit of everything: figures from Eric Bowman, stark desert landscapes from David Griffin, wildlife from James Morgan and Donna Howell-Sickles, contemporary Western works from Howard Post and Phyllis Shafer, stylized cowboys from Xiang Zhang and Dan Stovall, and Pop Art from Duke Beardsley. All of it together celebrates the West, the people who live there and the places they call home. 

Howard Post, Two Red Buckets, oil, 12 x 24 in.

Key works in the new show include Eric Bowman, whose Rabbit Hunter painting calls out to a long and distinct history of rabbit hunters in the Southwest. Taos Society of Artists painters E. Martin Hennings and Oscar E. Berninghaus were also fond of rabbit hunts, and Bowman’s piece brings the theme into the 21st century with brilliant light, a magnificent pose on the Native American figure and a strong composition against the sunlit mountains. 

Eric Bowman, Rabbit Hunter, oil, 16 x 13 in.

“Rabbit Hunter is the color version of a black-and-white ink drawing I did twice before and thought might make a nice painting,” Bowman says. “While the scene and title speak for themselves, I did try to evoke the Depression-era via his clothes and rifle, when the act of hunting local game was more or less a necessity for survival in the rural Southwest of the 1930s.”

David Griffin, Skyscrapers, oil, 20 x 20 in.

For his work, Runnin’em Down, painter Dan Stovall brings the action and chaos of a cattle roundup to life with dust, sweat and hooves. “Like many of my recent works, Runnin’em Down pays homage to today’s still-alive and active working cowboy, wrapped in the veneer of an Old West illustration,” Stovall says. “Subtle clues will tell the observer in the know that this is a modern scene, but one that has been repeated through the ages. This piece puts importance on shape, movement and design above photorealism, all while telling a story, and one that can and will be told again and again throughout the West.”

Brett Allen Johnson, Under a Desert Sun, oil, 15 x 17 in.

Presenting new work in the show is George G. Redden, whose paintings also evoke Old West illustration. His piece Vigilant shows a Native American subject looking out across the moonlit land as an owl sits in a small tree behind him. “One of my favorite moments is hearing or seeing an owl at night in the wilderness. The darkened landscape, which feels cryptic and reserved, suddenly opens up just a bit, revealing a quiet and personal part of itself. It always feels like a rare and privileged experience,” Redden says. “‘Vigilant’ refers to both the owl and the Native American, with necessary heightened senses to compensate for the dark. I imagine that the skills needed to operate in the dead of night were essential.”

George G. Redden, Vigilant, oil, 20 x 16 in.

Brett Allen Johnson will be offering Under a Desert Sun, which shows the harshness of the desert landscape. The sun, the heat, the vastness—it looks at once uninviting and also beautiful. “I figured out Under a Desert Sun while I was driving to Los Angeles for the [Maxwell Alexander Gallery] re-opening show,” Johnson says of the painting. “There was construction traffic near the Moapa Valley—too hectic to stop for photos—but I remembered spending time there on a pilgrimage to see some of Dixon’s Boulder Dam project locations to the southeast. That area has its own desolate magic. I kept the image in mind all weekend and painted it as soon as I got home, seven or eight years after the original impulse.”

Donna Howell-Sickles, One Moments Rest, acrylic, 16½ x 20”

Other artists in the show include Michael Coleman, Nicholas Coleman, Brent Cotton, D. LaRue Mahlke, Kevin Red Star, Jed Webster Smith and many others. The group show will hang through July 26. —

Dan Stovall, Runnin’em Down, oil on linen, 16 x 20 in.

Maxwell Alexander Gallery  1300 N. Lake Avenue  »  Pasadena, CA 91104  »  (213) 275-1060  »  www.maxwellalexandergallery.com