October 2007 | News Beat

Blackfoot Burning Crow Buffalo Range by Charles M. Russell
Blackfoot Burning Crow Buffalo Range by Charles M. Russell

Coeur d’Alene Art Auction Tops $35 Million!

The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction brought in an astounding $35,402,640, the highest total ever for an auction of western art. Three hundred of 307 lots sold at the July event in Reno, NV, where the auction room was filled to capacity. More than 850 bidders competed with a flurry of telephone bidding as prices set dozens of individual auction records. The two top lots both sold for $2,912,000: a 1905 watercolor by Charles M. Russell entitled blackfoot burning crow buffalo range, which nearly doubled its high estimate of $1,500,000; and an 1886 pointillist painting by French artist Paul Signac, one of several European and American Impressionist paintings included in the sale. Other works by Russell also exceeded their estimates, with his 1918 painting joshing moon (high estimate $300,000) soaring to $1,680,000 as several private collectors engaged in an epic bidding battle.


Looking for the Shore by John Agnew
Looking for the Shore by John Agnew
Paint the Parks Award Winners

John Agnew’s acrylic painting of a tiny frog among weathered rocks in Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore won the $10,000 Grand Prize in the inaugural Paint the Parks Competition. By showcasing America’s national parks through the eyes of some the country’s top artists, the new competition continues the tradition of the Arts for the Parks program, which was discontinued last year. Three regional Paint the Parks awards went to Neil Adamson, Ruo Li, and Warren Adams. Winner of the $5,000 Mini Grand Prize, for a painting measuring 180 square inches or smaller, went to Ray Hunter.

Out & About

Third Moon Gallery in Corrales, NM, held its grand opening in August…. Scott Lloyd Anderson took First Place at the Telluride Plein Air show in July…. Linda Lucas Hardy won top honors at the Colored Pencil Society of America’s International Exhibition and Convention…. Bart Walker was awarded Best of Show at the Frank Bette Plein Air Paintout in July…. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center recently opened its 48,000-square-foot expansion, which includes 11 new galleries, art studios, and a sculpture courtyard.

Sharing the Wealth

A $50 million collection of Southwestern and Native American art has been donated to the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Assembled by Oklahoman Eugene B. Adkins, the private collection is comprised of more than 3,300 pieces, including works by major Taos artists as well as Native American paintings, pottery, and jewelry. Both museums will add exhibit space to house the works, which will rotate between the two institutions.

Rocky Mountain Plein Air Winners

Winners of the 2007 Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters’ National Show and Paint Out were announced in August in Winter Park, CO. Judge William Scott Jennings reviewed more than 200 works by 67 artists, awarding Best of Show to Stephen Datz for his painting verdant morning. John Poon won the Artists’ Choice Award for a single painting, and Carol Jenkins took home the Artists’ Choice Award for her entire body of work.

In Memoriam

Art publisher Robert L. Lewin died on July 12 in Sarasota, FL, at the age of 96. Lewin and his wife, Katie, started Mill Pond Press in 1973 as a part-time retirement project. The company grew to become a leader in the publication of limited-edition fine-art prints, most notably of wildlife artists such as Roger Tory Peterson, Robert Bateman, Carl Brenders, and many others. Through the sale of special fundraising editions, Lewin raised more than $10 million for conservation organizations.