Autumn Bounty by Chauncey Homer |
Chauncey Homer
Coming from a family full of artists, Chauncey Homer says, “I grew up thinking everybody in the world could draw.” In his teens, as he began garnering praise for his own artwork, Homer started to realize he might have an uncommon talent. He graduated from the Art Center Design College in Tucson, AZ, and has attended classes and workshops with instructors such as Ron Riddick and Michael Lynch. He also believes his work as a professional illustrator has taught him discipline as well as given him experience drawing a wide variety of subjects, from landscape and figurative to floral and wildlife.
A founding member of the Tucson Plein Air Painters Society, Homer enjoys painting the area’s historic sites as well as more typical landscape subjects. “I want people to remember these sites, which won’t be with us forever,” he says. His style can be described as realism with a loose, sometimes mysterious quality, and he seeks to create “high-quality work with a simple country charm.” Homer is represented by Venture Fine Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, where his new show opens February 24. —BD
Winter Glare, Central Park by Joe Paquet |
Joe Paquet
Whether he is painting on a California beach or on a New York City street, Joseph Paquet is dedicated to capturing a sense of place—the sights, sounds, and smells which accompany a particular location and moment in time. “The parade of seasons along with the simultaneous, multilayered challenges of drama, value, shape, color, and character keep me in a constant state of awe,” Paquet says. “The great joy is learning to see subtlety. If you can elevate the commonplace and make people take another look at what they generally take for granted—that’s the important thing to me.”
The Minnesota-based artist believes that Mother Nature is selective about revealing her secrets. The depths of nature can only be plumbed through humility, he says. “The moment ego overrides humility, the door to true understanding shuts. You can’t be an egotist and a conduit at the same time.”
Last year Paquet took his aesthetic philosophy on the road and won a top award at the Laguna Beach Plein-Air Invitational competition at the Laguna Art Museum in California. The annual event attracts landscape painters from across the country. Paquet is represented by Graphics Gallery, Balboa Island, CA. —BG
Making the Cuts by K.W. Whitley |
K.W. Whitley
K.W. Whitley’s artwork mirrors her lifelong interest in horses and ranching. After growing up near Austin, TX, she spent more than 12 years showing hunting and dressage horses. Whitley later attended the art department at the University of Texas, where her father, Ralph White, taught for 36 years. Following graduation she worked as an art director and illustrator for advertising agencies, winning a number of awards for her work.
Eventually, though, the vast open spaces of West Texas called. Now working cattle in what she calls “genuine cowboy country,” Whitley helps with gathering, doctoring, and branding as well as other activities on a ranch west of Crowell run by cowman Buster Borchardt. Her experiences provide a wealth of material for her artwork, which is done in pencil, oil, and gouache. “I strive to accurately and honestly portray the lifestyle of the contemporary working cowboy,” says Whitley. “There’s nothing better than being on horseback at daybreak, coyote chorus resounding from rugged bluffs, to gather cattle out of the West Texas draws, ravines, and mesquite flats.” She is represented by Longhorn Gallery, Denton, TX. —KB
Featured in “Artists to Watch” January 2001