OPA Award Winners Announced
Utah’s Robert Coombs received the prestigious American National Award of Excellence and a $15,000 prize for his figurative painting almost sundown at the 15th annual Oil Painters of America national juried exhibition. Awards of Excellence for Master Signature Members, which each included approximately $4,000 in prizes, were given to David Hettinger for under the plum tree and Quang Ho for in the studio. Paul Mullally won the $3,000 OPA Master Signature Member Award of Excellence for muse in blue, and Richard Russell’s juniper vigil received the President’s Award of Excellence. Other award winners include Jeff Legg, Bryce Cameron Liston, John Taft, Scott Tallman Powers, Daud Akhriev, Rita Curtis, and Steve Gerhartz.
In Memoriam
An award-winning artist and the last living founder of the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America, Joe Beeler died in April at the age of 74 after suffering a heart attack. A pioneer in contemporary western art and culture, Beeler was known as a true cowboy and an integral figure in the modern West. He began his career as an illustrator for the University of Oklahoma Press and, soon after, held his first one-man show in 1960 at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. Although born in Oklahoma, a love for the West brought him to Arizona. In 1965, Beeler and three other like-minded artists formed the Cowboy Artists of America, an organization dedicated to preserving the authenticity of the Old West that has grown in size and reputation through the years. The long-time Sedona resident was named an Arizona History Maker in 1994, and in 1998, Canada’s Cowboy Festival presented Beeler with a Living Legends Award for his contributions to cowboy culture.
Trail of Tears Art Show and Sale
The Cherokee Heritage Center recently held its 35th annual Trail of Tears Art Show and Sale in Tahlequah, OK. The juried show featured the work of over 100 artists from across the country. Roy Boney Jr. took top honors with his grand prize-winning piece our father. Other first-place prizes include K. Henderson’s promises to keep for painting, Ben Harjo’s waiting in solitude in the graphics division, fish chief by Demos Glass in sculpture, Jane Osti’s vessel full of blessings for pottery, green corn basket by Shawna Cain in the basket division, dance by Sonny Crowels for miniatures, and Jack McCarter’s rude awakening for the Trail of Tears theme.
Out & About
At this year’s annual Congressional Club First Lady’s Luncheon, Institute of American Indian Arts alumni Kathleen Wall (Jemez) presented First Lady Laura Bush with a piece of her artwork entitled opening the world to little hands in a special ceremony preceding the luncheon…. Houstonian Francesca Fuchs was awarded the prestigious Hunting Art Prize, the first time a Houston artist has won the $50,000 prize…. The Ketchikan Museums in Alaska received a gift of three Native artworks from the Alaska Pacific Bank, including a commissioned three-panel bronze sculpture by Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson…. John G. Parsons was recently awarded the Herbert Adams Memorial Medal by the National Sculpture Society in recognition of his work with the National Park Service in developing national monuments and memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, and the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Horizons Texas Fine Art Show Results
Close to 550 visitors made it to the first annual Horizons Texas Fine Art Show in Austin, TX, in April during its three-day run. The show, organized by TexARTS, was designed to benefit visual and performing arts programs and scholarship throughout Texas’ Capitol Lake Region and featured 70 Texas artists. Sales from the show totaled more than $75,000, with another $25,000 from ancillary events. Top sales included Tom Palmore’s mayan bobcat, which earned $12,000, and the winter campaign and canyon of shadows by Otto Duecker, which sold for $10,000 each. Other notable sales included artwork by James Robinson, Xiang Zhang, and Janet Campbell.
Featured in July 2006