Fredericksburg, TX
InSight Gallery, March 1-23
This story was featured in the March 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art March 2013 print issue, or get the Southwest Art March 2013 digital download now…Or better yet, just subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!
On March 1, InSight Gallery opens its fourth annual Texas Masters Show celebrating the talented artists who live in the Lone Star state. “Texas residents and nonresidents alike respond to it,” says gallery owner Meredith Plesko. “They love having that [Texas] connection: the love of the state, the animals, the Native Americans that were here before.”
The show opens with an artists’ reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, March 1, and includes works from 22 Texas artists; subject matter varies even more than the mediums. As in past years, the Texas artists represented by the gallery are invited to participate along with a few guest artists. Participating for the first time this year are painters George Hallmark and Bruce Peil and charcoal artist Mary Ross Buchholz, known for her exquisitely rendered, hyper-realistic equine works. Art demonstrations from Doug Clark, Cheri Christensen, and Mark Haworth are scheduled during opening weekend.
Returning this year is artist Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, who often paints impressionistic renderings of the Mexican Escaramuzas, the female riders who perform at rodeo events. Roldan-de-Moras presents three paintings in the show. “I was just invited to join Artists of the American West,” she says. “I love to paint westerns and men on horses. I am honored to be considered a cowgirl, but the only time I ever lived around horses was when I was in Monterey, [Mexico],” which she left in 1984. THE GOOD BOOK depicts a more classical theme and is inspired by her classical music influences and her own conservative upbringing. “It’s an elegant, refined female in an intimate setting. I really wanted to study the beautiful play of light and shadow on the ruffles of her dress,” Roldan-de-Moras says.
Newly settled in Texas, painter Cheri Christensen plans four or five works for the show depicting subjects that symbolize Texas and what she likes about the state. UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL, a 40-by-60-inch painting of a Texas longhorn, is one example. “I have had quite an experience with longhorns,” Christensen says, relating a story of going out to photograph a group of longhorns for reference material. Christensen had positioned herself in front of and off to the side of a herd that was being driven down past her so she could photograph them. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she says. “All of a sudden I see them coming right at me, and I think: Wait, this wasn’t smart. I am not behind a fence or anything! The last photo shows [a longhorn] turning at me. I threw the camera out at him, and he checked himself. I didn’t get the next shot!” UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL gives the viewer that “oh my!” moment. “It’s like a refrigerator running at you!” Christensen exclaims with a laugh. The artist also plans paintings of Luckenbach roosters and longhorn calves for the show.
Other participating artists include Robert Pummill, Roy Andersen, Jim Eppler, Nancy Bush, and William Kalwick Jr. Plesko points out that the Texas Masters Show is not a western show. “It’s [works from] artists who live in Texas, and the works are emblematic of what each artist [does],” whether that is the adobes and burros of George Hallmark or the brilliant floral still lifes of Lyuba Titovets. —Laura Rintala
contact information
830.997.9920
www.insightgallery.com
Featured in the March 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
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