Show Preview | The Painted West - Southwest Art Magazine

Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
February 12-21

Terri Kelly Moyers, A Sudden Change, oil, 24 x 36.

For an autumn scene set against shimmering golden aspens, Terri Kelly Moyers was sketching a blanket-draped Native American man on horseback when a gust of wind blew up. The blanket flared like a sail and the model leaned forward, spreading his arms to catch it. “It was beautiful,” the artist says. “One of those little moments you don’t plan on, but it can make all the difference.” The painting’s title, A SUDDEN CHANGE, has meaning on multiple levels: the rider’s response to the capriciousness of weather, the artist’s happy use of an unexpected occurrence, and the changeable nature of life itself. “Sometimes we have to readjust and go with the flow,” she says.

Moyers—who now lives in California after spending many years in New Mexico—is one of nine award-winning painters whose expressions of the American West are featured this month at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale in a show titled The Painted West. An opening reception is set for Saturday, February 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. Along with art by Terri Kelly Moyers are works by Bill Anton, Russell Case, Glenn Dean, John Moyers, Kyle Polzin, Jason Rich, Matt Smith, and Morgan Weistling. “One of the things that’s most exciting about this show is the diversity,” notes Legacy Gallery owner Brad Richardson. “Each artist has their own voice, their own presentation and style, yet they’re all very much at the top of their field in the western art world. And even with the diversity, the show comes together with harmony.”

: John Moyers, Quiet Time, acrylic, 36 x 36.

: Kyle Polzin, Pride of the Plains, oil, 21 x 18.

: Glenn Dean, The Pathfinder, oil, 30 x 24.

John Moyers (Terri’s husband) also continues to be inspired by the couple’s time in the Southwest. Like his wife, he looks to the region’s history and cultures and enjoys painting from life. Having gathered a collection of textiles over the years, he envisioned NAVAJO BLANKETS as a way of playing with color and pattern while telling a story from the past. Originally he conceived of a large group of figures and the visual excitement of many blanket patterns. As he worked, however, he pared it down to three men. “I always get these big, grand ideas, but sometimes you have to simplify. You have to give the viewer’s eye a place to rest,” he says. Drawn from a time when many Navajo lived great distances from each other, he imagines the scene as friends catching up, perhaps at a trading post against the warmth of an adobe wall.

For Bill Anton, the time-honored subject of the working cowboy is an opportunity to paint three things closest to his heart: the figure, the western landscape, and the equine form. In EYE TO EYE, shadowed cliffs and rimrock provide a dramatic backdrop for a pair of mounted cowboys conversing in the late afternoon sun. “I’ve always thought of the rancher as part of the landscape of the West,” the Arizona-based artist says. Another of his works in the show is a night scene, a genre he finds exciting for the freedom of interpretation it allows. Beginning each major painting with full-color oil studies, Anton sees his role as “conjuror and conductor. You must imagine and then orchestrate, analyzing and thinking through the steps but still allowing pure emotion to drive you,” he says. “Painting is a balancing act.” –Gussie Fauntleroy