Show Preview | C. Michael Dudash

Scottsdale, AZ
Legacy Gallery, March 5-15

This story was featured in the March/April 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March/April 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

EXPECT A SENSE of energetic anticipation akin to what you might find at a major western museum exhibition during the reception for C. Michael Dudash’s solo show, titled Tales of the Painted West, which happens on Saturday, March 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. So great is the interest in the esteemed artist’s 20 large-scale paintings—enthralling scenes of 19th-century western life—that they are being sold in a drawing, with the lucky registered attendees whose names are selected given right of first refusal to purchase each piece. (Those who can’t attend may participate via phone.)

“I’ll be there, talking with people and answering their questions,” adds the amiable artist, who lives in Coeur d’Alene, ID. At 10 a.m. that same day, Dudash gives an illustrated talk at the gallery, discussing his previous two-decades-long illustration career and explaining his painting process using step-by-step photos of AHEAD OF THE STORM, in which four Indians drive a herd of horses headlong down a riverbank as a storm approaches.

“I ultimately settled on narrative storytelling because I love the Old West, the landscapes and different cultures and the characters and the clothing,” says Dudash. “All rolled up into one, it gives me the ability to do my own version of American history in the settlement of the West.” Indeed, Dudash’s canvases possess the same power to grip the imagination so frequently found in the works of the artist-illustrators he has long admired, including N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Mervyn Peake, Frank Schoonover, and Norman Rockwell.

Many of the paintings in the show promise to engage viewers as surely as a stirring western tale. STRANGERS, for example, portrays the moment at which a young brave and a mountain man catch sight of each other across a rushing stream. “A lot can happen in the next 60 seconds,” Dudash observes. “It could be peaceful, or somebody could be in trouble.” By contrast, fast and furious action is already taking place in TAKE COVER BOYS, THE LAW’S UPON US, harkening back to classic Hollywood shoot-’em-ups. In each such scene, says the artist, “I never really tell the whole story. I like to let the viewer imagine how things might turn out.”

A few other works in the show present more contemplative character studies. PIEGAN MATRON, for example, is the artist’s portrait of a friend he has lost. “She was a very knowledgeable stateswoman and elder of the Blackfoot Nation, and I show her wearing traditional clothing as you might have seen in the 19th century. It’s my testimony to her life, her wisdom, and the kindness she showed me.”

Regardless of the subject matter, Dudash brings to each work a careful attention to detail, a sure-handed skill, and a warm sense of humanity that rewards prolonged and repeated viewing. His hope, he says, is that “collectors will recognize the quality, and that whoever’s looking at my paintings becomes emotionally involved with them.” —Norman Kolpas

contact information
480.945.1113
www.legacygallery.com

This story was featured in the March/April 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March/April 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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