Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ
October 1-February 6, 2022
Ropin’ With Roanie by Don Weller.
The medium of watercolor—a highly portable but notoriously finicky art form that, when mastered, delivers images of seemingly effortless, translucent beauty—has long been used to portray western scenes. Early painter-explorers like George Catlin, Karl Bodmer, and Thomas Moran deployed it to document the region’s people and landscapes. Cowboy artists including Charles M. Russell, Edward Borein, and George Phippen used it to paint working life in the saddle. Today’s western watercolorists still find the highly fluid medium wondrously rewarding if sometimes maddening.
That rich aesthetic heritage inspired fellow watercolorists Don Weller and Marlin Rotach to conceive and publish, along with Weller’s wife Cha Cha, the recent book The River Flows: Watercolors of the American West, a deluxe volume showcasing 41 artists from past to present day. Now, an exhibition of the same title is taking place at the Phippen Museum in Prescott, AZ. Each of the 14 contemporary artists in the book is contributing up to nine works; some are available for purchase. Many of the artists are present to meet visitors at the exhibition’s opening on Friday evening, October 1, and at Saturday morning’s panel discussion and gallery walk-through. Festivities conclude with a tour of the historic O RO Ranch about 50 miles away.
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- Snow at Red Canyon by Tom Perkinson.
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- Puppy Breath by William Matthews.
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- Sentinel Shadows by Roland Lee.
Part of the pleasure of viewing the show comes in the rich variety of styles and subject matter. “In my case, I like the painting to feel frisky when it’s done, to look like somebody enjoyed the trip,” says Weller, who’s based in rural Oakley, UT. That spirit of spontaneous fun is well evident in ROPIN’ WITH ROANIE, his depiction of a cowboy lassoing cattle, its main subjects faithfully rendered in deft brush strokes while other details, from a cloudy sky to swirls of dust beneath the horse’s feet, are suggested by looser washes of paint. “I always like it that people can see how it’s done,” adds the artist.
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- Made in the U.S.A. by Marlin Rotach.
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- Zion Canyon Reflections by Roland Lee.
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- Deep Canyons by Don Weller.
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- A Sip in the Sun by Don Weller.
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- Waiting for the Fog to Lift by Morten E. Solberg.
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- Riders of the Red Cliffs by Marlin Rotach.
By contrast, the works of Rotach, who’s based in Kansas City, MO, bespeak an impeccable dedication to “doing it as photo-realistically as he can,” notes Weller. That quality can be seen in MADE IN THE U.S.A., a still life depicting an ornate but well-worn saddle and tack atop a waiting steed. “It’s a festival of textures that shows Marlin’s incredible craftsmanship,” his friend and collaborator adds. Other well-respected artists in the show include Tom Perkinson (“I’m always amazed at how realistic his paintings look from 30 feet back, and how loose and fresh they look up close, as if they were done in a fit of joy,” says Weller), Morten E. Solberg (“his work is so abstract, yet so realistic”), Roland Lee (“he’s very adept at dealing with monumental panoramas”), and William Matthews (“fairly realistic, with all the freshness and accuracy I like in a watercolor”).
It’s an artistic lineup that would impress in any medium. As Weller notes in the book, all of the artists have “mastered the rather unforgiving medium of watercolor, and have taken it in unique and personal directions.” —Norman Kolpas
contact information
928.778.1385
www.phippenartmuseum.org
This story appeared in the October/November 2021 issue of Southwest Art magazine.