Show Preview | Best Western Heritage Inn: Western Masters Show

Great Falls, MT
March 19-22

Carol Lee Thompson, A Cowboy’s Thoughts, oil, 16 x 28.

This story was featured in the March 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March 2014 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

More than 130 artists from across the country converge at the Best Western Heritage Inn for the annual Western Masters show and sale this month. The four-day event is part of Western Art Week in Great Falls and gives art lovers the chance to meet their favorite painters and sculptors in person. It’s a unique experience: The artists (and galleries) set up their displays in hotel rooms that have been emptied of furniture, creating studio environments. The show has added a number of new special events this year, including a beer and wine tasting, a Native American dance performance, and a fine-art raffle. Here is a small sampling of the participating artists.

Gerald Painter doesn’t have to travel far to display his work, since he lives in Great Falls. Painter is known for his detailed wood sculptures depicting birds and fish. When attendees visit Charley Shipley’s exhibition space, they can expect to see landscape and wildlife scenes. Shipley paints everything from bighorn sheep scaling craggy mountains to snowy country roads. Mia DeLode is both a sculptor and a painter. DeLode portrays the western way of life, often with a distinctive brand of humor.

Virginie E. Baude, The Warm Hug, oil, 48 x 72.

Michael and Meagan Abra Blessing co-own a studio and gallery. Michael paints both figurative works and images of vintage western nostalgia that convey an edgy, contemporary sensibility, while Meagan’s playful use of color and light brings a special twist to classic western imagery. Virginie E. Baude creates impressionistic landscapes as well as wildlife scenes that depict sheep, wolves, caribou, and grizzly bears. From the Pennsylvania countryside to the Grand Tetons to the Pacific Ocean, landscape artist Gary Huber offers viewers a chance to take in scenes that evoke peace and tranquility. Carol Lee Thompson is a self-described classical realist painter who is equally talented at creating figurative, landscape, equine, and western works.

Deborah Berniklau captures the romance of the horse in her paintings and is known for her ability to convey the emotional connection that exists between horses and people. Finally, Maxwell Alexander Gallery is one of eight galleries displaying works by its artists. The California gallery is exhibiting paintings by Jeremy Lipking, Josh Elliott, Glenn Dean, and Tim Solliday, among others. —Bonnie Gangelhoff