Show Preview | A View to the West - Southwest Art Magazine

Scottsdale, AZ
Trailside Galleries, November 1-15

Robert Duncan, Sunrise Rendezvous, oil, 24 x 36.

This story was featured in the November 2017 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2017 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Trailside Galleries has been committed to preserving the heritage of the American West through art for more than 50 years. This month that tradition continues with A View to the West, a group show featuring all-new work by more than 25 of the gallery’s renowned western artists, including Bill Anton, Morgan Weistling, Veryl Goodnight, Curt Walters, and Mian Situ. The show opens on November 1 with special showcases of works by artists Z.S. Liang, Robert Duncan, and William Pickerd, each of whom presents six to 12 new pieces. A reception and open house is from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 11, with a sale by draw for Liang’s paintings. “The show has a little bit of everything,” notes gallery director Joan Griffith. “Wildlife, landscapes, traditional western works—everything that has to do with the American West.”

: Robert Duncan, Waiting and Watching, oil, 24 x 30.

: Z.S. Liang, Horse Whisper, oil, 20 x 14.

: Z.S. Liang, In the Morning Mist, oil, 24 x 30.

Known for his Native American paintings, Liang brings six new works to the show, each featuring Indian men of different tribes, from the Blackfoot of the Rocky Mountain West to the Wampanoag of Massachusetts, and each canvas relating its own story. In HORSE WHISPER, Liang portrays a Blackfoot warrior in a moment of almost spiritual communication with his horse. “In this painting I show the relationship, the special bond, between him and his horse,” he says. Around his neck hangs a horse-tooth necklace. “When war horses passed, [the warriors] kept their teeth, to keep the spirit of the war horse.” Liang notes that these newest works show a shift in his use of color. “It is stronger, brighter,” he says, “more saturated.”

Pickerd, who’s based in Oregon, “kept six lathes busy for 35 years” as a high-school woodshop teacher. “But once I turned that first piece of alabaster,” he says, “there was no going back.” Because the translucent stone is soft, Pickerd’s vessels require protective bases and rims to prevent chips and cracks. But it wasn’t until he saw the work of Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma (1921-1991) that Pickerd’s simple wooden rims evolved into the intricately pieced adornments found on the 10 to 12 works in this show. Some rims have more than 80 individual pieces—turquoise, lapis, and coral along with exotic woods—and may take two weeks to construct.

: William Pickerd, Polychrome #1, 11, 12, alabaster/mixed media.

: William Pickerd, Polychrome #13, alabaster/mixed media, 8 x 14.

: Robert Duncan, Rather Be a Cowboy, oil, 24 x 18.

Whether he chooses a contemporary ranch or farm scene or paints Indians and cowboys of the past, Duncan’s themes are about living in harmony with the environment. “I try to capture the truth of the environmental setting and the way people fit into the environment,” Duncan says. “Good things don’t have to go away if we treat the places we live with the respect that helps them last for our children and grandchildren,” he says. The seven western scenes for this show “focus on the beauty of living a little more simply.” —Laura Rintala

contact information
480.945.7751
www.trailsidegalleries.com