The Search for Vasquez

In Search Of The Missing

Searching for Ancient Wisdom

The Searchers

Searching for the Sun

The Searcher, # 6/12

Search # 28 /50

The Searchers

Douglas Aagard & Liz Wolf

Upcming Show Preview: Douglas Aagard & Liz Wolf in American Art Collector

Both artists revel in their subjects, seeking and experiencing a spiritual pres-ence in landscapes and animals. Aagard says, “I search for the spirit or emotion a subject evokes in me, and strive to find a way to put it on canvas. It’s often a magical process. I love being an artist. There are so many wonderful discoveries that are made through close scrutiny of the land whose wonder I would have totally missed had it not been for my profession.” Wolf comments that her sculptures embody a universal spirit in many ways. She intends for them to reflect a “spirit within” and refers to their retaining the anima, the breath of life…

click to read more

GAYLE NASON

Since moving to Arizona from rural Iowa in 1968, Gayle Nason’s love for the Southwest and her fascination with the historical legacy of its native people has added a new dimension to her still life paintings. Deeply moved by the spiritual heritage of the American Indian and led by her diligence for perfection, Gayle’s realistic paintings feature the age-old beauty of beaded moccasins, Indian pottery and other Native American artifacts. Painting from life, Gayle sets up her still lifes on tables next to her easel. What she enjoys most is painting the artifacts that are part of her extensive collection.

The artifacts date from the late 1850’s to the early 1900’s and have been procured through an anthropologist who searches throughout the U.S. for authentic pieces. Essentially self-taught; Gayle works in oil using multiple applications of glazes, as did the old masters. Depending upon the size and complexity a painting, it can take from three to six weeks or longer to complete. Each bead is finished separately with six to ten glazes of paint. This glazing technique creates the luminescent quality that makes the beads in Gayle’s paintings look so realistic.

ROD ZULLO

Rod was born in 1965 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. At the age of five, Rod’s grandmother, a painter, encouraged his parents to send him to private art lessons with a well-known Buck’s Country impressionist.

The consummate student of art, Rod continually searches for his own truth. Traveling abroad has exposed him to a variety of art styles, mediums and messages. By studying past and present masters, Rod explores sculpture as a metaphor of the present world. Under the guidance and mentoring of Floyd T. DeWitt, Rod strives to see beyond the literal and narrative to create work that is contemplative and metaphorical yet based on traditional foundations. His goal is to see the abstract forms in nature and express this in sculpture by marrying the components of discipline and creativity to express a concept rather that an image.

The National Sculpture Society awarded Rod with the Beverly Hoyt Memorial Award in 2003 and the Polich Foundry Award in 2005. Since, he has become a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society having received distinctions such as participation in select juried shows at Brookgreen Gardens, “Equine Spirit: The Horse in American Art” and The National Sculpture Society, “A Blessing of Animals”. Rod has participated in events such as Sculpture in the Park, Coors Western Art Exhibit, and the National Museum of Wildlife Western Visions.

Rod teaches annual workshops at Brookgreen Gardens, as well as The Scottsdale Artists’ School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Having sculptures in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, the Leanin’ Tree Museum, Boulder, Colorado and Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

CHARLES FRITZ

Charles Fritz’s paintings are an honest approach to the world around him, depicting the landscape, life and history of the Rocky Mountain region. In explaining his style, he describes himself as an outdoor artist, preferring to paint on location, a strenuous and time-honored approach to the changing moods of nature. His paintings, noted for their accuracy, are the product of comprehensive research. Subject matter, composition, design, technique, and surface texture are all areas of particular interest for Fritz.

Born in 1955, Charles Fritz grew up in Mason City, Iowa, studying history and education at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. He left teaching to pursue his art and has worked exclusively as a professional artist for the last thirty years. His move to Montana in 1980 strengthened his interest in the history of the Great Plains and the West, which is apparent in the evolution of his work. Today he paints historical subjects in vast, luminous landscapes while residing in Billings, Montana with his wife and their two sons, Isaac and Erick.

During the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial of 2003 to 2006, his exhibit of seventy-two paintings traveled nationally to seven museums: the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula, Montana; the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon; the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana; the Booth Western Art Musuem, Cartersville, Georgia; the Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana; and the MacNider Art Museum, Mason City, Iowa.

His work has been included in countless museum exhibitions across the country, including the Prix de West Exhibit, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Salmagundi Club, New York, New York; Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico; Artists of America Exhibit, Denver, Colorado; The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Great American Masters Exhibit, Cincinnati, Ohio; and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming.

TIBOR NAGY

Tibor Nagy was born and raised in a small town called Rimavská Sobota in Slovakia, which lies in the heart of Europe. He grew up in a family of musicians during the communist regime, where the artistic expression was severely restricted. On the other hand, these circumstances helped him to find his own unique voice as an artist, relatively uninfluenced by external elements.

Since a very young age, Tibor found himself deeply connected with nature and graphic expression in many forms felt very natural to him. Experience gained in nature and experience in artistic field constantly complemented each other. This created a strong basis, which influenced his entire artistic development as well as remaining an endless source of inspiration for him as a self-taught artist.

At the beginning of Tibor’s artistic journey, realism combined with abstraction was the direction that prevailed in his style. Later, in the eighties, he started to incline more toward surrealism, combined techniques and experimentation still searching for his own unique way of expression.

In 2005, Tibor finally painted his very first plein air. It was also his first contact with landscape painting and oil painting. He immediately saw a great potential in this form of painting and expression even despite the difficulty of this style. The “Alla Prima” approach seemed very appealing in a sense of directness, truthfulness and expressiveness while at the same time being a real challenge, as it required an uncompromising artist.

About Tibor’s approach to painting:

“In painting, I strive to capture vitality, essence and diversity of the scenery while concentrating on the emotional context. Sometimes it is difficult to keep the inner impulses under control. At this point I need some courage. An unknown territory starts beyond this border.“

“It is like being on the edge. Sometimes I fall and other times new, unexpected possibilities of expression and technique become available to me. Being constantly on the edge is the way I can improve. Having the courage to leave the safe, yet often boring road and “stay alive” is what matters to me. I also make an extra effort to remain constantly open to new possibilities and innovative ways, and if possible, not to remain at the same level all the time. In this way I give new creative processes the opportunity to carry me forward.“

BOB CORONATO

Bob Coronato used to open books and look at the”Old West” photos and see cowboys riding the open plains, and he would stop and think,”I wished I lived 100 years ago.” After going out to the very remote west, and finding ranches that are still”cowboy” in the old ways, he realized that the west he was searching for as a kid was still there. In tiny hidden corners of the country, you can still find places untouched by time. There are ranches that gather 2,000 to 3,000 head of cows on horseback, across 100’s of miles of fenceless landscape.

The time has come where land is becoming too valuable, and it is no longer affordable to have cows roaming free on open range. This forces ranches to sell off lands to survive, and before long, the”West” will be gone: old style ranch rodeos, traditional brandings, log cabins with no electricity, and running the chuck wagon during roundup. Coronato no longer has to wish to be a part of the old days, but has become part of the west he was searching for. We are at a clash of two time periods, where traditional cowboy’n ways are being overridden by the modern technologies. This has been the focus of his paintings as he tries to document moments in time that show the ways of a fading lifestyle that so many people have admired. The freedoms of the west and the wide-open spaces have become symbols of our great country.

As our lives become more regimented and the rules become more numerous, we long for those places of freedom. The subjects of Coronato’s work remind people that there still is a remote, free west. It gives a sense of relief, that we are not a completely modern country, just yet. The question he hears most often is,”do they still do that?” Well yes they do, but not for much longer. By living in a remote section of Wyoming and working with ranchers and cowboys, Coronato feels proud to have been lucky enough to be a part of this final chapter in the history of the American Frontier. For now,”The West” is alive, it’s just hiding in small corners of our country trying desperately to hang on, and not be forgotten.

MATEO ROMERO

Contemporary Cochiti Pueblo painter Mateo Romero is an internationally known artist.  He is the recipient of a prestigious 2016 Native Arts and Cultures award as a National Painting Fellow.  Mateo attended Dartmouth College and studied with acclaimed artists Ben Frank Moss and Varujan Boghosian.
Romero received an MFA in printmaking from the University of New Mexico. He is an award-winning artist who has exhibited internationally in Canada and the United States. He is a former Dubin Fellow in painting at the School of American Research in Santa Fe, NM.  He paints in his studio in Santa Fe and lives in Pojoaque Pueblo with his wife, Melissa, and their children Erik, Povi, Rain and River.
“My paintings are based in abstract expressionist references. Bold colors slash across canvas, hot colors vibrates next to cold, drips and smears hover over the surface. Action painting references abound in stabbing, gestural marks. Artists like Franz Kline,  William De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Motherwell are companions along this urgent pathway of color and surface.  As Native people we are born into this world with an expectation that we will be participatory in life and contribute to society. What I have contributed most directly to life are my children and my art. Painting and drawing for me have always been urgent, compelling, and necessary. I make marks out of a need to communicate, to contextualize, to form meaning in the world around me. It is less of a choice and more of a manic drive deeply embedded in my psyche. Without these things, my life would be empty indeed.” -Mateo Romero

JOHN COLEMAN

John is a member of the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America and the National Sculpture Society who most often portrays subject matter based on Native American imagery. He has a distinctive style of capturing a mood and incorporating a type of symbolism into each sculpture. John has always enjoyed and has excelled in art and history. He was awarded a scholarship to the Art Center for Design in Los Angeles but then became involved in his own contracting business, which satisfied his need to create things. In his forties, he decided to immerse himself in the field of fine art and has never looked back.

He starts a sculpture with an emotional feeling, doing all of his sketches in clay. At the later stage when John touches the clay with his tools, he is interacting with the material to create a feeling of life in the sculpture. He enjoys using symbolism, which has spiritual meaning in many cultures. John says his mission has to do with being a communicator more than being an artist. He has become very successful at creating the emotional vision of telling a story. Art is the focus of John’s life and it brings him great joy to produce beautiful art that will be of influence to individuals now and in the future. John has won quite a few prestigious awards and has sculpture in museums.

Bodmer – Catlin Series:

As a member of the Cowboy Artists of America and the National Sculpture Society, John Coleman is one of the leading sculptors today portraying the historical nature and mythology of western subjects. These are among the many attributes that uniquely qualifies him to sculpturally pay tribute to explorer artists Bodmer and Catlin.

The first in the series, Addih-Hiddisch, Hidatsa Chief, was released in life-size at the Cowboy Artists of America Show at the Phoenix Art Museum. It took Best of Show, the Gold Medal in sculpture and now sits in the permanent collection of the museum, a gift of the Western Art Associates.

In the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, historians/painters George Catlin (1796-1872) and Karl Bodmer (1809-1893) set out to capture the images of the people of a new land.

Today, these highly detailed portraits are some of the only records an artist like myself has to draw on for historical accuracy from this pre-photo era.

“For my new series, Explorer Artists, Bodmer/Catlin Series, I will be using portraits created in the 1830’s of individuals from some of the tribes that Lewis and Clark encountered during their 1804 – 1806 expedition, and some 25 years later, were documented by Bodmer and Catlin. It is not my intention to add or take away from these works, but to use these portraits and extensive historic research to capture sculpturally, the essence of who these men really were; to interpret in my sculptural style a three dimensional portrait that will be a respectful complement to the original paintings.”

The series will include ten standing figures and document several tribes, a record of which would never have been left to us were it not for the courage and dedication of these two painters – and the artful three-dimensional interpretations of John Coleman.

JASON RICH

Jason Rich grew up on a small farm in southern Idaho riding, training and drawing horses. Western roots and artistic passion influenced his decision to complete undergraduate and master’s degrees in art at Utah State University and pursue art professionally. In the years since, Jason has established himself in the western art market in prestigious shows – winning numerous awards such as the 1997 Arts for the Parks Grand Prize, accolades and feature exposure in esteemed publications including Art of the West, Southwest Art, Western Art Collector and Cowboys & Indians for his distinct depiction of western life.

Rich rides alongside cowboys working the corrals or packing through the mountains then combines experience, imagination and research to depict authenticity of the cowboy way. Jason and his wife Kari have three children and live in northern Utah on a small horse ranch.

LUKE FRAZIER

Luke Frazier grew up in a large family of brothers who loved hunting and fishing in the mountains of northern Utah.  These early forays into nature instilled a kinship with wildlife and a passion for the outdoors. As a child he spent hours scribbling, sketching and sculpting wildlife.  He earned a BFA in painting and a MFA in illustration from Utah State University.

Each year, Luke travels from Alaska to Africa painting and photographing animals in their natural environment. “I’m always excited for a new adventure, seeking new country and looking for animals in their prime – hoping to capture the nuances of the sporting life.” His love of hunting and fishing is apparent in his work. Luke is inspired and influenced by noted artists such as Charlie Russell, Winslow Homer, Herbert “Buck” Dunton, Heinrich Von Zugel, Carl Rungius, Philip Goodwin, Robert Abbett, Bob Kuhn and Ken Carlson.  These are the masters of telling a story. He appreciates the strength of drawing, color and emotion put into their works.

Luke’s work is included in the permanent collections of many prestigious museums including the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming; Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California; National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City; the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Briscoe Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Clymer Museum, Ellensburg, Washington; Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody, Wyoming; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama; and the Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah.

“I’m always searching for things I want to draw and paint. I’m always following the light, looking for the different values, shapes and colors – the emotional color of a scene. By using digital photography and video, I can capture memories and moments in time. Both buttress the process of drawing and composition – helping me recreate those moments on canvas. As an artist you have to use these judicially and remember you are in control of the painting, not the other way around.”

TIM SHINABARGER

From an early age, Tim Shinabarger developed an obsession with wildlife and wild places. He took a few art classes while attending Eastern Montana College where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business. He furthered his art education by attending workshops by prominent artists and studying the works of past masters. Tim also has a background in taxidermy and in the past worked as a guide, backcountry ranger and forest fire fighter. Following in the footsteps of such pathfinders as Carl Rungius and Belmore Brown, Shinabarger makes regular pilgrimages into the wilderness to gather ideas for new works. In order to convey the essence of his elusive subjects, he says it is necessary to put himself in a position to directly observe them in the wild.

Indeed, be it the Brooks Range in remotest Alaska where he has spent weeks trailing Grizzly bears and migrating caribou; the Wrangle Range where he has ascended the rugged crags in search of Dall Sheep; the red rock canyons of Utah where he has plied the shadows in search of mule deer; or the vast greater Yellowstone ecosystem in his own back yard where he has ambled after moose and majestic wapiti, his wanderings fail to quench an endless thirst for wildlife and wild places.

In 2015, he was featured in the Best of the Best Contemporary Wildlife Exhibition and Sale at the Woolaroc Museum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  In 2014, he won the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award at the Prix de West and a Bronze Medal at the National Sculpture Society’s annual awards exhibition.  His other accolades include being a four-time winner of the coveted James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award at the Prix de West and earning similar distinctions from the National Sculpture Society, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and the Society of Animal Artists.

Z.S. LIANG

Z. S. Liang 

Click to See Catalogue

Z. S. Liang was born in China in 1953 and raised in a family of artists. He studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and later furthered his art studies in the United States. He earned his BFA in painting at Massachusetts College of Arts in 1986 and his MFA in painting at Boston University in 1989.

Liang received his first great inspiration in this country while studying and painting the Wampanoag Indian culture at the Outdoor Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This newfound interest fired his imagination, and he began to focus his painting primarily on Native American cultures and their traditional way of life. During the ensuing years of field research, he has made many connections and friends among Native tribes from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains. Liang’s obvious passion for the Indians as a people, coupled with his emphasis on historical accuracy, adds strength and truth to his portrayals.

Among the many awards Liang has received are 2018 Sam Houston Award for Painting at Night of Artists, the 2011 Masters of the American West Purchase Award and the 2009 David P. Usher Patrons’ Choice Award at the Autry’s Masters of the American West; and the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence, Oil Painters of America; Best of Show Award and People’s Choice Award, the American Society of Portrait Artists, 1998.

Liang’s works are in the permanent collections of the American National Portrait Gallery, Autry Museum, Briscoe Western Art Museum, Harvard University, and the West Point Museum of the United States Military Academy.

Education
• Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
• Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
• Massachusetts College of Arts, Boston, MA, BFA Painting, 1986
• Boston University, Boston, MA, MFA Painting, 1989
Selected Group Exhibitions
• Autry National Center, Masters of the American West, 2006-2020
• The paintings of Z.S. Liang, Tianjin People’s Fine Art Publishing House, China, 2006
Selected Press
• Art of the West, “I’m Still Fighting the Battle”, Barbara Coyner, January/February, 2013
• Art of the West, Cover, (Flute Player), January/February, 2013
• Art of the West Guidebook, Cover, (The Lesson), 2012
• Southwest Art, Visual Literature, November, 2012
• Western Art Collector, Timeless Narratives, November, 2012
• Western Art Collector, December, 2011
• Art of the West, November, 2010
• Western Art Collector, 2010
• Art of the West, Cover (Buffalo Scouts), May/June, 2009
• Western Art Collector, May 2009
• Western Art Collector, Cover (Charging the Enemy), October, 2008
• Western Art Collector, February, 2008
• American Art collector, East Meets West, April, 2006
• Art of the West, A Passion for People, Barbara Coyner, July 2005
Affiliations
• American Society of Portrait Artists
• Society of Illustrators
Public Collections

• National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, DC
• Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA
• West Point Museum of The United States Military Academy, West Point, NY
• Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Awards
• Autry National Center, Masters of the American West, Purchase Award, 2011

STAN DAVIS

Stan Davis, born in 1942, with extensive experience in advertising agencies, is an illustrator in oil of 19th-century Blackfoot, Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. In an attempt to ensure historical and cultural accuracy, Davis makes every costume used in his paintings.

Raised near Tallahassee, Florida, he searched the beaches, as a child, for pre-Colombian arrowheads and pottery shards. He graduated from the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Davis joined the Air Force after working for a year for an advertising agency in Coco Beach, Florida. After his discharge in 1968, he moved to Los Angeles, where he became art director for a large advertising agency. He started his own agency in the mid-1970’s, though he continued to draw and paint in his spare time.

In 1979, he decided to paint Native American-themed art after a trip to art galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona. Back in Los Angeles, he studied Western movies as a starting point for subject matter, but soon realized that Hollywood was historically inaccurate. Davis then visited a shop specializing in Native American costumes for movie studios, where he learned to make historically accurate replicas of tribal clothing.

Davis visited museums, studying artifacts and artwork of the Blackfoot tribe, traveling in the American Northwest and Canada to gain perspective on the Northern Plains’ Indians. Back in Los Angeles, he hired Native American actors as models and began to paint while continuing to work full-time at his advertising agency. Two years later, he took his twenty-five best paintings and successfully entered the gallery world. He eventually left the advertising business and returned to his native Florida, where he continues to live and paint.

CHASE TAFOYA

Chase Tafoya grew up in California being inspired by the deep rooted melting pot of cultures. Drawing since the age of 3, he had been obsessed with making art as far back as he can remember, essentially becoming a self taught artist, and teaching himself how to later paint at age 20.

Living and exploring throughout the west coast, Chase has developed an inspiration and influence from his family heritage and the culture which it brought. “My desire to create comes from a constant search of how to evoke an emotion, and convey a message, by capturing the beauty that the American west constantly reveals to those who pay attention.“

Today, Tafoya can be found chasing the beautiful changing climates and landscapes of central Oregon, where he resides with his wife and son, in search of that next inspiring backdrop and subject matter that he feels must be captured with paint.

“I feel blessed to be given this gift of creating, and to not use it, is not an option for me. So many people spend their whole lives searching for their passion, and I was able to find mine at a young age. I will never take this ability for granted.”

RAY ROBERTS

Ray spent his childhood in Orange County with orange groves, before the days of freeways and sprawling housing developments. It has given him an enduring affection for the untamed, undeveloped California of his youth. Following the early death of his father and mother’s ill-health, Ray was sent to Orme School, a beautiful, ranch-style boarding school in the Arizona desert. Its strong fine arts program helped Ray to discover his artistic talent and ultimately set in motion Ray’s pursuit in art and the West and it’s cultures.
Ray graduated from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles with a BFA in1978 After 12 years as an illustrator Ray turned his focus to fine art. His western background weighed heavily in his transition. Accompanied with his artist-wife Peggi Kroll Roberts and their 3 young children, Ray began the path as painter with all the family in tow and soon gathered many prestigious awards.
Ray Roberts seeks to find the rhythm, beauty and ambiguity in painting. He seeks tension and balance, searches for discovery and familiarity, and pursues a sense of time and place. He honors the craft and standards set by the greats of the last 150 years.

Ray Roberts- Angels Camp, CA
Education: BFA Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA;
Awards and Honors:
2020- Best in Show-Joan Irvine Smith Award California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, Hilbert Museum
2017- Best in Show, Maynard Dixon Country, Thunderbird Foundation, Mt Carmel, UT
2015 Best in Show, Maynard Dixon Country, Thunderbird Foundation, Mt Carmel, UT
2015 Best in Show- Laguna Plein Air Invitational Laguna  Art Museum
2012 Best in Show/Gold Meal, California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, USC Fisher Museum of Art
2011-Best in Show- Laguna Plein Air Invitational Laguna  Art Museum
2011 Best of Show, Maynard Dixon Country;
2007- Heritage Award, Irvine Heritage Show, San Juan Capistrano, California;
2006- Best of Showl, Irvine Heritage Show, San Juan Capistrano, California;
2006- Artists’ Choice Award, Best in Show ;
2005- Friends of OPA Award, Oil Painters of America, Chicago, Illinois;
2004- Gold Medal, California Art Club’s 94th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, Pasadena Museum of California Art;
2004- Artists’ Choice Award- Laguna Plein Air Invitational Laguna  Art Museum; 2004- Artists’ Choice Award- Maynard Dixon Country; 2003- Artists’ Choice, Laguna Plein Air Invitational;
2003- Artists’ Choice Award, Carmel Plein Air Festival;
2003- Honorable Mention, Carmel Plein Air Festival; 2003- Maynard Dixon Award, Sonoran Desert Invitational;
2001- American Artist Magazine Award for Excellence, Oil Painters of America National Juried Show;
2000- Best of Show, American Impressionist Society, Cincinnati, Ohio;1999- Artists’ Choice Award, Carmel Plein Air Festival;
1995- Best of Show and First Place Oil, Phippen Memorial Art Show, Prescott, Arizona; ;
1994 Best Portrait, Oil Painters of America, Chicago, Illinois;
1995, 1994, 1993- Best of Show, Beaver Creek Art Festival, Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Publications: Western Art Collector; Southwest Art; Plein Air Magazine.

Like many other disciplines of the Arts, Ray Roberts seeks to find the rhythm, beauty and ambiguity in painting. He seeks tension and balance, searches for discovery and familiarity, and pursues a sense of time and place. He honors the craft and standards set by the greats of the last 150 years. Ray’s vibrant use of color, bold textures, and sensitivity to shifting patterns of light and atmosphere give life and movement to his paintings.

Ray grew up in Orange County with orange groves, before the days of freeways and sprawling housing developments. It has given him an enduring affection for the untamed, undeveloped California of his youth. Following the early death of his father and mother’s ill-health, Ray was sent to Orme School, a beautiful, ranch-style boarding school in the Arizona desert. Its strong fine arts program helped Ray to discover his artistic talent

NOCONA BURGESS

Nocona Burgess presents strikingly modern depictions of Indigenous men and women from various  tribal Nations of North America. His paintings mix careful research, firsthand knowledge and raw passion. By combining brightly colored shapes with crisply outlined facial features and traditional dress, Burgess explores the cultural context, life story and identity of each sitter. In this way, the artist urges us to update our perceptions of Native people and consider the intriguing and often highly politicized place of Native American portraiture.

Burgess is a member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma. He is the son of a former tribal chief and the great-great-grandson of one of the most revered Native American leaders, Chief Quanah Parker. Burgess grew up surrounded by art. His father went to art school to focus on drawing and painting, and his grandmothers made quilts and beadwork from their own designs.

Nocona received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and a Masters in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. He was fascinated by how more traditional forms of Native art evolve into contemporary movements. This fascination came to define his focus, leading him to reinterpret traditionally inspired portraits with his own modern slant. It is the notion of the modern Indian that he seeks in his work and recognizes in himself.

By painting with vibrant pigments onto dark backgrounds Burgess has perfected a method that he describes as “painting outward”. This approach produces the richly contrasting colors of his distinctive canvases and gives his art a vivid depth. Burgess’ paintings inspire and educate through their unusual techniques and positive dialogues between past and present.

Painting for Burgess is a way of reaching out to others. He strives for an intimate connection with each subject, eager to know their characters. Through his paintings Burgess says thank you to his ancestors for their sacrifices in helping to make the contemporary Native identity what it is today.

Nocona Burgess’ paintings have received numerous awards and have been featured in many publications. He exhibits throughout the USA and beyond in Australia, England, South Africa and Sweden. They can also be found in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, Britsol Museum – Bristol, England, American Museum – Bath, England, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture – Santa Fe, NM and many more.