Masters of Western Art [SOLD]

MASTERS OF WESTERN ART

Mary Carroll Nelson

Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications, New York

Hardback with slip cover, first edition 1982, 176 pages, 110 color plates and 70 black and white illustrations.

Condition: book is in excellent condition. Slip jacket shows wear.

Mary Carroll Nelson focused on twelve of America’s foremost Western artists, detailing their lives as well as their work and working methods.  The artists featured provide a personal vision of the West. They make the West come alive.

Every chapter includes a discussion of the artist’s studio (with particular attention paid to lighting), materials, and methods.  This is a book that speaks not only to artists but to art collectors, conservators of our Western land and heritage, and art lovers everywhere.

Contents

Western Visions Frontiers of the Mind

James Boren Tough and Tender Impressions

John Clymer Being There

Wilson Hurley Scenes of Grandeur

Ben Konis The West in Technicolor

George B. Marks The Rugged Truth

Stephen Naegle The Visual Experience

Jean Parrish Scene from Afar

Morris Rippel An Architecture of Form

Sandy Scott Wildlife Etchings

Gordon Snidow A Classic Influence

Doris Steider The Velvet Sky

Howard Terpning A Painterly Vision

Gallery

Bibliography

Index

From the Jacket

Western art is heroic, accessible, and very much a part of American life. In Masters of Western Art, Mary Carroll Nelson focuses on twelve of America's foremost Western artists, detailing their lives as well as their a work and working methods. The artists featured are James Boren, John Clymer, Wilson Hurley, Ben Konis, George Marks, Stephen Naegle, Jean Parrish, Morris Rippel, Sandy Scott, Gordon Snidow, Doris Steider, and Howard Terpning. Separately each artist provides a personal vision of the West; together their knowledge and experience add strength to their portrayals. They make the West come alive. All follow the classical tradition practiced by great artists while sharing an enormous amount of hard-won information on present-day marketing, working methods, and thinking. Several artists even combine efficient, energy-saving techniques of their earlier years in commercial illustration with their present needs as fine artists.

Every chapter includes a discussion of the artist's studio (with particular attention paid to lighting), materials, and methods. The book spans a wide range of media-oil, watercolor, gouache, egg tempera, etching, and pastel, and almost all the artists discuss their use of slides or photographs. And there is more. Clymer describes his use of preliminary sketches and suggests a way to think about perspective. Hurley uses a geographical contour map to paint the Grand Canyon, matching what he sees to the information on the map in a most intellectual way. Ben Konis demonstrates the basic succinct steps to painting a pastel portrait. George Marks draws his composition to size on vellum and then transfers it to canvas. Every chapter is filled with such helpful details!

At a time when Western art is in great demand, with paintings such as those in this book selling for up to six figures, this is a book that speaks not only to artists but to art collectors, conservators of our Western land and heritage, and art lovers everywhere.