Blog

1 04, 2015

Museum Education

2020-01-17T14:36:10-06:00April 1st, 2015|2 Comments

This year Kat and I had the good fortune to attend the annual National Art Education Association conference in New Orleans. During the conference, we had the opportunity to visit some of the local museums, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center, and the New Orleans Museum of Art (which has a gorgeous sculpture garden). Ogden Museum of Southern Art Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans Museum of Art Sculpture Garden at NOMA The conference was a great way for us to meet our fellow art museum educators from [...]

16 03, 2015

Colors of the West

2020-01-17T14:34:58-06:00March 16th, 2015|0 Comments

“If you will permit me to observe, I will say I think the lighting in your studio is too cold. I have found the same trouble and two years ago I painted or stained both my studio here and my summer one a rich red which had the effect of warming up my paint immediately. Why don’t you try it?” – A letter from Frederic Remington to wildlife painter Carl Rungius Last week the museum hosted its annual Spring Break workshops for both children and tweens. During their visit, the students explored color theory and how color influences mood and [...]

11 03, 2015

Dobie and The Longhorns

2020-01-17T14:33:55-06:00March 11th, 2015|5 Comments

Last week we temporarily installed a display in the galleries of a book from the museum’s library by folklorist and author J. Frank Dobie, The Longhorns -- originally from the library of Sid Richardson. Sid Richardson enjoyed a warm friendship with Dobie who, at Sid’s invitation, used Richardson’s San Jose Island ranch as a writer’s haven in 1939 when he wrote The Longhorns. Each print edition of The Longhorns opens with a dedication to Sid, and each of the twenty chapters, illustrated by Tom Lea, is dedicated to a significant individual in Dobie’s life: TO SID W. RICHARDSON who is attempting [...]

25 02, 2015

Texas Post Office Murals

2020-01-17T14:32:43-06:00February 25th, 2015|0 Comments

Sunday marked SRM artist Peter Hurd’s birthday. During the Great Depression era, like many of his peers, Hurd joined the New Deal art projects to execute several post office murals in locations such as Dallas and Big Spring, Texas and Alamogordo, New Mexico, his native state. In Texas alone, the federal government commissioned 106 artworks for 69 post offices and federal buildings. Several of these pieces are now lost. As a scholar and admirer of American and Texas art of the 1930s, I have made it my personal mission to visit and document the remaining. Peter Hurd, O Pioneers, 1938, [...]

16 02, 2015

Encore: Artist as Recorder

2020-01-17T14:31:36-06:00February 16th, 2015|0 Comments

Back by popular demand, the museum hosted an encore children’s workshop focusing on the artist’s role as recorder. Like traveling American artists in the 19th century, the kids had to carry their sketching supplies with them throughout the galleries. On our art adventure, each young artist received a canvas bag that they customized and decorated. With their notes and sketches freshly drawn, the young traveling artists journeyed into the studio classroom where they brought their drawings to life with paint and canvas.

13 02, 2015

Campin’ Buddies

2020-01-17T14:30:36-06:00February 13th, 2015|1 Comment

“In the city men shake hands and call each other friends but it’s the lonesome places that ties their harts together and harts do not forget.” - Charles M. Russell to Santa Fe [Tom Conway], March 24, 1917 Last week we welcomed back home one of our own – Charles Russell’s Man’s Weapons Are Useless When Nature Goes Armed. Originally hung in Sid Richardson's dining room at his San Jose Island home, this painting is a favorite among our visitors and had been out on loan with the traveling exhibition, Harmless Hunter: The Wildlife Work of Charles M. Russell, which [...]

4 02, 2015

Doubly Gifted: George Catlin’s Writings

2020-01-17T14:29:10-06:00February 4th, 2015|0 Comments

Recently we had the honor of hosting a lecture by Dr. Ron Tyler for our latest Coffee & Collecting program. Dr. Tyler is the retired Director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas. He is former Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin and Director of the Texas State Historical Association and the Center for Studies in Texas History at the University and has published a number of works in the areas of Texas, Western American, and American art and history.  Dr. Tyler is very knowledgeable on the topic of George Catlin [...]

3 02, 2015

K’nick-K’neck

2020-01-17T14:28:02-06:00February 3rd, 2015|1 Comment

From time to time, I like to break away from my office to walk through our museum galleries and enjoy the artwork that I often write about on this blog. During one of those leisurely strolls I caught a glimpse of something that was unfamiliar. In one of the paintings from our current exhibition, Take Two, I noticed a strange creature hanging from the belt of one of the figures. When I looked closely, I noticed another figure sporting a similar accessory. I then began to carefully examine the rest of the Catlin images and spotted this particular object in [...]

22 01, 2015

Catlin as Showman

2020-01-17T14:26:24-06:00January 22nd, 2015|0 Comments

As mentioned previously, George Catlin went on several summer excursions West in the early 1830s to record the customs and characters of American Indian tribes he encountered. After 1837, Catlin the artist turned into Catlin the showman, touring the East Coast and Europe with his collection of paintings, costumes, weapons, and household artifacts. He called it his “Indian Gallery” or “Gallery Unique.” In doing so, Catlin inaugurated the elements of what was to become known as Wild West Shows. Unknown artist, The World's Greatest Amusement Institution Tompkin's Real Wild West Frontier Exhibition and European Circus, ca. 1911, Lithograph, Courtesy [...]

15 01, 2015

The Cowboy Artist

2020-01-17T14:23:58-06:00January 15th, 2015|0 Comments

It’s that time of year again – the Fort Worth Stock Show. Festivities begin tomorrow, and to gear up for the event we’re taking a look back at the roundup years of cowboy artist Charles M. Russell. MHS Photograph Archives, Helena, 944-687, Courtesy of Montana’s Charlie Russell: Art in the Collection of the Montana Historical Society As a young boy, Charles Russell was fascinated by tales of the West – Indians, explorers, cowboys, and more. Young Charlie was an avid reader of dime novels and tales of the pioneering frontier. By the age of 16, his parents relented [...]