Here at Gallery MAR, we have a new series of work from James Penfield, out of Minnesota. We wanted to hear about the inspiration behind the these pieces, and share it with you! Below, please enjoy the story, directly from the artist. Many thanks to Penfield for sending along his vision of these rowdy cowboys.

This latest series of cowboy themed paintings were fully inspired by the work of Frank
Schoonover. When something strikes me this squarely, I pay attention and start moving.
It tends to lead to an exponential expansion of images and ideas in my head. And that’s
the fuel. So once the initial blast is initiated, then the rest sort of follows sequentially and
that’s where my series come from.

 

 

Frank Schoonover’s work came into my orbit when I was out of the blue contacted by
another Schoonover, Patie Schoonover, an ex-gallery manager from TX who sent me a
request to represent my work at her new gallery in Steamboat Springs, CO that she’s
opening this winter called Schoonover Gallery. I felt very honored by that message I
received, as I had always been the one pursuing galleries, not the other way around. So
that left an honest impression on me that for me generated meaning, like a turning
point, and produced like I said earlier this explosion of activity in my head. It led me to
exploring Frank Schoonover’s work.

 

I’d never taken a hard look at Frank’s work, but I immediately took to it. He represents
the Brandywine School, which was a style of illustration—as well as an artist’s colony in
Wilmington, Delaware and in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, near the Brandywine River—
both founded by artist Howard Pyle at the end of the 19th century. They call that era the
“Golden Age of Illustration” and artists were employed due to that, to illustrate pieces for
publications like the Saturday Evening Post. The founder of the school Howard Pyle
said “Project your mind into your subject until you actually live in it.”

To me this is what the artists does, shows everyone how differences are constructed from
thought, and qualities are timeless and apply to everyone, a language of sorts.

 

The actual pieces Frank created hold tangible energy through mastered qualities of
intense color, perfect composition, bold subjects, efficient perfected imagery that strikes
deep due to those ingredients. The Brandywine people really had a formula that
worked.

To me the “illustrator” approach or quality in Brandywine work is what defines it,
representing more of a keyed in or highly concentrated expression to communicate (or
“illustrate”) very particular qualities masterfully.  And I admire how he can retain those
same qualities and styles from cowboys to Joan of Arc, really providing a strong
example of the consistencies that we can all recognize in each other, regardless of
really any sort of definition whatsoever. That would begin when thought begins. To me
this is what the artists does, shows everyone how differences are constructed from
thought, and qualities are timeless and apply to everyone, a language of sorts.

Tags: cowboy art, Frank Schoonover, Gallery MAR, James Penfield, Park City Art, Park City cowboys, Park City Gallery, Western Art
Posted in Gallery News