INSIDE Jackson Hole Art Auction • Wildlife Art • Quest for the West • David Grossmann SEPTEMBER 2017
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S HOW LO C AT ION JAC K S ON, W Y
UPCOMING GROUP SHOW Up to 10 works September 1-30, 2017 Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186
BONNIE MARRIS & DUSTIN VAN WECHEL
Wild encounters
M
ichigan painter Bonnie Marris has only dreamt about two of her paintings and Storm Chasers, done for her new exhibition, is one of them. “It was so bizarre to just dream about a painting like that. The last time it happened was with this piece Ice Princess, about a mountain lion coming down from the ice,” she says. “With Storm Chasers, though, I had the dream about five days before and it was about this gray horse we have that is very old, but she doesn’t give up for anything—she’s like a sports car. We’d been having these storms and she was running through the storms. After the dream I got her out of her stall and took a
Storm Chaser, oil on canvas, 30 x 48"
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bunch of pictures. I just couldn’t wait to paint her. It was so much fun.” Marris will be showing new wildlife work with Dustin Van Wechel at Trailside Galleries in Jackson, Wyoming, beginning September 1. Her wild encounters, featuring a variety of animals including wolves and horses, will be on view throughout the month. With paintings that show realistic interpretations of wildlife, Marris says she’s been enjoying moving outside of her comfort zones with some of her new works. “When I was painting Storm Chasers my husband came in and asked what I was doing. He didn’t know what to think. I just had to do it the way I was doing it because I love
playing with the back and forth of abstract and realism,” she says. “I also used colors I’ve never used before, which was a lot of fun.” Other works in the show include Solitaire, which shows a quiet moment with a resting wolf. The viewer is brought in so close on the subject that it would feel amost invasive if the wolf weren’t so calm and composed. “Sometimes I do feel guilty that I’m peering at them so closely, as if I’m eavesdropping on them,” Marris says. “With wolves and coyotes they almost know you’re watching them and they often switch positions on you. I love their paws because they’re so huge, and enjoyable to paint.”
Solitaire, oil on canvas, 18 x 24"
In The Old Stone Wall, Marris found an old rock structure deep in the woods, where she saw a fox perched amid the loosely stacked stones. “I live among foxes, including lots and lots of red fox. I love the way the light played off the stones, that had probably been there for a long time. They reminded me of the old stone walls in England,” the artists says. “The piece came together because I had the softness of the fox with the hardness of the stones, and also the shadow and the light. It was a meditative piece the way the fox lays there and thinks.” Fo r a d i re c t l i n k to t he ex h i b it i n g g a l l e r y g o to w w w. we ste r n a r tc o l l e c to r. c o m
The Old Stone Wall, oil on canvas, 11 x 14"
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