At the bottom of the stairs are, top to bottom,
Jim Wilcox’s oil Jacob Hamblin Arch and P.A.
Nisbet’s oil Green Glass. Above the stand on the
right are, top to bottom, Peter Adams’ oil Storm
Break and George Hallmark’s oil Canciones del
Abuelo. Next, ascending the stairs are, left to
right, Alexander Kanchik’s oil Carrying the Fish
and Teal Blake’s oil Grassland Cavvy.California. They know many of the artists well,
and the feelings around those friendships live in
the works of art. The couple’s grandchildren also
figure in the collection and their enjoyment of
it. Their now-16-year-old granddaughter is the
subject of Curious Emily by Morgan Weistling.
When their 4- and 5-year-old grandsons visit
via FaceTime they ask them to walk around to
see all the works with horses and to talk about
what the horses are doing. Weistling comments
on Emily’s own curiosity, “My intention was
to have the young girl interact with a bowl
of peaches. Instead, she found some of the
set dressing items I had placed around her
far more fascinating. By following her lead,
I ended up with a better painting.”
“We met Morgan when he was painting in
a plein air demonstration at Paramount Ranch,”
the collector explains. “He started from a blank
canvas and the process was like watching a
conductor direct an orchestra, bringing all the
parts together. I went up and introduced myself
and asked if the painting was for sale. Morgan
said when he finished it back at his studio he
would send me an image.” Alexa is now part of
the couple’s collection.
When they heard that Weistling’s daughter
Brittany was going to have some paintings in
the gift shop of the Autry Center (she was too
young to be included in the museum’s Masters
of the West exhibition), the collectors made it
a point to be there when the doors opened so
they could purchase one for their collection.
“We had first met Brittany when we visited
Morgan’s studio and saw her at an easel next
to Morgan’s painting,” he relates.
She comments, “We’ve been to 15 or 16
of the artists’ studios and homes. When they
start talking it’s like having a class.” He adds,
“Morgan has a garage full of vintage clothes
for his models to wear. Z.S. Liang has a studio
full of artifacts. Martin Grelle spends time
with a tribe to learn more about their life and
their rituals. The artists are all concerned with
accuracy in their paintings.
“We met Martin at a Cowboy Artists of
America exhibition in Scottsdale and learned
about an exhibition that was coming up. Part
of the exhibition was an auction, and I bid
on his painting The Guidon which he painted
because he was so moved by the events of
9/11. I got the painting and learned that theOn the upper wall are, left to right, Alexander I. Orlor’s oil Sunset Over a Plant-Filled Pond, George
D. Smith’s oil On the Zig Zag Trail, Alan Maltz’s photograph on canvas First Light, Susanne Howes
Stevens’ oil on panel In Between #6, Morgan Weistling’s oil Alexa, and a lithograph, Hollywood
Caricature, by Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003). Beginning through the archway are, left to right, William
Acheff’s oil Wildflowers, André Baylon’s oil Dusk in Carmel Valley, Theodore Lukits’ (1897-1992)
1922 oil Culmination, Le Long Yao’s 2007 oil Sisters, Brittany Weistling’s oil The Poet and a
lithograph, Hollywood Caricature, by Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003).