Artists

Yes, these are my paintings. I strive for beauty in every stroke and use this motto as a mantra when I paint. I like the American Indian teaching "walk in beauty". I try to surround myself with beauty and live a beautiful life. I want my paintings to beautify the homes and offices of my collectors. I enjoy the challenge of plein air painting, especially during international trips to beautiful places. My most recent paintings are from trips to India and St.George Utah.

Olexa Bulavitsky passed away in 2001 after a long illness. The available works of this great artist are rapidly disappearing to private collectors. He is widely revered by seasoned painters for his masterful use of color. We feel his paintings are likely to appreciate in value in the years ahead. In 2016 the Russian Museum in Minneapolis curated a one person show of his work.

A sad farewell to one of Utahs towering artistic talents. Gary was a dear friend. He left us with so many wonderful memories, so much fun and laughter. And so much beauty, in his art and in his life. He was a beautiful man. -Keith Wilcock I can see him now, standing in an orchard in Provance, looking through tall green cypress trees to a small village church. His pallet had large gobs of paint from every tube he owned, and a couple of mine that he liked, so that it was a wildly decorated plate of colors. And he worked so fast. Six brushes sprouted from his left hand and his right hand danced from pallet to canvas like a conductor's baton- his strokes so bold and free. And the paintings were stunning. Gary Max Collins was honored as Utah''s Artist of the Year in 2007. The ceremony included Utah''s Governor and many of the top movers and shakers in the state''s art community.

John started painting before he could walk. His father,the brilliant Utah painter Gary Max Collins, reports that John began making abstract paintings on the floor of his fathers studio before he was two years old, sometimes using his hands as brushes. John clearly inherited his father's sense of color and design, and although he has participated in many shows with his father, he has developed his own unique style. He has taught water color painting on raft trips down the Colorado. He still creates beautiful abstracts as well as wonderful landscapes. His colors are delicious.

Alec's lyrical sculptures of nudes show a love for the female form. His bronze cat has the same flowing lines. His sketches, particularly of figures, also reflect an appreciation of the planes and values caused by light falling across the human body.

Winner of the bronze medal at the 2013 American Watercolor Society show in New York. Taught workshops in China, Italy, France and in many cities in the USA. Past President of the Minnesota Watercolor Society. On the cover of American Artist Watercolor magazine, Summer 2005. Clearly one of the countries finest watercolor painters. EvansenArtStudio.com

Arne Westerman AWS Arne Westerman's confident brush strokes make his well known figure paintings look effortless. He works fast, sketching with his brushes as he goes. The results are what seasoned painters call "painterly". He is a wonderful teacher, has a great sense of humor, and is widely respected for his his paintings of sophisticated women.

Don Andrews leads watercolor workshops throughout the United States and Europe. He has published several books on water color painting and is widely respected for his landscapes and figure studies.

John Asaro is a prominent American painter concerned primarily with capturing the natural lyricism of human figures. The subjects of his paintings range from his children, ballerinas, to nudes in repose, to graceful swimmers. He relishes color, pushing hues to their extreme and allowing shadow and form to come alive in his unique, sometimes daring blends of oil paint. I met John Asaro years ago. On a trip to California, I tracked down his number and when I called and told him I had a gallery in Minnesota, he invited me to his home. He had a fantastic painting of his ten or eleven year old daughter, standing in front of a huge bouquet of flowers, in his entry. He showed us his studio and when I pulled out a roll of cash and offered to buy a painting, he politely refused. He directed us to his dealer in San Diego. I was impressed with his integrity. Most artists would have taken the cash and kept the dealers commission. We went to his dealer and purchased "Pacific Beach Bath". Mr. Asaro handmade the frame to fit the painting.

Mark Balma is sought worldwide for his rare ability to paint and repair frescos in the same style as the 15th and 16th-century masters of Italian portraiture (e.g. Leonardo da Vinci). He continues to apply old-world methods to more contemporary human subjects. His gigantic portrait of George W. Bush commands a major wall at the new presidential library. He has created portraits for other world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Joseph Becker does not try to dominate and control his glass sculptures by making flowers, animals, or objects. Instead he allows the glass to showcase its unique beauty (in form, line, light, shadow, and depth of color) through extensive grinding and polishing techniques. His art-pieces have been displayed internationally and across the United States: from the Corning Glass Museum (in Corning, NY) to art festivals in St. Louis, Florida, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

1933 - 2013 Inducted into the Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2004. Created illustrations for Star Wars, Dune, Star Trek and many other Hollywood block busters. Created hundreds of book covers and magazine illustrations. Best known for his realistic images of space ships but also paints figures, portraits and landscapes. A truly amazing painter.

Ming Feng is a prominent artist in China, where he has worked not only as a painter, but as a set designer (for the Modern Dance Troupe of Guanzgzhou); a graphic designer (for the Guangzhou Art Design Company); and a book and calender illustrator (for the Beijing People''s Publishing House). He currently resides in the United States, where he continues to paint figures and landscapes which synthesize both Eastern and Western approaches to acrylic and oil painting.

Economy of stroke describes Lipelt's approach to painting. He is a master at reducing a composition to its most fundamental elements and then rendering the image with a few well placed strokes. His oils and watercolors show the confidence and spontaneity of a great painter. His pallet is rich and beautiful, but like his brush strokes, he does not mix them a lot, sometimes taking them straight out of the tube.

Kairong Liu (friends and students call him "Kai")is one of Minnesota's finest painters. In 2013 one of his landscapes took first prize at the Minnesota State Fair. He works in oil and acrylic and his mastery of color sets him apart. He paints with great confidence and speed, producing several quality paintings in the time it takes others to create one. In a recent trip to China, where he was born, he made contact with some of that nation''s top artists and was invited to conduct workshops. He is experienced teacher and has an impressive following of students.

910 - 1982 Known for her Picasso like metal sculpture. Represented the US at the 1954 World Fair in Brussels. A colleague of Louise Nevelson and Professor of Art at the U. of Minnesota where a building in the art department is named after her. Worked with steel, aluminum, copper and bronze. Her works are included in many museums and corporate collections. "Crusader" is made of solid copper, iodized to prevent the green oxidation that plagues many works in copper. One of her more poserful war protest pieces,it evokes an image of crumpled armor left on some ancient battle field with the suggestion of severed limbs inside.

Douglas Peden believes that an artist should never be fully satisfied with what he or she does. He thus continues to explore his own capabilities to express ideas, emotions, narratives, literary metaphors, and musical rhythms in his paintings, which are immediately recognizable (and hard to classify in any existing genre) for their dynamic use of vivid coloration and geometric abstraction.

Utah artist best known for his watercolors of western landscapes.

(1922 - 2003) Primarily known for his lyrical portraits, Jerome Ryan was both a painter and a sculptor. He was commissioned to do the portrait of Governor Rudy Perpich for the Minnesota State Capitol. He did a series of portraits of Presidents of the United States for General Mills. He has painted portraits and sculpted heads and busts for Supreme Court judges and corporate leaders. He also enjoys painting landscapes and nudes in both watercolor and oil. When I sold a major portrait commission of two teenage daughters of a wealthy banker, I immediately called Jerome. I offered him the commission, the use of my studio, and a spare bedroom. He was a wonderful guest. His breakfast was toast with special peanut butter and thinly sliced garlic. It was fun to hear him rant about politics and watch him work on the portrait. Once, during a long sitting, the family puppy came in and laid down at the girls feet. With a few deft brush strokes, Jerome included the dog in the painting. As I knew it would be, the painting was a dazzling success. Like me, Jerome loved beautiful women. His charcoal and graphite drawings show the expressive lines and curly-Q's of a seasoned painter. Sadly, Jerome died of heart failure in 2003.

Leah Schwartz sees beauty in the minutia of nature (in flowers, plants) as well as human figures. Her watercolor paintings transfer delicate forms of life from their natural habitat to still paintings through a careful sensitivity to color, shadow, and movement.

Joseph Wilcock is currently working on a series of watercolor paintings depicting the islands and shoreline of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. He has also painted scenes from mountains and canyons of Utah and Colorado. His attention to detail in his pictures makes them accurate historical records.

A visitor to Wilcock Gallery who had gone to high school with Tom Foty, reported that Tom would paint little landscapes on flat rocks, the kind you skip on a lake, and gave them to pretty girls. If it's true that "the more you paint the better you get," it is no wonder that Tom Foty is such a superb painter. Tom cranked out this figure study in about 20 minutes. I watched him and marveled. Pastel on warm colored paper. The drawing, its simplicity of skin tones, the shadows all announce his artistic wizardry.

First he took a sheet of glass and covered it with water. Then he laid his watercolor paper on the wet surface and brushed more water on to the top of the paper. At this stage, the paper was like a wet blotter. He brushed on a blue sky, then as the paper dried he added some distant purple mountains. Then a line of distant trees. He controlled the drying time with a hair dryer. Last, he painted a tent, a campsite with smoke rising from a campfire. It was beautiful, his brush strokes were like magic. Howard is known for his series of illustrated books that depict the early history of the small fishing communities around Lake Superior.

Kate was a senior in college, majoring in Biology, when she took her first art class in painting. She loved it. She discovered she was good at it. With encouragement from a great professor she changed her career focus from science to art. I met Kate when I was invited to join a group of Plein Air painters doing landscapes in Zion National Park. Her talent was obvious. Kate lived in a gorgeous spot near the entrance to Zion with her park ranger husband and her two grade school age kids, Will and Grace. She invited a few of us to dinner and when her kids begged to stay up after their bedtime to join the laughter and conversation, Kate kindly allowed it. I was so impressed with her painting that I returned the next day and purchased four paintings for Wilcock Gallery. Only one remains. It captures the grandeur of some of Zions majestic red rock mountain formations. I love this painting and will miss it when it sells. But, I am old and it's someone else's turn to enjoy its vibrant colors.

An artist friend of mine told me that in Puerto Rico, they pronounce the color 'Naples Yellow', as 'Nipples Jell-O'. That's not a sexist comment. Men have nipples too. Every serious artist must paint figures well. A crooked arm is like a clinker at a concert. A beautifully drawn nude is like a complex chord or a lovely melody. Most artists that I have known, men and women, have a secret stash of nude drawings and paintings in their closets. Artists who love beauty also love beautiful women. An artist friend told me he was looking for a model so beautiful, she made his socks roll up and down. The paintings in this section, including several of my own, are from artists we have represented over the years. I hope they make your socks roll up and down. They are for sale.