The Master Artists Of Art Of The Cowgirl 2020

Barbara Van Cleve earned a MA in English Literature at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was a Dean of Women at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, and taught English Literature and later, photography, for over 25 winters at De Paul University, Loyola University and Mundelein College, all in the Chicago area. At the same time photography continued to be a passionate avocation. In her free time, she worked for Rand McNally as a textbook photographer and also established her own stock photography agency. The long summers were usually spent on the family ranch in Montana.

She moved to Santa Fe in late 1980 to concentrate on photography full time and had her first major exhibition in the fall of 1985. Since that time, she has had over 60 one-person shows and has been in over 100 group shows. Her work is in public and private collections in the United States as well as internationally. Her photography has been published in Roughstock Sonnets (with poetry by Paul Zarzyski), Way Out West, and Cowboys: A horseback Heritage. KOAT-TV, an ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico produced and aired a thirty-minute video documentary, “Barbara Van Cleve: Capturing Grace”, in 1993. In the Fall, 1995 her book, Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women was published by the Museum of New Mexico Press, and she was inducted into the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. All This Way for the Short Ride (with poet Paul Zarzyski) was published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 1997. Her newest project is a book Holding the Reins written by Mark Talbert and illustrated with her photographs about ranch girls. It was published by Harper Collins in February 2003. She moved back to Big Timber, Montana, her hometown, where she has her studio and is close to the family ranch.

In 1987, she received two saddle trees as a gift from her husband, and had the great honor of receiving lessons from Master Saddlemaker Dale Harwood. Armed with a notebook, she would visit Dale’s shop over the course of several months to observe his work and receive guidance from the Master. After building the first saddle for herself, and the next one for her kids, she started getting orders from friends, and a thirty year career began.

Sandy Collier has the unique distinction of being the first and only woman to win the National Reined Cowhorse Snaffle Bit Futurity. She is a multiple NRCHA and AQHA World Champion, and was reserve limit/intermediate open futurity champion at the 1997 NRHA Reining Futurity.

She is an NRCHA AAA and AQHA judge and has judged the prestigious NRCHA and AQHA World shows.
In 2012, Sandy was inducted into The Cowgirl Hall of Fame. And, in 2013, The NRCHA honored her by inducting her into the NRCHA Hall of Fame. She has also been the recipient of the Monty Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. According to Sandy, her lifelong passion for horses began “when my cells started to divide”. She spent the first third of her career as a veteran three-day eventer on the East coast, and then turned her focus to reiners and cowhorses.

Preserving the West through her work and a passion for the equine define artist Shannon Lawlor. Her connection to the land, people, horses and lifestyle of the modern West is palatable in the essence of her work – portrayed through her brush strokes – whether in the soft intensity of an eye of a working ranch horse, or the exquisite detail of a hackamore.

Growing up on the edge of the Northern Great Plains – a region known for extensive cattle ranching and cowboying – Lawlor has been drawing since the age of five, and it’s a passion that hasn’t waned since. Before becoming a full-time artist, her life was spent in the saddle, around the animals she would one day be renowned for depicting in her art, considering them “one of the true stewards of the West.” Purposeful horsemanship is important to her, as is the authenticity of gear – a nuance not lost on her collectors, for her work is known for its “correctness” in detail.

If it was the pure enjoyment of drawing and painting horses that propelled her into pursuing the life of an artist fulltime, it is her continued deep sense of pride in knowing the West is her lifestyle and her people, that gives her a sense of obligation to authentically preserve it. Ultimately it is her wide range of collectors who benefit, with the opportunity and gratitude to feel that sense of her love for the West, and are inspired to collect her work. “Many people in the lifestyle of the West collect my work, and those who are removed from it, yet fully appreciate the West – also collect it,” says Lawlor.

Sheila Kirkpatrick

Guest Master Hat Maker