THE RUSSELL AUCTION • March 20-22, 2025 • Featuring over 125 historic pieces, including more than 20 iconic works by Charles M. Russell. Visit cmrussell.org to learn more.

I had Duane Braaten on today and he's a very interesting guy. It just goes to show that when you grow up in an art community like Great Falls, MT  it can affect you and it certainly affected Duane. I think in a way it may have affected him more than he even realizes.

You see, Duane goes to pharmacy school, but he discovers his love for the creative world, art, and art museums. What happens is he works as a security guard at the school art gallery. This alters his trajectory a great deal, and he winds up at the Charlie Russell Museum as a preparator, eventually becoming the  Director of Art and Philanthropy and he's been there since 1996.

The big event we talk about in this podcast is the auction that the C.M. Russell Museum puts on annually called "The Russell." It's the main fundraiser for the C.M. Russell Museum, which is typically the third week in March.

If you haven't gone to that event, believe me when I say that it's a fantastic experience. It's really worth doing. You have all of this interesting art that you can purchase and see, both contemporary and historic. I think 25 Charles Russell works will be for sale, that again, all help the museum, which is an important institution.

So very interesting to talk to Duane about his life, about his career at the C.M. Russell Museum, and the annual auction that is happening March 20, 21, and 22 happening in Great Falls, Montana and online at the link below:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/1115/the-russell-a-western-art-experience/

Oreland Joe came by my gallery today. He's such an interesting individual. I've always admired his sculptures and his paintings. He’s also a silversmith and his son Bo Joe (who I interviewed on episodes 249 and 250), is a master silversmith himself.

He's gone through a lot of different things in his life and is still just pushing forward creatively. He’s currently working on a commission that's coming up in Durango, which is a massive mural for a hospital, as well as working on a film about a prolific ancestor, Yellow Nose, a warrior who captured the seventh cavalry flag on June 25th of 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn. 

There's history thrown in with creativity and how he got to where he is today and what he's working on. So it's a really interesting, unique take on life, and he shares it with us. I am very happy he did and I’m even happier I get to share it with you.

This is Oreland Joe on episode 336 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

Oreland Joe came by my gallery today. He's such an interesting individual. I've always admired his sculptures and his paintings. He’s also a silversmith and his son Bo Joe (who I interviewed on episodes 249 and 250), is a master silversmith himself.

He's gone through a lot of different things in his life and is still just pushing forward creatively. He’s currently working on a commission that's coming up in Durango, which is a massive mural for a hospital, as well as working on a film about a prolific ancestor, Yellow Nose, a warrior who captured the seventh cavalry flag on June 25th of 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn. 

There's history thrown in with creativity and how he got to where he is today and what he's working on. So it's a really interesting, unique take on life, and he shares it with us. I am very happy he did and I’m even happier I get to share it with you.

This is Oreland Joe on episode 336 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

This iteration of the Masters of Drawing podcast was very interesting because I interviewed all of these artists, one after another, in a single day. Featuring Francis Livingston, Jill Carver, Dennis Ziemienski, Greg Newbold, Roseta Santiago, and Jordan K. Walker.

You see, I was having a show that focused on drawing and had invited 47 artists for what I called "Masters of Drawing." These individuals are who I consider to be the very best in that field. They're all artists that primarily do paintings, but I wanted to really focus on that basic structure of most fine art, which is drawing.

It's the thing that you do when you're a kid regardless of whether you're an artist or not, when you're three and you first get a crayon or a pencil. These individuals not only got that crayon and pencil, but they kept using it and using it. If you watch this podcast on YouTube, which I recommend, you can literally see them talking about drawing, speaking with their hands as if a pencil or pen was in their hands. It's really fascinating to watch because you can see each of these people's minds just go to that moment in time.

So I hope you enjoy the third and final Masters of Drawing group podcast. This is episode 335 of Art Dealer Diaries hosted by Dr. Mark Sublette.

This episode is different than the usual format. I was having a show that focused on drawing and I had invited 47 artists for what I called "Masters of Drawing." These individuals are who I consider to be the very best in that field. They're all artists that primarily do paintings, but I wanted to really focus on that basic structure of most fine art, which is drawing.

It's the thing that you do when you're a kid regardless of whether you're an artist or not, when you're three and you first get a crayon or a pencil. These individuals not only got that crayon and pencil, but they kept using it and using it. If you watch this podcast on YouTube, which I recommend, you can literally see them talking about drawing, speaking with their hands as if a pencil or pen was in their hands. It's really fascinating to watch because you can see each of these people's minds just go to that moment in time. 

So I learned a lot personally about drawing, and I think you will, too. These are three individuals on this first podcast that really have, you know, at 100 years of drawing underneath them or more.

I have Chuck Pyle, Ezra Tucker, and Thomas Blackshear, the Masters of Drawing.

Mathieu Nozieres is a name you're going to remember...  I say that because I can just see something in this young man. His trajectory and the way he looks at art... his commitment to Western art specifically is incredible. He actually immigrated from France to Los Angeles with his wife, who's also a wonderful artist as well.

You see, Mathieu has this unique story of being a comic book artist going into fine art, traveling and studying all over the world. From Romania to Belgium, India, China, Russia, all these different places, searching for knowledge to become a better artist and then finding Western art and going, "oh... that's it. Here's my lane. I love art history. I love the West. This is where I'm supposed to be."

So it's a fun ride. Just hearing where he's mentally at this point in his career is a treat. We'll look back someday, you know, 20, 30 years from now and you'll go, oh yeah, that was the first time he stepped on the scene. That was who Mathieu Nozieres was when he started his legendary Western art career. 

So yeah, I enjoyed this podcast a great deal and I hope you do as well.

This is the only podcast I've ever done where I put six different individuals in one episode, all talking about one subject. Drawing.

It's such an important part of being an artist because when you are just a little kid, you pick up those crayons, you pick up the pencils, you start drawing and  - the people that get excited and somehow get turned onto that? Well, those are our artists. 

I wanted to do this major show with all these artists and I've got 47 in this show called Masters of Drawing, where they get to show that expertise that they've had ever since they were little kids. I wanted to interview different artists and see what they had to say about the process.

So it's really a focus on drawing and about the show. The individuals in this episode include Josh Gibson, Kathryn Stedham, William Haskell, Whitney Gardner, Howard Post and Jim Woodside. They all have the same thing in common. They are Masters of drawing.

 I think you'll find this fascinating. I know I did.

I had Susan Lyon on the podcast today. What a joyful person she is. I had never met Susan, but I'm very familiar with her work and her husband Scott Burdick's work and we had a great time. We talked about her life and how she got where she is today as an artist.

We speak about how she found her voice not only as an artist, but as a teacher. Which she does through her own website and through Patreon, which she feels is as much her calling as the art. So people can hear those types of things that she teaches and does, and then you can take that and go and see and learn and even sign up for classes so you can work with a master.

And she is a master and her drawings are amazing. We talk about a show that I'm doing, which is called Masters of Drawing that opens on February 15, 2025. She's a part of that show and it was fun just to discuss everything that goes into her drawings. 

So I had a great time. I think anyone who listens or watches this will realize what an immense gift that Susan Lyon is to the world of art.

Unique podcast today because I'm actually being interviewed by Michael Clawson, who's the editor of Western Art Collector and he has his own podcast, which is the American Art Collective. So you'll be able to listen to this podcast on either platform. 

He wanted to come down and talk to me about Maynard Dixon and interview me. And I said, well, why don't you just use my studio and we can do it together? You know, you interview me just like you would any other guest, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know. And we did that. I talked on Dixon for a very long time, for about an hour and 15 minutes. 

It was a very interesting podcast, because when I do a lecture, it's more of a chronological, you know, follow along, connect the dots kind of thing. This really was more of a question/answer format type of podcast. 

Michael specifically wanted to do this interview because I have a new Maynard Dixon and Native American Art Museum that opened next to my gallery here in Tucson, Arizona. He wanted to let his listeners and readers know about this museum, which is kind of a lifelong conglomeration of all the things that I've collected and learned about Maynard Dixon.

So It was very kind of him to have me on his podcast to do that and to talk about Dixon while we celebrate his 150th birthday. If you like Maynard Dixon, I think you'll find this podcast very interesting.

I had Bob Ashley on today and what an interesting guy he is. I really enjoyed this podcast because it speaks to something that I've always enjoyed, which is  herpetology. As a child I was fascinated with reptiles and I'm still fascinated with them. Anybody who knows me has probably seen me move rattlesnakes off the road because I don't want them to get hurt. If you like herpetology, you're going to love this podcast  (plus it's the year of the snake). If you don't like herpetology and snakes, then you may not find it as interesting as I did.

Bob has the Chiricahua Desert Museum, which is right on the border of New Mexico and Arizona off the I-10. It's not that far from Tucson and it's not only a museum of desert animals, but a museum that preserves and displays Apache material called the Apache Museum and Geronimo Events Center.

He really is one of the top people in this field and a ton of different research gets done as a result of his commitment to herpetology, but he loves Native American art, specifically Apache because he lives and operates his museum in that region. He's very close to the point where Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. government. The museum has lots of different things that you can see and the whole history of that region from an indigenous standpoint, from Mimbres on up.

Unique podcast, unique individual. I hope you do listen to it and I hope you go and visit it, which is at the Chiricahua Desert Museum, because it's a very interesting place to go. That's what this podcast is all about and that's what Bob Ashley is all about. He and I have, a similar love for snakes, herpetology, and Native American art.