Artists to Watch
Focus on Chuck Middlekauff, Karin Jurick, and Julie Oriet
 GARAGE BAND BY CHUCK MIDDLEKAUFF |
Chuck Middlekauff
Inspired by the West and television heroes from his childhood like the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers, Texas artist Chuck Middlekauff has painted cowboys and their boots since 1992. But Middlekauff also has a long-standing romance with the open road and has added nostalgic Americana icons such as diners, neon motel signs, Coke machines, and beat-up pickup trucks to his creations.
Using a trompe l’oeil technique, he paints in surfboards, candy wrappers, and toys. Or he might include an actual vinyl record by the Beach Boys or the Beatles into the composition. “As with my cowboys and Coke machines, you wouldn’t necessarily see these objects together in the real world, but I like to think of them together,” Middlekauff says.
For the artist, the main concern is to cause viewers to smile. “I want people to see the old things anew, in a fresh and different way,” he says. “I want to entertain and offer cheerfulness, because there are enough serious things in the world.”
Middlekauff’s works are on view March 20-23 at Legacy Contemporary Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. He is also represented by Montana Trails Gallery, Bozeman, MT; Romicks Home Collection, Steamboat Springs, CO; and Stanfield Fine Art, Aspen, CO, and Park City, UT.
 LEFT HOLDING THE BAG BY KARIN JURICK |
Her figures stare at paintings, stand in line for coffee, and settle into comfortable corners to read the newspaper. If you ask Georgia-based painter Karin Jurick where her inspiration comes from for such imagery, it’s no surprise when she replies, “everyday life.”
Jurick is fond of shooting hundreds of photographs as reference material—images she pores over on a regular basis for inspiration. “I’m comfortable exploring the world and painting what I want,” she says. “Every day I wake up in the morning and I have no plans about what I am going to paint.”
A self-taught artist, she attributes her talent and exposure to art to her mother, Lee, who sold her works at traveling art shows. Several years ago Jurick began studying and painting seriously—observing works, she says, by favorite artists such as Wayne Thiebaud, Lucian Freud, Burton Silverman, and Ken Auster. “I am an avid fan of realism, but I strive to paint with loose, expressive brush strokes and use daring, vivid colors to achieve paintings with life and spontaneity.”
Jurick is represented by Howard/ Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WA; 16 Patton Gallery, Asheville, NC; and Cohen Rese Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Julie Oriet
 FOOTHILL FANTASY BY JULIE ORIET |
When Julie Oriet was growing up in Montana, she enjoyed riding, fishing, and backpacking in Yellowstone National Park. Today she remains fascinated with life in the wild, only these days she lives in Wyoming and her artistic vision turns heavenward. “We have beautiful skies here and I can’t help but look at them,” Oriet says. “The clouds are constantly changing. And change is what catches my eye.”
Oriet is the first to admit, however, that she is drawn to a wide variety of subjects and terrain beyond Wyoming. She relishes traveling for inspiration, whether she journeys to Africa and Europe or closer to home to Texas, where she visits her good friend, sculptor T.D. Kelsey, and captures the colors of the West Texas landscape.
A former student of watercolor artist Carlton Plummer, Oriet is also a signature member of the Montana Watercolor Society. Her paintings have been included in the C.M. Russell Art Auction in Great Falls, MT; the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale in Cody, WY; and the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale in Denver, CO. Oriet is represented by Simpson Gallagher Gallery, Cody, WY; J Moore Gallery, Bigfork, MT; and Pinon Fine Art, Littleton, CO.
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