Jan Youren
a partner in the San Isabel Ranch in Westcliffe, Colorado,
which specializes in raising purebred Hereford cattle. This
2007 painting depicts an older woman standing with
authority and serenity in the fullness of age, her turquoise
necklace and bracelet worthy of Vermeer in their detail; one
can almost touch the suede of her vest. Yet this is not sterile
or kitsch hyperrealism but an ongoing process of discovery,
by a modern artist, of the magical capabilities of paint in the
representation of color, texture and light.
One feels a similar delight in the more impressionistic
verisimilitude and brighter palette of Kay, Kay Cee and Sadie
Shelton, a large oil pastel from 1995, or in the oil pastel
portrait, in full rodeo regalia, of Heidi Redd.
HYLAND
