Author Thomas Minckler offers free seminar during Western Rendezvous

Published: August 1, 2011

This year’s Western Rendezvous of Art, Aug. 18-21 in Helena, not only features some of the finest art and artists in the nation, it also gives guests an opportunity to get up-close and personal with the author of a new book on Joseph Henry Sharp, founder of the Taos school of art.

Thomas Minckler, a native of Cut Bank now dividing his time between Billings and New York City, will present a free seminar Friday on his popular new book, In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph Henry Sharp, which has been nominated for the High Plains Book Award in two categories, First Book and Art and Photography.

Minckler’s new book on Sharp celebrates a hitherto unexplored facet of this beloved painter of the American West: In the course of his long career, he painted as many as 400 still lifes featuring flowers.

With more than 100 full-color illustrations, In Poetic Silence opens with biographical chapters that introduce Sharp, his artistic training in Europe, and his art career at home. Two chapters then address the floral still-lifes and examine the importance of these paintings within his body of work.

In his foreword, Brian Dippie, the foremost authority on the art of the West, salutes In Poetic Silence as a “pathbreaking study,” and notes that Minckler’s “enthusiasm for Sharp’s floral art is contagious.”

A special section of images devoted to Sharp’s extensive gardens in Taos, NM, offers fresh insight into the painter’s inspiration. Three appendices provide additional background on the origin and definition of floral still life painting, the history of European still life painting, and the emergence of the tradition in America.

“In Poetic Silence, like Sharp’s flower paintings, is a labor of love,” writes Dippie. “With its splendid color reproductions, it is a lovely bouquet presented to the reader.”

Also on tap, Rendezvous artist Jim Wilcox of Jackson, Wyo., will discuss "Tricks of the Trade – Why you Love It.” The free seminars begin at 1:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

Call 442-4263 or visit www.westrendart.org for details.