Teenage collector snares Russell original

Published: April 13, 2009

Tim Seery with his Russell original

Although Tim Seery didn’t break auction records with his purchase of an original Russell painting, he probably comes in as youngest-buyer-ever at the 41st annual event, held March 20-21 in Great Falls.  

The 16-year-old sophomore at C.M.R. High School in Great Falls has been volunteering at the Russell Museum for the past year. “He’s learned a lot, and has just been fascinated with the story of Russell,” says the museum’s interim director, Susan Johnson. Seery paid $3,500 for a small original titled “Matador Dance Program.”

“He spied this piece when the catalogue came out, went after it at the auction and got it,” she says.

“He’s very well-spoken, very bright and very passionate – and he’s an artist himself,” Johnson adds, predicting, “we’ll be seeing more of him in the future.”

Award winners at this year’s auction were:

• Charles Fritz, who received the Jurors’ Award for Best of Show for his oil painting entitled ”Glacier Park at the Iceberg Notch.” Fritz’s piece sold for $17,000 during Saturday night’s Auction.

• Gary Lynn Roberts, who won the People’s Choice Award for Best Painting and the Honorary Chairman’s Award for his oil on canvas “After the Shower,” which sold for $38,000 on Saturday night.

• Jerry McKellar, whose “Message to the Sky Father,” won the People’s Choice Award for Best Sculpture, and sold for $12,500.

• Xiaogang Zhu, who received the C.M. Russell Museum CEO Award for his oil on board painting titled “Cove in Quiet Morning.”

• Joe Kronenberg, who won the Ralph “Tuffy” Berg Award for most promising artist for his oil painting “Emerging at Dusk.”