Grab your boots and hat and head out to Goldenstein Gallery on Saturday and Sunday, July 22 and 23, for its celebration of the National Day of the Cowboy.

One of the country’s most iconic symbols, the American cowboy and cowgirl have long seized imaginations across the globe. It is the cherished heritage of the American West and the archetypal spirit of these heroes that captivated Goldenstein Gallery artist David DeVary and inspired him to create his acclaimed quintessential series, Cowboys and Cowgirls with Attitude.

DeVary paints introspective, idealized and sometimes provocative figures, capturing and combining the good feelings associated with the Western legend and the American Dream. His use of bright yellow slickers; often black hats that shield the eyes; worn, antique chaps and the cowboy’s own natural body language helps create a striking, almost ethereal portrait of the American cowboy and cowgirl.

He recognizes them as American icons and paints them as such using gold, silver or copper leaf, much like the icon painters of old. This contemporary work captures the values of the West with interest, beauty and sense of good being.

“I’m not painting history,” DeVary said of his work. “Rather, I’m trying to capture the feeling, strength or confidence of the American West. Like the traditional Western artist, I’m fascinated with this romanticized, idealistic West.”

DeVary came to the painter’s life rather late in life. He grew up in southern Illinois in the 1950s, the son of a sheet-metal worker whose mantra was, “You don’t want to be like me.” But he idolized his father.

Uneducated in the formal sense of the word, Lee DeVary tried to make up for his lack of schooling by exposing his kids to culture. When the younger DeVary showed an interest and talent in drawing at an early age, his father drove the family north to visit the Chicago Art Institute, a trip that would prove to be both formative and informative.

It was a big step, but in 1989 DeVary quit his job, sold his house, and moved with his wife and baby daughter to the Southwest to give art a chance. In the midst of that first hectic month that his father passed away, “I didn’t know how to mourn,” DeVary said. So he threw himself completely into his art, and his very first painting was of his father.

“I had a photo of my dad as a young man standing in front of his Model T truck,” he said. “I painted him like that and added gold leaf behind him, making an icon out of the picture. I called it ‘Vanishing American.’ It dawned on me that cowboys are vanishing Americans, too.”

But rather than painting them realistically, riding the range or roping cows, DeVary’s vision is a highly romanticized one.

“I want to capture the spirit of the American Dream, to evoke the hero in all of us,” he said.

Pieces from his Cowboys and Cowgirls with Attitude series have been featured in over a dozen museum exhibitions and are permanently on display at three: Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, N.Y.; Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Ga.; and Denver Art Museum in Denver, Colo. He is part of the Forbes Collection, New York, N.Y.; British Petroleum, New York, N.Y.; and Culligan Water Inc., Chicago, Ill.

Collectors, both individuals and couples, across the globe have also commissioned him to immortalize on canvas their own inner cowboy or cowgirl.

Some might say the era of the cowboy has passed, but we know it is alive and well. It is one of the American archetypes, the hero that lives in each and every one of us.

Join Goldenstein Gallery Saturday and Sunday, July 22 and 23, as it celebrates the cowboy way and honor those who made the West as we know it through the vision of its artists. In addition to DeVary, this weekend Goldenstein Gallery will also feature the sculpted bells of Cheston Trammel created from found objects from Arizona history.

Although Goldenstein and the gallery have worked with hundreds of artists including respected museums and community exhibitions, the gallery now focuses on 50 fine local and regional artists. Recently, USA Today’s 10 Best named the gallery the No. 1 place to shop in Sedona.

Goldenstein Gallery’s new address is 150 State Route 179, at the corner of State Routes 179 and 89A, and is open daily. Visit GoldensteinArt.com to sign up for their informative monthly e-zine, or call
204-1765 for information.