Western Art at the Tacoma Art Museum

During our visit to the Tacoma Art Museum, we learned that what constituted "the West" changed over time as the country continued to expand westward.

We looked at line in this painting, Supreme Moment of Evening, by Curt Walter and discussed how we could tell what the artist felt about his subject, the Grand Canyon, and the different tools he used to make it look so dramatic. We noticed the colors and the light, and paid particular attention to the horizon line.

 
We made a diagonal line with our bodies to show the line separating the foreground from the background in this painting:

 Then we looked at this painting, Rain and Runoff, by Ed Mell, and compared and contrasted the  portrayal of the subject and the different styles and overall feelings conveyed in the two paintings.

We also looked at When The Plains Were His by Charles M. Russell, and noticed the details of the Native American dress and discussed what was happening in this painting (the displacement of Native Americans) and why this was happening.

We ended our time in the gallery with a kind of scavenger hunt, looking at other art works. My group was drawn back to Charles Russell's sculptures, which we had studied previously with Ms. Head at school.

 We discussed the following questions as we looked:

Then, led by a very congenial group of high school students from the School of The Arts, we tried our hands at our own western landscapes using watercolor pencils.

 These turned out beautifully (not that I'm biased or anything.)

Here are the things that made the biggest impression, as we wrote our thank you letters:

I'd heard the western collection at TAM was pretty amazing, and it truly is! Thank you, Tacoma Art Museum, for sharing it with us!