For immediate release

Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale
Cody, Wyoming
Contact Deb Stafford, Director
1-888-598-8119, or (307) 587-5002
info@buffalobillartshow.com

Cody Show Honors Mel Fillerup

Cody, Wyo.—The Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale has selected plein air painter Melvin M. Fillerup of Cody as its 2005 Honored Artist. He joins the ranks of previous winners James Bama and Wilson Hurley in the three-year tenure of the award.

Fillerup, a broad-ranging artist who bases 80 percent of his work on field studies, will be recognized during the 24th annual Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, Sept. 23-24, at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. He’ll give a public lecture and sign copies of a commemorative poster and a book featuring his life and works.

Fillerup, 81, has created some 3,000 paintings and countless sketches spanning a variety of subjects from landscapes and animals to portraits, scenes of ranch life, and sailboats on the sea. Working in oil, watercolor, and drawings, he has primarily canvassed the American West, particularly Wyoming and Utah, but has also traced his worldwide travels through Mexico, Australia, Portugal, and other far-flung locales.

His recent completion of a one-year project to paint two murals for the Wasatch Campus of Utah Valley State College and his selection as Honored Artist of the Buffalo Bill Art Show represent the twin pinnacles of his artistic life, Fillerup says.

“Completing these murals and receiving this kind of honor in my own hometown stand out at the height of my painting career,” Fillerup said. “For me to be considered alongside James Bama and Wilson Hurley really humbles me.”

Born in 1924 in Lovell, Wyo., Fillerup traces his interest in art to his childhood on the family farm. When he was six years old, his parents gave him a set of illustrated nursery stories called “My Book House.” He took great delight in studying and copying the illustrations he saw in these and other books people gave him.

During his military service, and later while serving missions for the Mormon Church, Fillerup adorned postcards and envelopes with small watercolors and drawings and mailed them home to wife Ruth and other relatives and friends. All of his seven children and many friends still regard these as treasured keepsakes.

Fillerup’s talent continued to blossom during his 30s and 40s, but art remained a leisure pursuit as he earned a law degree and established a law practice in Cody that lasted 25 years. A few awards and sales, and encouragement from fellow artists, inspired him to consider going professional, but he and Ruth mulled the decision for another five years until he embraced art as his full-time profession at age 50.

Throughout his life, Fillerup has felt a relentless urge to head for the plains or mountains with his sketchbook and easel to make his field studies with pen and ink or oil. On many Saturdays, he brought all of his children along, and each would sit with him and make a landscape. Two sons, Mel and Selvoy, are still painting today, while another, Peter M. Fillerup of Heber, Utah, has acquired national acclaim as a sculptor.

“In the law business, I would need to be gone for a day or two to different cities and I would come back with a bag of tricks for the kids,” Fillerup recalls. “One day I brought back some molding clay for Peter and before I knew it he had made all kinds of things.”

In the book “The Artistry of Melvin M. Fillerup” by Carl Bechtold, Peter shares vivid memories of traveling with his father into the mountains and to art shows across the West. If art is a reflection of life, Peter notes, then his father’s art is a reflection of the “honest emotion” of his soul. Selvoy also has fond memories of his dad.

“I have seen him paint in the sun or the rain, in the snow or the cold or the wind. I have seen him tie down his easel so it wouldn’t blow away,” Selvoy writes. “Whoever sees his paintings will see what happens when a man just wants to paint.”

Reflecting on his artistic life, Fillerup feels hard-pressed to define the source of his inspiration except that he knows when it strikes him as an element of design shining through the true colors and light he observes in the field. He says 75-80 percent of his work is based on those studies he makes surrounded by nature.

“When you’re in the field, you hear the birds singing, you smell the wildflowers, and you can get the colors,” he said. “When you paint from a photo, you can lose the fidelity and feel of the colors. It’s like painting with one eye. When you’re out on the land, you’re painting with both eyes.”

A recent painting, “Yellowstone Lilies,” will be available as an intent-to-purchase piece during the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale. It’s also featured on the commemorative poster of the Rendezvous Royale—Cody’s three-pronged celebration of the arts including the art show, Western Design Conference, and Buffalo Bill Historical Center Patrons Ball.

For more information, call the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale,
307.587.5002, email info@buffalobillartshow.com, or visit www.buffalobillartshow.com. For general information on the Rendezvous Royale, visit www.rendezvousroyale.org.