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

Editor's note: Sales figures will be released Monday

Cody Show Selects Award Winners

Cody, Wyo.—Artists from Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, and Montana claimed the major painting and sculpture awards of the 2005 Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale before a capacity crowd of 800 Friday and Saturday at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.

Jurors of the 24th annual western art show delivered the Painting Award to Linda Lillegraven of Laramie, Wyo., and an honorable mention to Karen Vance of Winter Park, Colo. The Sculpture Award went to Deborah Copenhaver-Fellows of Sonoita, Ariz.

Participating artists selected E. Denney NeVille of Byron, Wyo., for the 2005 Artists’ Choice Award, while People’s Choice resulted in a tie between Vance and Cody artist Reid Christie. Other winners were Larry Pirnie of Missoula, Mont., Dean St. Clair Memorial Award; and Cody’s Deanna Matteson, the Mike Maier Memorial Award.

As previously announced, Melvin M. Fillerup of Cody claimed this year’s William E. Weiss Purchase Award, adding his oil painting, Yellowstone Lilies, to the Historical Center’s permanent collection.

Lillegraven won the Painting Award with a 30 x 40 inch oil, Ridgeline with Three Pronghorns, depicting three antelope on the horizon during what she calls “a magical moment of sunset when the clouds and clear sky take on astonishing colors and we become aware of the vastness and peacefulness of open country."

Lillegraven was the Arts for the Parks Grand Prize Winner in 2000 and artist-in-residence at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in 2001. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art and Art of the West and is in the permanent collections of the Wyoming State Museum and the University of Nebraska.

Copenhaver-Fellows won over judges for the Sculpture Award with a bronze called Giving Thanks, measuring 50 x 54 x 17 inches. The piece captures a quiet moment as a rancher gives thanks for the blessings of rain, grass, and a way of life.

Copenhaver-Fellows is recognized throughout the United States for her bronze and silver sculpture. Her works can be seen in corporate and private collections, including those of the U.S. Capitol and Reagan White House.

Her monument work has been commissioned by the University of Texas, the state of Montana, and James Irvine in Los Angeles. In 1990 she won the competition to sculpt the Washington State Korean War Memorial for the Capitol grounds.

NeVille’s selection for Artists’ Choice was based on his 24 x 30 inch oil, Before the Night, featuring a cloud infused with golden light above a rocky plain at dusk. The artist says the piece evokes the awe and appreciation inspired by that “special cycle of time.”

NeVille received Best of Show at the 1982 CM Russell Auction of Original Western Art and the Artists' Choice Award at the 1997 Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale. He was featured in Art of the West in September/October 2000.

For the People’s Choice selection, art lovers reviewing more than 100 paintings and sculptures in the Historical Center’s Photography Gallery were torn between Vance’s 28 x 36 inch oil, Another Spring—the same piece that won honorable mention for the Painting Award—and Christie’s 20 x 30 inch oil, Wintering on the Clark’s Fork 1806.

Vance’s award-winner portrays a “quiet yet grand proclamation of spring” focusing on some weathered barns in the countryside surrounded by cottonwoods leafing out and dandelions blooming in a bright green field of grass.

Vance’s career has generated many awards including Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, Best of Show; Plein Air Painters of America, Guest Artist; Colorado Governor's Invitational, Best of Show; and CM Russell Auction, Best Painting Award and Arlene Hooker Fay Memorial Award. She has been featured in Southwest Art, Wildlife Art, Art of the West, and Inform Art.

Christie’s piece depicts a fateful scene from 1806 when John Colter and George Drouillard left the Lewis and Clark expedition after meeting two free trappers. It is believed they spent the winter in the vicinity of the Clark's Fork Canyon.

Christie has been chosen three times as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Artist of the Quarter and five times for the Arts for the Parks Top 100. He won the Yellowstone Park Purchase Award in 1997, the Collectors' Choice Award in 2001, and the People's Choice Award at the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale in 2002.

Pirnie won the Dean St. Clair Memorial Award for an acrylic of a cowboy barroom scene called Stoppin’ for a Couple Pops, which he created in one hour during Saturday’s Quick Draw. This people’s choice award, selected from 33 pieces created this year, honors the memory of the late Colorado artist Dean St. Clair.

Pirnie studied at the Pratt Institute in New York and moved to Montana 26 years ago to paint the West. His paintings appear in gallery exhibitions, museum shows, and many art publications.

Matteson receives a $1,000 credit for an Open Box M pochade box for winning the Mike Maier Award, named in honor of the man who, along with his wife Coletta, originated the lightweight and durable paint boxes manufactured near Cody.

The Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale is the cornerstone of Cody’s annual celebration of the arts, the Rendezvous Royale, including the Historical Center’s Patrons Ball and the Western Design Conference—an exhibit and sale of cutting-edge creations by 100 leading western furnishing and fashion designers.

For more information, call the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, 307-587-5002, email info@buffalobillartshow.com, or visit www.buffalobillartshow.com.