Fine arts show coming to Sahuarita

Jeannie Applegate

Special for The Sahuarita Sun

The Sahuarita Fine Art Experience featuring works of Southwestern fine art and presented by Southwestern Premier Artists will take place in Sahuarita Feb. 28 through March 1.

The inaugural event will include music, entertainment and food and will take place under a tent in the courtyard of the Sahuarita Town Hall Municipal Complex.

The free festival is held in association with the Town of Sahuarita and Rancho Sahuarita.

Southwestern Premier Artists is dedicated to art, artists, culture enrichment and the belief that art benefits every community and every life. Six full-time artists founded Southwestern Premier Artists in 2004. Each of them had been in business for at least 30 years, and each was seeking a better way to market themselves and their art. They felt that artists deserve to be respected as professionals and that their work merits effective promotion and marketing. They also believed that there is a need for community education, fund-raising, and funding for artists in times of need.

Southwestern Premier Artists have created avenues for promoting themselves to the community through home or studio shows, outdoor shows, resort shows and displays at museums. The artists also present lectures at universities as well as to art collectors in order to promote their artwork and the Native American culture.

Southwestern Premier Artists have presented workshops and demonstrations, and their work is renowned nationally and internationally. Their members have created museum displays and advised museum boards of directors. In addition, they provide marketing assistance to other artists, including website development and promotion to community groups.

Southwestern Premier Artists

Roger Kull: Kull sculpts three-dimensional fine art leather pictures reflecting the indigenous lifestyle of Native Americans. Using the natural hues of leather, specialized dyes and the varied shades of the turquoise, tradition and innovation combine in his each of his works with such skill that leather is now established as a fine art. His work is recognized by museums and collectors around the world.

Judith Durr: “My art is Southwestern oil paintings. Out of respect for my Choctaw-Cherokee heritage, I preserve the legacy of the First People’s artifacts and rugs portrayed in my oil paintings. However, I paint artifacts from tribes and clans throughout the Americas.” Durr is a frequent lecturer and works with Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary on the Indian Market Advisory Committee. Her vivid 2008 art has been selected to show at the Sharlot Hall Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, in the fine art exhibition, “Breaking the Buckskin Ceiling.”

Rick Carter and Bill Miller: They created Gourds by Carmil by chance in 1995. After purchasing a few gourds at a flea market, they began experimenting with different techniques and designs. That experiment was the beginning of their with using natural materials to create useful and decorative gourds. When they began working with gourds, they felt they had found their perfect medium for expressing their love of nature and Western, Southwestern, and Native American culture.