Western Spirit Show Adventure

On Thursday, March 5th four Missouri artists, Elizabeth (Libby) Ritter, Nancy Sams, Martha Aldridge and Madge Gressley loaded up Nancy's F150 to the brim and headed out for Wyoming to attend the Western Spirit Show and Sale sponsored by the Old West Museum in Cheyenne. Libby, Nancy and Martha are sculptors, Madge is a painter and each artist had several works accepted in the show. Before arriving in Cheyenne, the group stopped in Loveland, Colorado to drop of a piece by Martha to be bronzed at Art Castings of Colorado. While there, the gals toured the foundry and admired all the beautiful pieces by several world famous sculptors waiting to be bronzed or ready to be picked up.

Saturday the day of the reception, the gals attended several seminars on related art matters, networked with fellow artists and visited several art galleries. One gallery in particular captured the gals attention — Deselms Art Gallery. Deselms is in a small Victorian house that has been converted into an art gallery and is chucked full from floor to ceiling in all of the rooms with wonderful paintings, handcrafted jewelry and breath-taking sculptures. A definite "must see" for anyone visiting Cheyenne.

Saturday evening at the opening reception, the air was electric with the anticipation of the annual Quickdraw. At the Quickdraw artists volunteer to complete a piece of artwork in 45 minutes. And at the end of the 45 minutes, the finished pieces are then matted and framed to be auctioned off. Since artists who usually participate in the Quickdraw are two dimensional artists, the Quickdraw committee was not sure how a sculptor would fare in completing a piece of art in the time allotted. But Libby decided to participate anyway. So she brought all the supplies she would need to do her sculpture. However, in the midst of all of the the excitement, she forgot to bring the armature to build the sculpture on. Never to be deterred, she rounded up a wine bottle and some rolled up newspaper and put together her armature with masking tape. At the end of the all too short 45 minutes, Libby had a beautifully sculpted horse head in terra cotta clay.

As the auction started, bidding was hot and heavy with the first five pieces going for $100 to $700. Libby's piece was the last one to be put on the auction block and it brought $1,200, a record price of for any piece ever auctioned at the Quickdraw. Both Martha and Nancy sold pieces at the reception. There is still time for more sales as the show runs through April 17. Cheyenne always delivers a most enthusiastic, friendly and supportive crowd for the Western Spirit Show and their local events.

Sunday morning the gals packed up the back of the F150 again and headed home. Let's just say the Western Spirit Show and fun go together. Would they go back? You bet!