John Buxton enters the Eiteljorg Museum's Permanent Collection

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John Buxton enters the Eiteljorg Museum's Permanent Collection

September 25, 2013

John Buxton was recently awarded the The Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award, which is the addition of an artist's work into the museum's permanent collection. The award is given out once a year during the annual Quest For The West invitational show & sale, and this year it went to Buxton for his painting titled, A Secret Cache.
About the award, Buxton said the following:

"It is certainly the greatest of honor to have your work forever exhibited beside the greats of western art in the museum collection. Truly a proud moment for this old painter! The germ for this painting has been hanging around since I took a trip to Kentucky in 1989. Walking along the Cumberland River with several locals, we came upon a secluded small waterfall among the vegetation. I took several photos, but was told that another artist had plans to paint the scene. The slides of that scene sparked my interest every time I leafed through my binder from the Cumberland trip.

I respected that other artist, and did not develop my idea for a painting...until early this year. I cannot remember who the other artist was and I don't recall seeing any painting of the waterfall. It was time!

A Secret Cache by John Buxton
30 x 20 inches oil on linen
Just to be safe, I decided it would not be a waterfall in my painting, but a cave in which plunder might be secreted away. So, I developed how a few Native Americans may have tossed down things...working out my composition, slight light source and color values. As a waterfall, it may have been a nice composition...with a strong vertical. I chose to develop a zig-zag composition and use the vertical only for my figures.

I believe that I achieved my goal of producing a painting unlike any that I have seen before."