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."
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