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National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Cowboy Crossings® Opening Weekend Generates More than $875,000 in Sales

National Cowboy Museum announces award winners and Opening Weekend sales.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Cowboy Crossings, one of the most unique and popular annual Western art sales and exhibitions, is now open to the public at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. More than 400 people attended Cowboy Crossings Opening Weekend, Oct. 4 – 6. Sales for the weekend exceeded $875,000, with a portion of those proceeds benefiting the Museum’s educational programs.

The event and exhibition offers an array of works by members of the Cowboy Artists of America (CAA) and the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA). This year marks the CAA’s 53rd annual exhibition, with members producing paintings, sculpture, and drawings. The TCAA — whose members represent the disciplines of bit and spur making, rawhide braiding, saddlemaking, and silversmithing — is celebrating its 20th annual exhibition.

“It’s amazing to see how popular those works of art rooted in the Western lifestyle remain today,” said Museum President & CEO Natalie Shirley. “Every year, artists from both the CAA and TCAA expand the definition of what Western art is and can be. To see the audience react with such enthusiasm reaffirms the notion that the values of the West are alive and well today!”

Martin Grelle, CAA artist from Clifton, Texas, sold the highest-priced work during Opening Weekend. His Memories of Horses and Men sold for $96,000. The highest-selling TCAA piece was a saddle priced at $36,000 by TCAA saddlemaker John Willemsma of Westcliffe, Colorado.

The CAA exhibition remains on display through Nov. 25, 2018, while the TCAA exhibition is available through Jan. 6, 2019. Unsold art is available for purchase through The Museum Store at (405) 478-2250 ext. 228. For more information, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org/cowboy-crossings.

A full list of winners from the Opening Weekend awards show is as follows:

• Recipient of the Stetson CAA Award, selected by active CAA members for the best overall exhibition, was Grant Redden of Evanston, Wyoming, for his five paintings Day Dreaming; Mowing the Meadow; Nocturne; Pioneer Girl; and Through the Pines.
• The Anne Marion Best of Show Award, chosen by anonymous artist judges from the five gold medal winners, was given to Paul Moore of Norman, Oklahoma, for his sculpture, The Rawhide Sun Visor.
• The Buyers’ Choice Award, chosen by those in attendance, was given to Martin Grelle’s Memories of Horses and Men.
• The Ray Swanson Memorial Award, given for a work of art that best captures the emotion of a moment in time, was given to Paul Moore’s Navajo Country.
• The Oil & Acrylic Painting Gold Medal Award went to Grant Redden’s Mowing the Meadow.
• The Oil & Acrylic Painting Silver Medal Award went to Tom Browning of Powell Butte, Oregon, for his painting Darn Near Quittin’ Time.
• Paul Moore’s The Rawhide Sun Visor was awarded the Gold Medal for Sculpture.
• The Silver Medal for Sculpture winner was The Midnight Storm by Dustin Payne of Powell, Wyoming.
• Teal Blake of Benbrook, Texas, won the Gold Medal for Water Solubles for his painting Poppin’ Sage.
• Tyler Crow of Hico, Texas, received the Silver Medal for Water Solubles for his painting Full of Grit and Determination.
• Martin Grelle received the Drawing Gold Medal Award for his charcoal drawing Undaunted.
• Tyler Crow received the Drawing Silver Medal Award for his charcoal drawing A Cowboy’s Troubadour.
• Wayne Baize of Fort Davis, Texas, won the Gold Medal for Other Media for his mixed media painting Top Mounts – Good Cowboys.
• Mikel Donahue of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, received the Silver Medal for Other Media for his mixed media Hooked On.

The TCAA does not confer awards for their pieces in the Cowboy Crossings exhibition, instead choosing to offer cash scholarships to a select number of up-and-coming traditional artists. 2018 recipients include:

• TCAA Fellowship for Cowboy Craftsmen recipients are saddlemakers Carol Gessell of Monroe, Washington, and Dusty Smith of Buffalo, Wyoming.
• TCAA Emerging Artist Competition Award recipient is silversmith Thor Peterson of Patagonia, Arizona.

About the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Nationally accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is located only six miles northeast of downtown Oklahoma City in the Adventure District at the junction of Interstates 44 and 35, the state’s exciting Adventure Road corridor. The Museum offers annual memberships beginning at just $40. For more information, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org. For high-resolution images related to the National Cowboy Museum or these exhibitions, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org/media-pics/.

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