The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

In the past few months Susan and I have traveled a bit, visiting some magnificent museums filled with masterworks of landscape oil painting.

The collections at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City focus on preserving and interpreting the heritage of the American West.  

The End of the Trail sculpture at the entrance of the museum.

Susan and "the Duke"

Each year they hold the Prix De West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale. The museum purchases the top juried painting each year for their permanent collection. These are some of the greatest  American western landscape painters: Wilson Hurley, Clyde Aspevig, James Reynolds, Clark Hulings, Tom Lovell and many others. These are premier paintings representing the artists at their best. Most are large paintings, they probably average 5 by 6 feet. Then inside the Sam Noble Special Event Center, resides 5 massive triptychs painted by Wilson Hurley. Each are 18 by 46 feet!

Notice the size of the paintings compared to the folding tables.

There is so much more to the Museum, here's the intro from the web page...

 The National Cowboy Western & Heritage Museum is America’s premier institution of Western history, art and culture. Founded in 1955, the museum in Oklahoma City collects, preserves and exhibits an internationally renowned collection of Western art and artifacts while sponsoring dynamic educational programs to stimulate interest in the enduring legacy of our American West. More than 10 million visitors from around the world have sought out this unique museum to gain better understanding of the West: a region and a history that permeates our national culture.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum features a superb collection of classic and contemporary Western art, including works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as sculptor James Earle Fraser’s magnificent work, The End of the Trail. The exhibition wing houses a turn-of-the-century town and interactive history galleries that focus on the American cowboy, rodeos, Native American culture, Victorian firearms, frontier military and Western performers. Outside, beautifully landscaped gardens flank the Children’s Cowboy Corral, and interactive children’s space.

From fine art, pop culture and firearms to Native American objects, historical cowboy gear, shopping and dining, the Museum tells America’s story as it unfolds across the West.

Here's a link to their website.