Artist: Bob Vann
TUBAC CENTER OF THE ARTS - MASTER ARTIST GALLERY
The Center of the Arts has initiated a permanent art collection of our Master Artists. We have already received a number of donations and bequests (through will or trust) of art work to honor these artists.
Francis Henry Beaugureau was born in Chicago on April 5, 1920 and began his art career at the Chicago art institute at the age of eight. Francis continued his studies there until the mid 1930s he went on to study at the Frederick Mizen Academy of Art in 1938. Beaugureau enlisted in the military and went on to pilot B-17s, flying more than 30 missions over Europe during World War II. During this time, he continued to paint aerial combat scenes and charcoal portraits. Following his military service, he was appointed to an art consultant to the Air Force responsible for painting oil portraits of commanding generals and paintings of the Air Force in Europe and Korea. Francis founded the Air Force Art Museum and established the continuing art program of the Air Force. Beaugureau moved to Arizona in 1952 and became known for his western American art landscapes and portraits in both watercolor and oil receiving numerous professional awards at local regional and national art shows he won a national Gold Medal the highest honor of the American watercolor society his works are in many art museums including the prestigious Harrison Eiteljorg Collection and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In the early 1970s he moved to Tubac, Arizona and was commissioned by the valley National Bank to research and paint a series of 12 oil paintings depicting the military history of Arizona. Beaugureau also painted the perfect example of Tubac’s motto, “Where Art and History Meet” showing captain Juan Bautista de Anza on his first expedition to California with Saint Anne's church in the background.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, High Cabot moved to Tubac in 1972. Prior to setting up his studio and gallery in the Pennington house, one of the oldest buildings in Tubac still in use, Cabot had lived in Taos, Santa Fe and West TX. Having spent time in other art communities, Cabot chose to make 2 back home because of the astonishing light, beauty and serenity of the Santa Cruz. He lived in tubac for over 34 years showing his love for the area and its people through his paintings. His works are still being shown and sold from the gallery now operated by his widow, Olivia Cabot. Cabot is considered to be one of America's foremost painters and received the highly coveted title of American Master Painter. He was an official combat artist for the Korean War and many of his works hang in Washington, DC, and belong to the American public listed in who's who in American art; Who's who in the world; And who's who in America, Hugh Cabot made his mark working in various artistic media except acrylic. He studied art at the Boston Museum of Art. Oxford, and throughout Europe where he was impressed with some of the Great Masters such as Rembrandt period prior to this experience, he found inspiration for the work of Frederick, Charles Russell, and will James. As far as subject matter is concerned, Cabot found inspiration from the land and people around him and you can see this in his famous paintings of Cowboys, grandiose landscapes, and other western dash inspired scenes. His works have been exhibited at the National Gallery, Washington, DC, the Tate in London, museum De La Marine in Paris, and other major museums throughout the United States. Works by Cabot are collected worldwide and many can be found in galleries and museums throughout the United States. Hugh credited Olivia as a major force in his success for her efforts in managing the gallery, which left him free to paint.
Hal Empie was born in a dirt-floored, one-room adobe near Safford, Arizona Territory to pioneer settlers, Allie and Hart Empie. As a young man, he worked at the Best Drug Store while attending grammar school. Upon graduation in 1927, he entered the University of Arizona in pre-med and then the Capitol College of Pharmacy, Denver. After passing exams in Colorado and Arizona, Hal was issued a special license to practice pharmacy before the age of twenty-one, making him the youngest licensed pharmacist in Arizona history. In 1929, Hal married Louise Reinhardt and in 1934 they purchased the drugstore in nearby Duncan. Determined to refine his artistic talents, he set up his easel in his pharmacy and painted between filling prescriptions. Here he also began and blended his third career as a cartoonist. A self-taught artist, Hal Empie refused to copy photographs. His only art lessons were six weeks studying the old masters’ techniques with renowned European master, Frederic Taubes. Artistic success began very early in Hal’s career, and his work became increasingly respected. National press brought invitationals, including The Museum of Modern Art, the Polish Embassy, and the Los Angeles County Museum. Hal was in his twenties when first recognized by the American Federation of Arts, Washington, D.C. As a cartoonist, Hal created the famous Empie Kartoon Kards, one of the earliest western cartoon copyrights. He was a major contributor to early issues of Arizona Highways. Postcards were marketed in thirty-eight states. Original printings are housed in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian. After a major Gila River flood in Duncan, the Empies moved to Tubac and built the Hal Empie Studio and Gallery in 1986. Hal and Louise were married seventy-two years, raising three children. He painted his entire life. He was an “art for art’s sake artist”. His noted career spanned over three quarters of a century. At his passing, he was the oldest continuous resident artist in Arizona.
From his very early days, Tom Hill wanted to be an artist. Drawings he made as a six year old so impressed his teachers that they were displayed in the school’s main lobby for everyone to see. Tom was always acknowledged to the “best” artist in his class and was awarded a full scholarship to California’s Art Center College of Design. While serving as an artist for the Navy in Hawaii, he fell in love with and painted the beautiful Hawaiian landscape and had his first one-man show at the Honolulu Academy of the Arts. Returning to civilian life, Hill joined Universal Studios in Hollywood, where he produced illustrations of proposed movie sets. Later the Chicago Tribune hired Hill as a special staff artist to make paintings for their Sunday Magazine. He later moved to New York where he produced art for national magazines and businesses. Through all of these years, Hill pursued fine art painting. He was elected a lifetime member of the American Watercolor Society, an academician of the National Academy of Design and a member of The Tucson Seven. He has conducted many painting workshops both in the US and abroad, written five books on painting and color and has participated in dozens of group and one-man exhibitions. Although Hill values his years “back east”, his heart was always in the west where he grew up. Moving to Arizona in 1963, he turned to full-time fine art painting, writing, and travel. Hill and his artist wife Barbara have lived happily in Tubac for over eighteen years.
Dale Nichols, a man often credited for the activity that inspired the transformation of Tubac into a community with a strong artistic foundation, was born in the small farming town of David City, Nebraska. Nichols is best known for his work as a rural landscape painter and is often classified with other regional landscape artists, including Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Nichols began his artistic career at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, later becoming the Carnegie professor of Art at the University of Illinois. In September 1939, Nicholas was featured in Time Magazine where the reviewer said, “The subjects he prefers are the prairie landscapes of his youth, especially snowed under.” In 1943, Nicholas assumed the position of Art Editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Nichols did not, however, remain rooted in the Midwest. In 1948, Nichols played an influential role in an art exhibition in Tucson, Arizona, presented by the Independent Artists Group. The group later joined the Fine Arts Association in Tucson, which became the catalyst for what is now the Tucson Museum of Art. It was also in 1948 that Nichols started the Dale Nichols School of Art, also called the Tubac Art School Nichols believed that Tubac was the perfect place for his art school due to its “interesting history, healthy climate, invigorating ranch life, and accessibility to Mexico.” Nichols is reported to have purchased almost half of the remaining and unoccupied adobe buildings of the old settlement to create classrooms and living quarters for the students. Despite Nichols’ enthusiasm and interest in both art and his students, about a year after the school opened many of his students began to drift away and he closed the school. Nichols spent the next few years traveling and living with the Navajo Indians, recording their culture in watercolor. After 1954, Nichols pursued different activities: art lectures, attempts to revive the Tubac Art School, and leading expeditions for Brown University to Guatemala where he lived for over 15 years. Nichols died in 1995 in Sedona, Arizona.
“An Arizona Treasure” – these words were used by both Senator Barry Goldwater and Governor Bruce Babbitt to describe artist Ross Stefan. Babbitt went on to say: “Stefan’s impressionistic vision of the contemporary Southwest is vividly captured on canvas and is an accurate reflection of what makes Arizona beautiful and unique. Stefan was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his artistic abilities and business acumen first came together in 1941. Two of his sketches of a horse were used to illustrate an article netting him $20 with which he immediately bought defense bonds. As a noted in the Journal “Ross Stefan may not be the greatest artist in the world for his age (age seven), but it’s safe to say that he is the greatest combination artist and businessman for his age.” The same can be said of the four years – 1995-1959 – Stefan spent in Tubac, as an artist, town historian, buyer and seller of real estate for himself and others, including William C. Morrow…known as “The Father of Modern Tubac.” Among their many achievements for the area, Stefan and Morrow got the Arizona State Parks Associated interested in making Tubac the first state park in Arizona. The efforts of these two men have had a beneficial historical and artistic effect that far outlasted their stay in Tubac. Stefan also became friends with another artist Sid Cedargreen, and together they helped to create Tubac Center of the Arts and the first Tubac Festival of the Arts, held annually since 1959. From 1959 until his death in 1999, Ross continued to bring “those days in Tubac” as well as countless trips to Kayenta on the Navajo reservation, into the many paintings he lovingly produced for thousands to enjoy…views of canyons, creeks, old barns, once-lush haciendas, lone cowboys riding the Sonoita and Santa Cruz Valleys, small villages of northern New Mexico or through Colorado aspen and snow, a little Hopi child, a rancher’s fence…relevant in 1959, in 1999, in 2009 as they will be in 2059.
Artists Jean and Mortimer Wilson and their daughter settled in Tubac by accident in 1957. The Wilson’s needed to move from New York to a drier climate for their daughter’s health, and were on their way to Mexico when they stopped for the night at the Rancho Santa Cruz, just south of the Tumacacori Mission. Captivated by the beauty of the Santa Cruz River Valley, they decided to stay in Tubac, where both Mortimer and Jean played important roles in the development of Tubac as an art colony. Jean was a founding member of the Santa Cruz Valley Art Association and Mortimer was an early president of the organization. The Wilsons rented three buildings on Josephine Bailey's Tumacácori ranch and lived there for 12 years. In 1969, the Wilsons built the two-story studio in Tubac that was later expanded by Lee Blackwell. Jean was originally from Flemington, New Jersey, and attended the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia. She developed a fascination with an art technique called trompe l'oeil, a French phrase meaning 'trick of the eye,' which uses highly realistic imagery to create the optical illusion of three dimensions. Jean's trompe l' oeil paintings were collected by Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Raymond Burr among many others. Jean Wilson designed the Great Seal of Santa Cruz County. In 1964, the recently incorporated Santa Cruz Valley Art Association was asked to submit designs for the seal, and a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Ralph Humesten. The design submitted by Jean Wilson was accepted by the County Board of Supervisors, and the orientation of the twin peaks of the Santa Ritas looks as if seen from Tubac. Jean was an indefatigable promoter of Tubac art, and arranged a number of exhibitions to showcase the broad spectrum of talent here. When Jean Wilson died of cancer at age 58 in 1975, Tubac lost one of its most dynamic citizens.
Mortimer Wilson Jr. was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was fifteen when he began his formal artistic training as a summer student at the Arts Students League of New York city. At the age of eighteen, he became a full time student and spent the next five years in studio with George Bridgman and Frank DuMond, his drawing and painting instructors. Like many artists before him, Wilson joined the ranks of publishing where he enjoyed a highly successful career as an illustrative artist. His work appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and the Saturday Evening Post. At the height of his career, Wilson was stuck down by an eye disorder which forced him to retire. In 1957 Mortimer, his wife, Jean, and their daughter settled in Tubac. When his vision was restored by what he called "a gift from the Almighty" he launched a second career as a serious easel painter. His oil paintings of still lifes, portraits and romantic history are all highly prized. Mortimer's art works are on permanent display in the Cowboy Hall of Fame, El Paso Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art and numerous private and Corporate collections. Wilson has been listed in The Illustrator in American, Who's Who in American Art, Artists of America, National Academy of Western Art and many other publications. In all his work he presented a special vision and feeling made all the more significant by his personal journey from darkness into light. Mortimer was a charter member of the Santa Cruz Valley Art Association (Tubac Center of the Arts) and served two years as the President of the Association in 1965 and 1967. He later moved to El Paso where he continued to paint.
Nicholas Wilson was born in Seattle, Washington in 1947. He decided to become a wildlife artist on his 8th birthday. As a self-taught artist, he developed his own style and technique over the years. Nicholas Wilson has been active for 47 years as a professional artist. As Curator of Exhibits at the Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum in the 1970's, he developed his artistic techniques for expressing his deep love of nature. He painted a 16,250 square foot mural in the 1980's at the Jungle World Exhibit in the Bronx Zoo, New York. His gouache paintings, which depict his unique style of texture and whimsy, have been exhibited around the world and are in permanent collections at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, GA and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He has also enjoyed the challenges of monumental bronze sculpture commissions ... "The Wildcat Family", an 11- foot sculpture at the University of Arizona, Tucson, the "Natural Flow", a 14-foot sculpture at the Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Georgia and "The First Responder", a 6' 3" sculpture for a firefighter' s memorial in Noblesville, Indiana. In addition to gouache, oils, watercolors and bronze sculpture, he also has created copperplate etchings. His etchings and wood engravings are being distributed and can be found in homes around the world as well as in permanent collection at the Smithsonian in D.C. and the Leigh Yawkey Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. Nicholas has been painting and sculpting in Tubac for 13 years and with his wife, Debbe, enjoys this community of friends and nature's never ending gifts from the desert. He is especially pleased to have his seven foot bronze jackrabbit sculpture, "Tubac Jack" in a permanent location at the Tubac Center of the Arts.