last weekend, I visited the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. It was not my first visit, but it is a great place to view art of the American West. They own, arguably, the best collection of works by Thomas Moran anywhere.
Below, a great watercolor of the Cliffs at Green River, WY
This best illustrates Moran's use of toned paper and gouache (pronounced kind of like guawash- opaque white, or Chinese white for highlights). It is an excellent example of the field sketches and how Moran could use these for finished oils back in the studio.
below American Fork Canyon, Utah.
Moran made these sketches like the one above, as general notes on color and form, so that he could recreate the scene back in his studio. I like the sawn logs in the foreground of this watercolor. Ummm, log.
Anyway... there were about 8 watercolors on view, which is pretty amazing, but should be the obligation of this institution. Thomas Gilcrease bought over 1,000 of Moran's field sketches in 1948 from his daughter Ruth, so eight is still fairly fractional.
I was most excited to see the Garden of the Gods watercolor. I have been looking at it in a book and it is about 3x4" so to see the full 9x12" watercolor in person was amazing.
I guess this was taken from west of the gateway rocks coming down from Glen Eyrie. It is just a guess, if I am wrong.
The Gilcrease has the best painting by J. A. M. Whistler in the region, Nocturne, The Solent, and a great Alexander Hogue, along with many other great works of American art. Unfortunately, they were not on view on this visit.
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