William Matthews: Working the West - Tapa dura

Watercolourist William Mathews has long been hailed as the preeminent painter of the American West. Now, in this new collection of 180 staggering paintings, he captures the mystique of the full range of western experience: endless skies, scrubby canyons, high plains, the last remaining working cowboys, the Navajo, the Living Desert. Steeped in introspection and intimate connection to land, tradition, and identity, Matthews' work evokes a place beyond nostalgic imaginings, a place that is authentic, anachronistic, and dynamic. An essay by acclaimed author Annie Proulx provides insight into both the ranching life and the art-making life, resulting in this glorious homage to this ancient terrain - some ofthe last untamed American wilderness.

William Matthews is a painter, designer, and musician who was raised in San Francisco. He owns a gallery in Denver and has shown paintings in many prominent galleries in the United States and Europe. He lives in Evergreen, Colorado. Annie Proulx is the acclaimed author of The Shipping News and three other novels, as well as several short story collections, including Close Range (which contained the story "Brokeback Mountain," upon which the Academy Award(tm)-winning film was based). Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, two O. Henry Prizes, and a PEN/Faulkner Award, she lives in Wyoming and Newfoundland.