Vibrations of Color

Western Art Collector | August 2022

Claggett/Rey Gallery in Colorado presents an exhibition on revered Western painter James Reynolds.

By Chadd Scott

“Brahma” | Oil | 40“×60“

When Bill Rey phoned the notoriously grumpy James E. Reynolds (1926.2010) to check in on him, that’s how Rey would often jokingly open the conversation. It broke the ice and gave Reynolds, who long suffered from emphysema, a chance to catch his breath.

Rey’s representation of Reynolds’ artwork grew into a deep respect and friendship despite its rocky beginning. The two were first introduced in Sedona, Arizona, by artist Joe Beeler in 1989 following that year’s Cowboy Artists of America show.

“Joe and I met him at a Mexican restaurant for lunch at noon and we got there at five-till and Jim’s already sitting there eating,” Rey recalls, laughing.

The detail with which he tells the story, remembering the conversation in vivid detail, demonstrates its significance in his life. Rey was just in his early 20s at the time, but had already been working in Colorado art galleries for several years.

“Hey, kid, I don’t need another gallery,” Rey remembers Reynolds telling him.

Rey wasn’t looking to represent the artist best known for his Western scenes, simply responding, “I’ve always admired your work and I think your heart is in your landscapes— they blow me away.”

Reynolds gave the youngster a curious look because he wasn’t producing many landscapes at that time, instead focusing on the cowboy paintings for which he had made a name for himself.

“Sierra Lake” | Oil | 30“×40“

A couple years later, Reynolds called Rey saying he remembered Rey’s comment about his landscapes. That was 1992. Rey began selling some of Reynolds landscapes and he’s advocated for Reynolds’ work ever since— particularly the landscapes, several of which will be on view and for sale during a solo exhibition for Reynolds throughout August at Claggett/Rey Gallery in Edwards, Colorado.

“[Landscape painting] gave him this amazing freedom to take what had always been the backdrop of his Western paintings and bring it to the forefront,” Rey, owner of Claggett/Rey Gallery, explains.

This was particularly valuable as Reynolds aged and was no longer able to spend time in the saddle and on ranches researching the source material which fueled his cowboy images. That frustrated him tremendously. As did computers. And TV commercials. And, as Rey recalls from eating countless meals with Reynolds over the years, how the artist would routinely complain about not having had a good tomato in 20 years.

“But the landscapes, he could go out anywhere,” Rey says of this artistic freedom Reynolds enjoyed through the last years of his life. “He wasn’t really a plein air painter, so he wasn’t setting up outdoors and painting outside, but he was quite an observer and he loved to study nature, be out there, take photographs, jot down notes.”

Reynolds was particularly fond of the Bitterroot Wilderness along the border of Montana and Idaho, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the Grand Tetons. Rey remembers the morning the two of them set out into the Bitterroot Valley—still dark, freezing cold—Rey driving Reynolds around scouting inspiration for future paintings. Elderly and off by himself, stepping from rock to rock in a river, Reynolds fell over—backwards—into 18-inches of water. Rey ran down to assist him, remembering that Reynolds was able keep his camera out of the river and refused his dealer’s suggestion to head back for dry clothes.

Reynolds wanted to keep looking for shots, and so he did, wrapped in a blanket provided by Rey.

Reynolds cranky nature wasn’t limited to what took place outside his studio. Not surprisingly, what took place inside could get the better of him too.

“He worked in a different method than a lot of artists that I know today,” Rey says. “He would work on 25 to 30 paintings a year, but he would keep them in this art vault and he would work on them in a kind of a love/hate relationship; he pulled one out and worked on it until it frustrated him too much and then he’d put it away and pull out another one and work on it…what it allowed him to do is have the time with these paintings so he wouldn’t put any of them out until he felt like they were done.”

“After the Rain” | Oil | 36“×36”

And when they were done—particularly the landscapes in Rey’s opinion—there was nothing else like them. Still isn’t.

“I think his color sense and his ability to really resonate with color—the vibrations of color and how he would put things in there normal artists couldn’t—I think Jim at his highest level would bring in these abstract bits of color that would really harmonize and add to the painting,” Rey says.

Reynolds’ unique artistic vision was even strong enough to help evolve one of the most traditional group of painters, the Cowboy Artists of America, working in one of the most traditional genres—Western art.

“He brought a different level of art into the group, more of a high art...[With Reynolds] it was more about the actual painting itself— his use of color and harmony. The artful component is actually more important than the subject,” Rey, who has represented numerous CA artists over many years, says. “When you study his work, if you look back at most of his Western pieces even, they weren’t really allegorical painting like a lot of the other artists, they weren’t story paintings. He was really trying to create beauty through the mastery of what the idea was in his head.”

True to form, Reynolds renounced his CA membership. Twice.

Cantankerous, yes, but there was another side to Reynolds as well, one Rey remembers with even greater fondness.

“He did something that I’ve never seen, and I’ve been in this business almost 40 years…I’ve never seen an artist do before or since,” Rey says. “Our first one-man show we did with him, we had 18 pieces and I think we sold 16 of them and they’re averaging about 30, 35 grand, the highest being like $50,000 at the time. We had maybe seven employees and that morning after the show, he came into the gallery and gave each employee a check for $1,000. He was so appreciative of everybody’s efforts.” It’s been 12 years since Reynolds passed and Rey continues beating the drum for his friend whose work he so greatly admires. An admiration he hopes to share with collectors.

“I think there’s such an opportunity for people to collect these worthy—as far as great art goes—landscapes,” Rey says. “I’m not trying to set records, what I want to do is work hard at placing great paintings with people who will love them and will enhance their lives. It’s not about just acquiring, it’s about the artistic component to it and what that kind of beauty adds to your life every day. I think great art resonates in your soul.”

Rey continues: “There are countless great landscape painters out there, but the thing I think a lot of them are doing is they’re painting a place; a lot of artists use photos to just paint that photo and Jim believed that you could use photos for reference, but you really had to compose the scene yourself and put a lot of yourself into it. Jim wasn’t ever trying to copy a photograph, he was trying to paint the idea in his head and come up with something beautiful that matched up to what his ideals were in art.”

For those ideals, Reynolds possessed the admiration of his peers. He’s often described as “an artist’s artist.”

“So many artists love his work. They can stand there for hours and look at them,” Rey says. “They see that he’s on a different level and he’s doing something that is not just the normal laying down of paint; his paintings have a resonance and a life to them even if it’s a cowboy just sitting on a horse.”

About 25 or Reynolds’ paintings will be on view at Claggett/Rey, most produced in the last 15 years of his life. This is good news for collectors as well. Rey believes Reynolds’ worked kicked into a higher gear in about 1990.

What’s more, for anyone visiting the gallery, the famously chatty Rey will surely include stories of the artist he so greatly admires to the experience.

“I think about him every day…certain things that he really responded to in nature that when I see scenes like that—like in June when you’ve got snow still left in the high peaks, but there’s a lot of rock showing, early light or late light—I can just hear him talking about it,” Rey says.