Lon megargee biography books

He designed a sturdy cardboard folio to hold each set. For the remainder of his life, Lon had success selling these portfolios to museum stores, art fairs and shows, and to the few galleries then selling Western art. Drawing on real working and life experiences, Lon Megargee had a comprehensive knowledge, understanding and sensitivity for Southwestern subject matter.

Always one characteristic stood out. He was indigenous. He belonged here. Not a carpetbagger with a paint box, or a disillusioned urbanite seeking a new life, but an artist who used what he knew and had lived to put down what he had seen. From the origins of his career in art, Lon Megargee had a strong sense of the importance and worthiness of contributions that had been made by Native Americans and Hispanics.

Even when satirizing their actions and foibles, and those of his Anglo peers, Megargee in his art provided a fairness and balance to all creeds that was enlightened for its time.

Lon megargee biography books: "With introductory comments by Marshall Trimble,

This is an edited excerpt, courtesy of. Abe HaysArizona West Gallery. This link will take you there. Permission to reproduce photos and paintings on this website and online catalog secured by Michael Collier. All rights reserved. His artwork is displayed at the Arizona State Capitol. Megargee was born in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Megargee first worked on his uncle's ranch as a teenager, and later as a cowboy in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Megargee did paintings of the Arizona landscape, Native Americans, and cowboys. Megargee was "married at least seven times. Megargee died in in Cottonwood, Arizonaat age Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. He poured a mixture of oil and ash down the exterior walls and watched them turn into the shade of dusty rose, just like the surrounding soil.

He built beehive fireplaces with chimneys ten feet in diameter at their base. He designed deep windowsills and built an interior patio.

Lon megargee biography books: A brief biography of Alonzo "Lon"

He employed a skilled designer of ironwork, whose exquisite simplistic style he adored, to make the hardware for his new "hacienda". When Lon wanted to add a room, he used a stick to draw lines in the soil and put his men to work. It wasn't until he sold his Casa Hermosa, as he affectionately named it, that blueprints were made, and only to satisfy a prospective buyer.

Hermine Summer, Lon's last wife, said that when Lon started to build his Casa Hermosa he was a bachelor, but the house "just kept growing and growing. So he decided he'd better make it a guest ranch. It was a bit unconventional, with guests answering doors if Lon was painting or pitching in as cook in a cook-less emergency. When his house was completed, it was the embodiment of masculinity, reflecting the character and temperament of its creator: strong, determined, even brutal.

Guests came from all around and stayed for weeks at a time. Lon was known as a ladies' man and his Casa Hermosa was known as a place for drinks and good times. Mysterious tunnels that ran beneath the property served as a testament to his flamboyant reputation. Rumors suggest that guests used the tunnels to escape the police during late night drinking and gambling parties.

Inhaving been married again for just a few years, Lon found himself in the midst of an ugly divorce and in need of cash, so he put his Casa Hermosa, with all its art and furnishings, on the market. Since then, Lon's Casa Hermosa has survived many owners and a devastating fire in Thanks to restorative efforts of Fred Unger with designer Dan Macbeth, the Hermosa property was restored.

Although slightly redesigned, the property maintains the southwestern flavor and hacienda style charm that had been the vision of its creator, complete with ironwork, old wooden beams and beehive fireplaces. Today the property, known at the Hermosa Inn, has been expanded into the 35 casitas. Original paintings, prints and even photographs of Lon are on display.

Throughout Lon's life, he regularly took time out to just sit and sketch different aspects of his life and images that came to his mind. One set of sketches that recorded a trip to Mexico he had taken caught the attention of a poet named Roy George. Roy found the sketches so moving that he published a book with Lon entitled A Cowboy Builds a Loop Roy George insisted that Lon "author" the book, even though he himself wrote the poetry and prose.

Besides a flair for architecture, Lon came to have a greater sense of freedom and confidence to his art. As one art critic noted, "he no longer confined himself to the simple rendition of scenes, but relentlessly explored new means of expression. Lon's art was honest and earthy. Sincerity was the keynote of his work; simplicity and peerless style his goal.

Understanding sympathy was his greatest asset; he had an honest imagination and a spirited heart. His art was a lon megargee biography books of his life and his loves. He sketched and painted his own view of things around him, with honest and faithful interpretation, telling a simple story the way he saw it. An example of this is The Drum. One day when Lon was camping alone on a reservation near Monument Valley an Indian came riding by his campsite on a beautiful white horse.

He captivated Lon's attention. The Indian, in a semi trance, chanting some ancient song and tapping his numinous instrument, rode slowly by, oblivious to Lon's presence. It was a spiritual incident that Lon highly regarded. The painting that came to symbolize the event was never publicly exhibited. Lon kept it in his personal collection. Critics found Lon's versatility difficult to classify.

He was not an impressionist. He painted recognizable scenes of peaks and plains, and then gave them lavishing color that seemed so real; critics would wonder how brush and paint could create such an illusion. His diverse subject matter had three common denominators: an unerring gift for color, vigor of design and the imaginative vitality of the artist.

Oren Arnold, a personal friend, wrote that "once [Lon] thought he'd like to be an arty artist, complete with smock and beret. They both made it inevitable that his ideas and expression of them be honest, bold, unconventional. He went from detailed realism, through a period of free brushwork, then onto greater plasticity of form and color and simplified abstractions with pure designs.

He became successful in both color and black and white. His showed his diversity at exhibitions, many of which he preferred to do alone, as in his last major exhibit at the Grand Central Galleries in New York. Over the years, Lon's evolving style began to set him apart from other painters. His early work was tighter in handling and more illustrative in nature, but he maintained his sense of old west drama.

Lon megargee biography books: More from WINKELMAN.

As one art critic noted, there is "a whale of a difference between a cowboy artists and a mere painter of cowboys. Lon never failed to acknowledge a good review with a letter of appreciation, and he received constructive criticism graciously. He was a merciless critic of his own work, continuing to experiment with different media and explore new means of expression.

Some of his subjects, for example Serenade, a beautiful woman bathing in a tub with a man outside her window serenading her, were reproduced by the New York Graphics Society as color prints. His paintings reflected the spirit of the west as no other artist had before. They affirm his legacy as the Cowboy-Expressionist of the southwest. A-1 Brewing Company Ad Campaign.

In the 's Lon won a contract to paint four pictures for an A-1 Beer ad campaign. A-1 was Arizona's own brewing company that, in the 's, won international beer tasting awards for five years in a row. Cowboy's Dream was the first, and most popular of the series. The painting, a sleeping cowboy with his head on his saddle, floating on a billowing cloud, facing another cloud taking the shape of the cowboy's dream: a nude woman astride his horse, hung in nearly every bar in Arizona by It typified Lon's maverick style.

His use of color and organization of form were outstanding, revealing a mastery of storytelling skill. The Black Bart robberies had occurred in the previous century! The third and fourth paintings in the series were: The Quartet and The Dude respectively. The Dude illustrates Lon's tendency to place an incongruous person in an otherwise serious painting; the gender of the "dude" in the picture is incongruent with its name it's actually a woman!

Today, the A-1 prints are most valuable as a complete set. Chapter 8 In the End. Throughout his 77 years, Lon maintained the stamina that it took to be a nature-loving cowboy. He followed the health and eating philosophy of Bernard McFadden and maintained a strenuous regime of physical fitness. Inat the age of 76, he wrote: "I still can work on our road four or five hours and then paint in the studio past midnight.

My objective now is to invent ways and means of creating a picture, expressing my feelings about the subject, related to, but not a copy of visual actuality. It's an endless quest, but boundless in its possibilities all creative art is progressive, never static. As he aged he became more and more obsessive and intense about his work.

He restricted his social interactions with others. He worried about becoming so distraught with planning or working on a painting, which was always. I lon megargee biography books his other wives had given him a bad time over this. She said that Lon "built a home as an artist would paint a picture. It was incredible to watch him build because it seemed so spontaneous, but he had it all in his head.

Lon megargee biography books: Solomon's Mine Books () · %

The workmen we employed on our house thought they were working for a madman until they discovered he knew exactly what he was doing although there were no blueprints, no sketches, almost nothing. Our greatest struggle was with the man who laid the flagstone floors. He tried to work them into a neat, squared-off pattern to show his craftsmanship.

He almost couldn't bring himself to achieve the free-flow form that Lon had in mind. Lon lived the last years of his life with Hermine on top of a hill in Sedona overlooking Oak Creek on one side and Forest Park on the other. It was a piquant contrast. Lon died in January of at the age of 77 after running his truck off the road and hiking a long, rugged distance for help.

His ashes were scattered over the land he once called Rancho 51, where he had thrived as a cowboy and nature had changed his destiny, leading him along a different path, where he blossomed into an artist, prospered as an architect and became the Arizona legend: Lon Megargee. Top of Page. If you have any questions regarding the Artwork, please give us a call.

Chapter 2 Moving to Arizona Upon the death of his father, Lon, free to go where he pleased, dreamt of fulfilling his boyhood dream of being a cowboy, so he headed to Arizona. Chapter 3 Becoming a Real Cowboy Over the ensuing period of his life, Lon became a successful cowboy, with a passion for ranch life and a love for horses. In alphabetical order, the murals would be: 1.

The Superstitions The Governor respected Lon's art because he had first been a cowboy. Chapter 5 Discovering His Talent and Traveling Over the next decade of Lon's life his success in art took him on many different journeys. Oren Arnold Eventually he made his way across the entire country, ending up in New York City where he lived for a year and a half working in the commercial field.

Chapter 7 His Artwork Becoming an Arizona Legend Throughout Lon's life, he regularly took time out to just sit and sketch different aspects of his life and images that came to his lon megargee biography books. His showed his diversity at exhibitions, many of which he preferred to do alone, as in his last major exhibit at the Grand Central Galleries in New York Over the years, Lon's evolving style began to set him apart from other painters.

Chapter 8 In the End Throughout his 77 years, Lon maintained the stamina that it took to be a nature-loving cowboy.