ABOUT

John Farnsworth (b. 1941) is a mature artist and a painter's painter. Self-taught, he works from life, sketches, photographs, and video. While prolific as a watercolorist, he paints only 6-8 large oils per year. His works result from the unusual combination of a contemporary eye and a traditional hand. He paints animals, still-lifes, people and landscapes with the same probing eye and deft touch.

Farnsworth is a master watercolorist, and his subject matter in that medium is without limit. From travel landscapes to still lifes, from animal portraits to Kachinas, he paints his unique response to whatever catches his eye.

Using no preliminary pencil drawing, and only the primary colors of red, yellow and blue, he captures all the nuance and subtlety of tone in even the most complex subjects.

He has painted professionally for over forty years and his works range from small pencil drawings to the twenty-by-thirty foot mural "Stage" at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, originally painted for the Wells Fargo Bank in Los Angeles, California.

COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS

 

ARCO

ARCO Alaska

Arizona Bank

Arizona State University

Arizona Wholesale Supply

EDL Atlanta

First Interstate Bank

Flagstaff Hospital

Good Samaritan Hospital

IBM

Judson School

Kitchell-Newlon

Millicent Rogers Museum

Museum of Northern Arizona

Northern Arizona University

Pinewood Country Club

Pima Savings

Precision Components
ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy

Sky Harbor International Airport

Texas Instruments

Turf Paradise

US Army

Valley National Bank

Vesti Corporation

Wells Fargo Bank

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

American Artist

Arizona Arts and Lifestyle

Arizona Daily Sun

Arizona Highways

Arizona Republic

Arizona Wildlife Magazine

Artspace

Art of the American West (Rockport Publishers)

Art Voices South

City Life

Designers West

Leading the West (Northland Publishing)

Los Angeles Times

New Arizonan

Interiors Magazine

Pastel Journal

Phoenix Gazette

Phoenix Magazine

Santa Fean

Southwest Art

Scottsdale Daily Progress - Weekend

Taos News - Tempo

V Magazine

 

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

Adagio Galleries, Palm Springs, CA

Bullocks Purchase Award

Centro de Arte Moderno

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Cadme Gallery, Philadelphia

Charlene Cody Gallery, Santa Fe

Desert Caballeros Museum, Wickenburg, AZ

Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis

Farnsworth Gallery Taos

Farnsworth Gallery Santa Fe

Fine Arts Center of Tempe

Harwood Foundation, Taos, New Mexico

Adam L. Gimbel Gallery, New York

Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson

Munson Gallery, Santa Fe

North Dakota State University

Patricia Carlisle Gallery, Santa Fe

Phippen Museum, Prescott, Arizona

Phoenix Art Museum Biennial

Phoenix Art Museum Purchase Award

Post-Western Gallery, Santa Fe

Scottsdale Center for the Arts

Steinbaum Krauss, New York

Suzanne Brown Gallery, Scottsdale

Shades of the West, Los Angeles

Taos Art Museum

Taos National Exhibition of American

Watercolor VII Honorable Mention

Taos Art Museum

Taos National Exhibition of American Watercolor VIII

Art-Talk Award

Taos Invites Taos - Best Representational Award

LINKS TO ARTICLES

GALLERY PREVIEWS

Santa Fean Magazine

by Dottie Indyke

THE NEW WEST

Southwest Art

May, 2000

by Lynn Pyne

JOHN FARNSWORTH

Art Voices South

by Carol Donnel-Kotrozo

INTERVIEW

1981 Four Corners States Biennial Exhibition

Phoenix Art Museum

LOCAL ARTIST TO EXHIBIT

Arizona Daily Sun

JOHN FARNSWORTH

City Life

Phoenix Gazette

by Kelly Walton

HUGE PAINTING LANDS INSIDE SKY HARBOR

TEMPO

Phoenix Gazette

by Lynn Pyne

HOOKED ON PAINTING

The Arizona Republic

by Eileen Bailey

ZOO TO HOST BLACK-TIE BALL

The Arizona Republic by Ellie Schultz

'UNIVERSALITY' IS FARNSWORTH'S GOAL

Weekend

Scottsdale Daily Progress 

by Carol Kotrozo

ARTIST JOHN FARNSWORTH IS REALLY COOKIN'

V Magazine

by Kathryn Coe

THREE ARTISTS OF THE NEW WEST

Arizona Highways Magazine

by Ron McCoy

HOME AT LAST

The Taos News

by Lynzee Webb

ART OF THE AMERICAN WEST

by Caroline Linscott and Julie Christiansen-Dull
Rockport Publishers, Inc.

LEADING THE WEST

by Donald J. Hagerty

Northland Publishing

NEW BOOK:

Western Traditions

Contemporary Artists of the American West

10.75" x 12"

$85.00

Call toll free 877-319-7699 to reserve your copy today!

Michael Duty, Curator

Suzanne Deats, Writer/Artist Profiles

March, 2005

284 pages

Hardcover

250 full color images

 

WESTERN TRADITIONS: is a beautifully presented new book on the art of the American West, an art that attracts not only great artists but passionate collectors, not only nostalgia buffs who revel in the history of the frontier but pragmatists who know that life of the working cowboy is a solid reality in today’s ranching industry.

 

COVER IMAGE: Tom Ryan: Red Dirt Country (detail), Oil, 17 x 20"

6 full color images of paintings by John Farnsworth

Excerpts from the book, WESTERN TRADITIONS:

 

The university of life attracts some of the world’s most devoted art students. John Farnsworth has surely earned a handful of doctorates in that demanding institution. Rather than conform to the mold of a limited curriculum, he has given himself an independent and far-reaching art education that is refreshingly free of competitive dogma.

 

 He paints whatever in the world interests him, and his interests constantly renew themselves. His renowned horse paintings express ever-evolving perceptions and a profoundly free spirit. By experimenting with a limited palette and unorthodox cropping, among other innovations, he continually breaks new ground in composition, perspective, and color.

 

He is truly a crossover artist, bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary Western art. Varied though his paintings are, they are instantly recognizable as Farnsworth’s own. Behind every canvas is a sharp intellect, a ready sense of humor, and a world view based in equal parts on tireless observation, imagination, and work.

Suzanne Deats

JOURNAL ENTRY:

Sunday, September 8, 1968:

 

Eugene R. Gordon wrote out a check for $650.00 for 2 1/2 months at Greasewood! Took 5 paintings and bear claw necklace as collateral. Leaving next weekend. Close enough, huh? By hell, this is the beginning I’ve dreamed of for years.

WESTERN TRADITIONS

GALLERY TOUR
Cowboys and Indians Magazine
by Charlotte Berney
April 2005

ART YOU CAN LIVE WITH