Cheyenne Frontier Days Isn’t All Rodeo, There’s Also World-Class Western Art

One thing to know about the prestigious Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show at the CFD Old West Museum is that it’s not a stereotypical stuffy art show.

In fact, it’s considered by many as the signature social event of the Daddy of ’em All, and that means there’s an element of fun first and foremost.

The proof is evident in the huge mob of people who attend this event every year. No fewer than 800 people were stuffed into the tiny Old West Museum on Thursday night, the keeper of Western history and Cheyenne Frontier Days history in particular.

The art show began as a fundraiser for the museum in the 1980s, but has evolved into much more. It’s considered a must for the biggest fans of Cheyenne Frontier Days to come together and celebrate another year of the famous CFD rodeo, which started in 1897.

Navigating the space involved a few elbows now and again, not to mention a few “excuse me” moments as well.

What helped create room for the event were all the people spilling out onto the sidewalks in fancy dress and tall cowboy hats, floating over to the dining hall tent for a classic prime rib dinner.

The buffet was open the entire time, creating a steady flow of guests out of the museum.

Inside the museum, 55 talkative artists and more than 200 pieces of Western art awaited sometimes unsuspecting buyers.

The Greeley Hat Works was making custom hats for the occasion. It was brought in to help mark the 45th anniversary of this popular kickoff to Cheyenne Frontier Days.

None of the hats or artwork could be considered cheap.

Some of the art cost as much as $19,500 for a quick sale, and the hats were a minimum of $789 — before customizations.

Yet both art and hats were fast-moving, regardless of price. Not just because the event is a fundraiser to support the museum, but also because of the quality.

The hats and the artists are some of the best available in the Western world.

It’s About Trusting The Cowboy Code

Sculptor Chris Navarro had already sold two of the four pieces he’d brought for a show that will last until Aug. 10.

“I try to tell a story,” he told Cowboy State Daily, gesturing at a sculpture of a horse on one end of a balance beam and a cowboy with outstretched hands at the other. “The better the story, the better the art.”

Navarro has ridden in rodeos and he’s trained horses. The latter was the inspiration for his fast-selling balance beam piece. 

“I have a couple of rope horses, so I still do that,” he said. “And I just like that idea of the balance beam and trust. Because that’s how you get horses to work for you and do what you want.

“You have to build a relationship of trust, and that’s what this sculpture is about.”

The other sculpture Navarro had already sold is a raven on top of a dream catcher, which he cut from stainless steel. It’s a smaller version of a monument he’s working on installing in Sedona, Arizona, later this year. 

“I’ve owned a gallery in Sedona for 25 years now,” he said. “So, we winter in Sedona, and we live in Casper the rest of the time.”

The two sculptures of his that remain are a horse under a rainbow called “Chasing Rainbows” and a bust of a Native American warrior with dream images inscribed onto his sides. It was a picture of a man’s life in more ways than one.

“A lot of people can’t see those reliefs until you really look at him,” Navarro said. “But it just kind of shows his life. He’s a warrior. He stole horses, and I’ve always liked the Plains Indians, because they were horse societies.”

Never Too Busy For CFD’s Western Art Show

Navarro is a particularly busy artist, with lots of other projects underway.

In addition to the Sedona monument he’s working on, he also has monuments going up in Saratoga and Laramie this year, as well as one for the Veterans Cemetery in Casper. That one will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I’m as busy as ever,” Navarro said. “I don’t ever plan on retiring. I’m 69 now and I’m working as hard as I’ve ever worked.”

In fact, if anything, Navarro said he feels more focused now than he ever has.

“I know I have a certain amount of years left to make sculptures, and I’m going to make as many as I can,” he said. “Wyoming is my home state, so I’ve got 16 monuments and nine pieces here in Cheyenne.”

The first of those nine pieces was the Lane Frost sculpture dedicated in 1993.

“Cheyenne Frontier Days turned me down the first two times I approached them,” Navarro recalled, smiling. “And every time I started to feel good about (the statue) something would come along and drag me down. But I got it done.

“And that’s why that piece is always special today. I commissioned myself to do it. Nobody asked me to. But I was a bull rider, and I thought, ‘Man, if I could do a monument, it would be one of Lane Frost.’”

No matter how busy Navarro gets, he always has time for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show.

“It’s the Daddy of ’em All,” he said. “I’ve always been kind of involved with Cheyenne Frontier Days. My son rode bulls, and I rode bulls for like five years for Casper College. So, rodeo has always been a big part of my life, and there’s no better rodeo.”

The Dog Makes It Real

Artist Julie Bender, meanwhile, couldn’t help but stare at a portrait of some Native American riders in a meadow going to a rendezvous.

“I just want to tell you one thing,” she told the artist who had done the painting, Paul Kethley. “This piece, I noticed, and I was studying it for a while, and I loved it. But then I saw the dog, and I fell madly in love, like that changed everything.”

Kethley was nearly blushing at the praise.

“It took a lot of imagination,” he told Bender. “I had some references, but I didn’t have the light. So, I had to kind of make it up.”

“I think it’s right,” she said. “That dog did it. It makes the piece. It just brings everything together.”

Kethley appreciated the insight on this work in particular because he’d questioned including the dog the entire time he was making the piece.

However, as the painting developed, Kethley decided to include the dog whether it worked or not.

“I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just do what I want to do,’” he said. “And they did have dogs, they worked them, and they carried things to the Indians.”

He thinks of this painting, where light plays all over the meadow just like the dog, as a good day in the West.

“Light is my main inspiration,” he said. “That’s what makes (a painting) fly. And it’s history — a time and a place in history, very close to where I live. The background is Carter Mountain.”

Going to a rendezvous gave Native Americans a chance to trade for things they needed all year long. 

“So, that’s like a good day in the West,” Kethley said. “I just like the life of the Indians back then. They had a good life, too, and I like to paint the peaceful times.”

The other aspect of the painting that shows this artist’s skill is the way he’s captured the movement of the horses, with a blur of legs. 

“I like to put movement and blur the legs of the horse to some degree, to get it like it’s moving,” he said. 

How Wyoming Burrows Into Your Soul

All of Kethley’s paintings relate to stories his friends have told him. Like the portrait of a horse trainer at the gate, with his trusty steed waiting patiently at his side.

“My friend trains mustangs and I used to work with him taking care of his horses,” Kethley said. “And I so enjoyed going out with him as much as I could.”

Kethley’s friend used only pressure to communicate with his horses.

“There were no saddles, no stirrups, nothing to wear,” Kethley said. “Your hands are free, so you can open the gates or do anything.”

In the portrait, though, Kethley placed a horn on the horse. 

“If I didn’t, people would wonder if that’s a stray horse,” Kethley said. 

It would have told a different story than the one Kethley was trying to tell.

“Anyway, I enjoyed it. I have to be entertained, so that’s why I picked that subject. I gotta enjoy the action and just applying the paint,” Kethley said.

Wyoming has been a huge influence on Kethley’s art since moving to Powell in 2020.

“We met some ranchers who raise goats and sheep and they’re in their 80s still,” he said. “You know how much work is involved in raising 200 to 300 sheep and goats?”

It didn’t take long before Kethley and his wife were helping their neighbors a little bit, particularly in the winter.

“We got to learn a lot of things,” Kethley said. “Like how to watch for an animal, a female, who’s going to give birth. How to get it into the barn in winter. How to water, how to feed them. That’s what we immersed ourselves in.”

That experience has all come out in Kethley’s art.

“It gets in you, and then you want to do something as an artist,” he said. “So, I wound up — and this guy loved his sheep dogs — so I did portraits of all of them.”

When Cowboy Is A State Of Mind

It’s the authentic Western spirit that shines through in Kethley’s work, captivating a casual viewer or even another serious artist. He wasn’t alone in that. Every piece in the show was similarly captivating with an original vision of the West, creating a kaleidoscope of true Western culture.

That helps explain the popularity of the Western Art show for going on 45 years and more than $3 million in sales later.

“This show has become a premier show for Western Art,” Gov. Mark Gordon told cowboy State Daily. “And people appreciate what is done here. It’s one of the best art shows ever.”

Gordon has been to many other art shows, and Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show rivals the best of them. Every piece offers a different but authentic vision of the West in techniques that range from traditional to contemporary. 

That variety is part of what endears the show to its fans, including Miss Cheyenne Frontier Days Haylie Turley and her lady in waiting, Katherine Olson.

“The West is just so much more than cows,” Turley told Cowboy State Daily. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s just cows.’ But there’s horses, cowboys, cowgirls.

“Here they will see beautiful landscapes of the mountains and the beaches. There’s a lot to the West, and it’s really cool to see all the different aspects.”

Cowboys, Olson added, aren’t just stereotypical ranch families.

“I personally believe a cowboy is a state of mind,” she said. “And if you want to learn about our culture, we will welcome you with open arms, because there is so much room for everybody in the West.”

An art show is one of the best ways to effortlessly share that culture with the world at large, the girls added, because so many people from so many parts of the world come to Cheyenne Frontier Days. The art makes a powerful statement about what the West has to offer, without saying a single word.

With art on the wall from so many different artists sharing visions of the West, it’s a powerful statement about what the West has to offer.

“It gives you another perspective (of the West),” Gordon said. “I mean, you look at these chickadees and these finches and aspen, and you say, ‘You know, I’ve seen that before, but maybe I didn’t take the time to really understand what’s happening.’ 

“This just gives you an opportunity to think a little more deeply about what Wyoming has.”

Gordon said he planned to buy at least one piece of art from the show.

“Looking at some of the amazing sculptures here, I wish I had unlimited money,” he said. “But what’s great about it is when people buy a piece here, and I know for myself when I buy a piece, it helps make sure this show not only becomes a premier show, but continues to do that.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.