2022 Prix de West Seminar: "Rarified Atmospheres: Len Chmiel, Randal M. Dutra & Steve Kestrel"

Prix de West is the nation’s premier Western art exhibition and sale showcasing original works ranging from historical depictions of the American West to more contemporary and impressionistic pieces.
Len Chmiel enjoyed a career as a successful commercial artist before moving to an old mining camp in Colorado in 1971 to concentrate on painting. Since then, he has been called an “iconoclast,” and his paintings described as “compelling.” Critics have compared his flower paintings and the openness of his work to the impressionistic works of Monet, Matisse and O’Keeffe. One reviewer wrote of his work, “The underlying elements of good design and good draftsmanship are there, but something makes you look at the painting, wonder about it, leave it and come back.”
Kestrel won the Gold Medal for Sculpture in 2011 and 2012 at Phoenix Art Museum’s The West Select. Awards at the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Show in Jackson, Wyoming, include the People’s Choice Award in 2007 and the Red Smith Award in 2008. Kestrel was the featured artist at the 2011 Coors Western Art Show in Denver, Colorado, and in 2005 and 2008 was awarded their Best of Show. More recently, he was honored with the Purchase Award for Desert Solitaire at the Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Night of Artists in San Antonio, Texas. In 2013, Kestrel’s sculpture Desert Timeline was awarded the Prix de West Purchase Award.
As an artist who both paints and sculpts, Randal M. Dutra believes, “an artist’s work reflects his particular commitment to life. The fuller the life, the richer the art produced. One must gain as great a variety of knowledge as possible, understanding his subjects in both character and form. I go to the source … nature.”

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