The Great Plains Art Museum Premiers V....Vaughan's Great Plains Paintings

Written by Peter Molloy Monday, 17 October 2011 23:48

Lincoln, Nebraska.- The Great Plains Art Museum welcomes the return of Texas artist V….Vaughan and her plein air painting series documenting America “from the passenger seat.”  Since 2007, Vaughan has traveled the roads and rails of the Great Plains region painting scenes of change. Her work has documented much of the Plains region from a car, a bus, or a train, for “Passing America: The Great Plains”, on view at the museum until December 11th.  Vaughan’s first solo exhibition, which premiered at the Great Plains Art Museum in 2007, was “Last Year on the Farm,” a daily plein air series that documented her family’s last year on a multi-generational farm. The success of that exhibition and the stories shared with the artist since its premier helped inspire the ‘Passing’ series.

Vaughan heard many first-hand accounts of families saying good-bye to their farms, and the passing of the Plains agrarian way of life. “The farming way of life is passing away in America as fewer people choose to make their living by such humble means,” says Vaughan. “Most of these are small canvases – impressions painted in oils very quickly. In fact, I call the exercise ‘drive-by painting.’ The series depicts the passing seasons, farmscapes, and a way of life.” “V. . . . Vaughan’s previous exhibition ‘Last Year on the Farm’ left an indelible mark on our audience, and many have commented to me how much they appreciated her honoring of the agrarian lifestyle,” says curator Amber Mohr. “As with that series, ‘Passing America: The Great Plains’ also hopes to inspire awareness of rural instability, and honor those that continue the agrarian lifestyle.” V….is for “Virginia” Vaughan. Vaughan has studied with the best: Ray Vinella, Kevin Macpherson, Ann Templeton, Kathryn Stats and Carolyn Anderson. As a plein air painter she now paints on location all across America.  “My favorite place is around the countryside on our old farm in Manor, Texas! I completed 365 daily small works depicting our "Last Year on the Farm". The paintings were featured at various museums and venues, and are receiving great revues.  Recently Vaughan’s paintings have been winning awards across America. Her paintings have begun to be acquired by museums and numerous collectors. From 1989 - 2009 Vaughan was the art instructor at Round Rock Christian Academy in Texas, where her students won numerous awards. She also teaches painting workshops all across America throughout the year, recently hanging her teaching shingle at the Fredericksburg Artist’s School in Texas.


The Great Plains Art Museum opened in 1981 after a generous donation from Dr. John and Elizabeth Christlieb of Bellevue, Nebraska. The Christliebs donated to the Center for the Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln their valued collection of western art, library of western Americana, and provided an endowment for the care and maintenance of the Collection. The Christlieb Collection serves as the foundation of the Great Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection. The Collection consists of bronze sculptures, paintings and drawings, other works on paper, and photographs, and includes artwork by Albert Bierstadt, William de la Montagne Cary, Robert F. Gilder, William Henry Jackson, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and Olaf Wieghorst. The library contains an impressive 7,500 volumes, consisting of several Western novels and many other fiction and nonfiction books about the West and the Great Plains. Since 1980, many generous donors have helped to enlarge the collection with additional gifts, including twentieth-century Native American paintings from Patricia J. and Stanley H. Broder, the Richard Lane collection of western fiction and history, and the Regina Collection of Canadian Plains literature. The Great Plains Art Museum is the home to many works of art by such artists as Lyman Byxbe, Ray Ellis, John Falter, Michael Forsberg, Charles Guildner, Veryl Goodnight, Cliff Hollestelle, Laurie Houseman-Whitehawk, Keith Jacobshagen, Ted Long, Herb Mignery, Andrew Peters, Martha and Del Pettigrew, Jackson Pollock, Norman Rockwell, and Grant Wood. Exhibits are typically rotated every two months and include artwork from the permanent collection, guest curated exhibitions, and traveling exhibits.The Great Plains Art Museum opened in 1981 after a generous donation from Dr. John and Elizabeth Christlieb of Bellevue, Nebraska. The Christliebs donated to the Center for the Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln their valued collection of western art, library of western Americana, and provided an endowment for the care and maintenance of the Collection. The Christlieb Collection serves as the foundation of the Great Plains Art Museum’s permanent collection. The Collection consists of bronze sculptures, paintings and drawings, other works on paper, and photographs, and includes artwork by Albert Bierstadt, William de la Montagne Cary, Robert F. Gilder, William Henry Jackson, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and Olaf Wieghorst. The library contains an impressive 7,500 volumes, consisting of several Western novels and many other fiction and nonfiction books about the West and the Great Plains. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.unl.edu/plains/gallery/gallery.shtml

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