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Theodore Waddell Biography |
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Theodore Waddell
Born: Montana, 1941 The heart and hand needed to create a strong American painting is not limited to those living east of the Mississippi. It is a product of endless work, self-evaluation, and the courage to allow one’s paintings to evolve. It demands the marriage of the artist’s lifestyle and his work. Theodore Waddell exemplifies this definition. His enthusiasm and lifestyle are reflected in the way he works and the imagery he uses. Waddell’s paintings are a combination of rough marks; thick paint; transparent elegant strokes; and, on a few occasions a slow, hard line scratched into the canvas. You can feel the movement of the paint throughout the paintings but the subjects are frozen. They are not frozen as a stagnant object but captured as a solitary image. Captured, interpreted and enveloped in the landscape. They are carved out of, or laid onto the green and grey-yellow of the spring and summer, or the white canopy of winter. And sometimes there are ghosts in the paintings, the faint image of what has changed in the piece or decays in the pasture. These ghosts refer to Waddell’s interest in life and death and our own mortality. They are metaphors for the struggle and change that is constant in life. In his artist’s statement he says, “The understanding of death brings about a feeling of wonderfulness and appreciation of life and just how fragile and magical it all is.” Whether Waddell is studying the changing seasons, animals as individuals, or the later figures, one can see his magic in his reverence for nature and celebration of paint. He is a painter’s painter: strong hearted, sure handed and high spirited. Therefore, if I must categorize Waddell, he will live in the ranks of American painters and not be limited to the confines of the western artist. Jennifer Complo McNutt Curator of Contemporary Art Eiteljorg Museum EDUCATION 1968 M.F.A. - Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 1966 B.S. - Montana State University, Billings, MT 1962 Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, NY PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Apple Computer, Inc., Saratoga, California Arco Corporation, Los Angeles California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Bank of America, San Francisco, California Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho Buffalo Bill Historical Museum, Cody, Wyoming Carnation Company, Los Angeles, California Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Washington Citadel Corporation, Scottsdale, Arizona Clorox Corporation, San Francisco, California Custer County Art Center, Miles City, Montana Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas Dennos Museum, Traverse City, Michigan Denver Museum of Art, Denver, Colorado Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis Minnesota and Helena, Montana First Interstate Bank, Las Vegas, Nevada Frederick R. Weisman Company, Los Angeles, California Frito-Lay Corporation, Dallas, Texas Goddard Center for Performing and Visual Arts, Ardmore, Oklahoma Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri Hallmark Corporation, Kansas City, Missouri Harrah's Enterprises, Reno, Nevada Hockaday Art Center, Kalispell, Montana Holter Museum, Helena, Montana International Business Machines Kohler Art Center, Sheyboygan, Wisconsin Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California Marriot Corporation, San Antonio, Texas Merck Corporation, West Point, Pennsylvania Michener Collection, Austin, Texas Missoula Museum of the Arts, Missoula, Montana Mobil Oil, New York, New York Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas Nestles Corporation, Los Angeles, California Nicolaysen Museum, Casper, Wyoming Nordstrom, Seattle, Washington North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota North Dakota State University Memorial Union Gallery, Fargo, North Dakota Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona Oats Park Art Center, Fallon, Nevada Omaha National Bank, Omaha, Nebraska Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, Montana Palm Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California Pillsbury Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota Progressive Corporation, Pepper Pike, Ohio Rayovac Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin Robert Redford Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana Safeco, Seattle, Washington San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, California Sheldon Memorial Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska Sierra Pacific Power, Reno, Nevada Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas Springfield Art Museum Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, California Ringo Starr Topeka Public Library, Topeka, Kansas United Airlines, Chicago, Illinois United Missouri Bank, Kansas City, Missouri University Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington University of Kansas, School of Arts, Lawrence, Kansas University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico University of North Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota University of Texas, Austin, Texas University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana |
