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As Featured on Martha Stewart "American Made" Contest

Mighty Nimble Wine by Hilary Graves

Hilary Graves, outstanding winemaker from Central Coast of California, is releasing her new wine lable, “Mighty Nimble”, featuring the drawing from the chine colle’ etching “I may not be much of a bronc rider,…but my get offs,…are classic”

I am honored to be a small part of her great Central Coast  Paso Robles Area wine. if you would like to try them, please contact Hilary Graves at :
HilaryGraves.wordpress.com
MightyNimble.com  (soon)

Ask For Hilary  – Cell : 805-674-1686


Video and Interview Wyoming Arts Council


Cowboy Poetry Bob Coronato feature


German Reasearch Magazine 2013


**Photographed above is Bob Coronato s piece being auctioned off at the Charles M. Russell Sale and Benefit Auction Sat. March 17th, 2012.**

March 16-19, 2012 was the annual C.M. Russell Sale and Benefit Auction for the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls Montana. Coronatos piece this year is his Pittura Di Strati original mixed media, used for the 2011 Belle Fourche, South Dakota Round Up Rodeo. The Rodeo Poster piece sold for above auction estimates with the hammer price included.

(Below is clipped from an article written about this years auction in The Great Falls Tribune. Written by Richard Ecke)

“All eyes were on The Russell: the Sale to Benefit the C.M. Russell Museum live auction Saturday night to see if three original Charlie Russell watercolors would sell for $200,000 or more each.

All three did. Two Russells, “Waiting for Her Brave’s Return” and “Roping a Steer,” each fetched a price of $375,000, while a third Russell watercolor, “Indian on Horseback,” received a high bid of $300,000 during the auction at the Heritage Inn. Combined, those three Russells produced winning bids of more than $1 million.

The Great Falls museum that bears Russell’s name benefited from the sale of his works Saturday night, and officials were downright cheerful after the buying frenzy, which often was punctuated with cheers.

“This is going phenomenal,” said Channing Hartelius, secretary of the Russell Museum’s board of directors.

Bidders also went wild for other Russell originals. “The Bucker,” part of a group of Renner family estate offerings that also included one of the $375,000 pieces, sold for $60,000. Then the buyer agreed to donate the watercolor to the Russell Museum, board Chairman Joe A. Masterson said.

In addition, a watercolor and pen-and-ink called “Center-Fire Man on a Bronc,” estimated to sell for up to $45,000, instead went for a whopping $170,000 to the Smith’s Fork Land & Cattle Co. of Robertson in southwest Wyoming. Other buyers of big Russell pieces declined to be named.

“It was absolutely a wonderful tribute to (Russell expert) Ginger (Renner),” Masterson said of the sale of the Renner estate pieces. “A Bunch of Riders,” a pen and ink also among the Renner items, sold for $100,000 — double the pre-auction estimate.

Gross sales from Saturday night’s nonprofit museum auction were in the $2.75 million range. This preliminary auction total does not include the 10 to 13 percent buyer’s premium, which should push the total over $3 million.

The Paddle Raise for Education netted $150,000, 100 percent of which goes to Russell education efforts.

It was hard to find anything to be disappointed about during the Saturday night money-maker for the museum — and officials were beaming, even if they were exhausted by all the preparations and the hectic nature of the event.

“The market’s up,” auctioneer Troy Black said at the beginning of the night. “There’s a good buzz in town.”

He was right.


New Video Pittura Di Strati Watch a short vedo to see how the Pittura Di Strati is painted. Original oil and Acrylic on board

Watch a short vedo to see how the Pittura Di Strati is painted.
Original oil and Acrylic on board


FEATURE IN ART OF THE WEST


SOUTHWEST ART FEATURE DECEMBER 2007


The Bozeman Magpie Article

Artist Bob Coronato Portrays Today’s Wild West

September 14, 2010
By: Ashley N. Kroon

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As a child in New Jersey, Bob Coronato would page through books about the frontier and wish he were born 100 years earlier. After high school, Coronato did go west, but to the roiling metropolis of Los Angeles and the Otis/Parsons College of Art and Design. In 1991, with two years of higher education under his belt, Coronato was on a family vacation in Spearfish, South Dakota, when he first visited the High Plains Heritage Museum. Inquiring about the lack of Remingtons and Russells, Coronato spoke with the curator who explained that the collection had recently been pulled. Coronato did the only appropriate thing for a starving art student and offered up his own paintings. He and the curator scheduled a show for the museum’ reopening.

Upon his return to Otis/Parsons, Coronato chose to finish his BFA and used his remaining schooling to produce material for the upcoming show: ” I turned every single assignment into a western subject. If the assignment was to paint an advertisement for an automobile, I would ask, does it matter how old the car is?, ” “and I would paint a covered wagon.”

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Two years and many “westernized”  assignments passed before Coronato hung his work on the walls at the

museum and held his breath on opening night. Among the patrons visiting the High Plains on that fateful evening was Carson Thomas, a Wyoming resident and saddle maker by trade, as well as the evening guest speaker. Thomas enjoyed Coronato’s work, but wasted no time in pointing out that a style of saddle depicted in a painting set in the 1880 didn’ exist until the 1930’s. Embarrassed by his rookie mistake, Coronato admits today to ” hot flashes.” Instead of gloating, Thomas made Coronato an offer hard to refuse. Thomas had space above his saddle shop and he knew a few ranches where Coronato could get enough work and experience to back up his talent. All Coronato had to do was pack up and move to Wyoming.

After the show, the young artist went back to New Jersey. A few restless months later, he called Thomas and asked if the offer still stood. It did, but only if Coronato was serious. He was. Coronato left New Jersey with $500 and no furniture, unsure of what the future held, but brimming with excitement.

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Thomas’ saddle shop (depicted above by Coronato) was located in the bustling downtown of Hulett, Wyoming, population 408. Coronato remembers those early days in Hulett, ” I first got here it was like the wild west, a different sort of law. Not another town for 50 miles.” Located just north of Devils Tower, Coronato’ says, ” its a place untouched by time where there are ranches that gather 2,000 to 3,000 head of cattle on horseback, across hundreds of miles of fenceless landscape.” In the shadow of the Devils Tower, Coronato had found the west of his childhood dreams and immersed himself in capturing the local color on canvas.

With a job secured at the I.P.Y. Ranch near Devils Tower, the young man settled in as best he could. Coronato says of the long days, ” started working on the ranch by day and painting above the saddle shop at night. Many nights I was painting until 2 and 3 am and getting up by 4 to trail cows.” But he found a friend in the ranch foreman, George White, who ” took me under his wing and made sure I didn’t get killed.” Just a kid from New Jersey, Coronato didn’t even know how to saddle a horse when he moved to Hulett, but from White he learned the life of a cowboy and spent his days on horseback, fixing fence, and tending to livestock. At night he put the day’s events to canvas, cataloging the ” life of a fading lifestyle that so many people have admired.” Reflecting on these early days, he laughs, ” I spent 10 years as free labor for every ranch within 100 miles. If I lived 200 years I wouldn’t be able to paint everything that I’ve seen. If I live to be 95 I’ll still be painting the same thing, just a different facet.”

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Coronato says he finds similarities in his lifetime to the way things were at the beginning of the 19th century; watching the horse and rider be replaced by the four-wheeler and the chuck wagon by the catering van. He says, “I look back 15 years or so and see things that they don’t do anymore.” A fan of both Russell and Remington, he’s spent his lifetime trying to ” document and therefore preserve, the cowboy way of life. I thought, why not paint now what’s going on now, everything that’s interesting or unique? Then I could be like the artists at the turn of the century that I admired.” His work is accomplished with the utmost respect for authenticity, a lesson learned first at the High Plains Heritage Museum. In fact, Coronato is emphatic about the realism of his art: ” subject matters were never planned, everything is either something I saw or that I was a part of. In the long run it will pay off because it’s more authentic than the stuff that just makes a pretty a picture.”

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The first to admit that he’s a ” painfully slow painter,” Coronato turned to etchings (shown above) early in his career as a quicker, yet still original, way to capture a moment. The first etching, ” I did in my sink in my apartment in Santa Barbara.” He took it to the local art gallery and compared  it to one from the turn of the century by Edward Borein. The gallery owner, she said, ” where did you find a Borein etching Plate?” And I said “it wasn’t, that I  just made it in my sink.” Another fateful conversation led to the gallery owner introducing Coronato to a master printmaker at the local college. She in turn allowed him to sneak into her classes in exchange for his services as a lab tech on the weekends.

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These days Coronato has two presses, one in Hulett and the other in California, where he escapes with his family from the lengthy Wyoming winters. Furthering the evolution of his art, Coronato has taken to mixed media ” a cross between the two, taking my etchings and turning them into silk screens and then painting on top of them. The only other artist I can think if that did anything similar was Andy Warhol, as in with Marilyn Monroe. Except I don’ use hot pink.”

Today, Bob Coronato still portrays cowboys, but has begun to include depictions of Native Americans in his work. He and his family are regulars at Crow Fair and Indian family reunions, places where he’s found ample source material: ” I went up for the Indian Relay Races, behind the stalls they were painting the horses and smudging them, it was subject matter that I would never be able to dream up.” Lately, Coronato has undertaken the task of painstakingly preserving the leaders of the American Indian Movement. Of his portrait of Russell Means (shown, upper left),

Coronato says “someone once told me after they saw the painting, I believe this is a very important painting. Means himself is controversial, but I believe the painting is at a level far beyond the individual, it represents Indian pride, Indian rights, as well as 20th Century American history.”

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Since the Paleolithic-era cave dwellers in southwestern France, art has served as a record of history. Coronato feels he’s somewhat of a historian, set forth to capture the way of the west before it disappears forever. As long as the cowboys still ride the range, Bob Coronato will be around to paint them, likely still holed up in the downtown Hulett saddle shop he purchased from Thomas. It’s now been converted into a studio and gallery, where walking through the front door

takes visitors back to a bygone era. In Coronato’s words, ” I no longer have to wish to be a part of the old days, but have become part of the West I was searching for.” -BM

Pictured above is Bob on the job, Bob Coronato’s artwork is available

in downtown Bozeman at Tierney Fine Art.

 


Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale

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Russell Means: A Man of Our Time

Among the many stellar pieces was a stunning portrait of Native American activist Russell Means by Bob Coronato.

No doubt Bob Coronato‘s portrait of Native American activist Russell Means (right) caused more than a few jaws to drop at the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale currently on view at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.

Generally, the paintings in this annual event tend to portray historical scenes of Native Americans. This portrait captures a living Native American, a man of our time. Means is depicted draped in an upside-down American flag, an international signal of distress. Indeed, Coronato says he received lots of comments, including one viewer at the opening who said, “That was so far outside the box, you never saw the box.”

The painting was a decade in the making. Coronato acquired the activist and writer’s e-mail address and explained how he wanted to paint him as an important historical figure. It took several more years after that initial approach, but the artist finally got an invitation to Mean’s house. “We talked for a few hours about politics, reservation life and what kind of thoughts I had for the portrait.” Coronato says. “Russell seemed worried that I wanted to put him in a war bonnet and paint him as if he was living 100 years ago. He said to me, ‘I’m a late 20th century Indian, and that’s how I want to be portrayed.'”

While they talked, Means was sending out tweets, and for the painting no war bonnet was in sight. “The watch and T-shirt describe how Indians are-not the idea of old Hollywood westerns or to be thought of as ‘in the past’ but a people very much of today and with a rich history,” Coronato explains. R. Means is the first in a series of portraits of high-profile Native Americans the artist plans to create.

-Bonnie Gangelhoff
(senior editor at Southwest Art magazine)


Sturgis Bike Week

Everyone has heard of the Harley Davidson Bike Week in Sturgis S.D.,….

Every year during bike week the Wedneday of “rally” comes to Hulett Wyo.
They call it “Sturgis the way it used to be!”
It is officially known as Hulett Ham-N-Jam and everyone gathers on main street to see the bikes, and get a free pork sandwich from Capt Rons Rodeo Bar.

My Brothers and I own the Ponderosa Cafe and Saloon and  along with the Rodeo Bar,…try to make Rally more fun for everyone each year.

We make friends and meet some of the most interesting people every year!


Article in Iron Aces

The Adventure 10 Coronato

by “Indiana Joe” January 2011

A new year .. a new beginning. I guess we often think how things will be different this year .. yet even more often we end up realizing just how much things really stay the same. In the long run .. we end up mimicking the words of our ancestors .. as we all seem to refer to “the good ol’ days”. The truth is .. if you really want your life to “change” .. it’s pretty much as simple as getting off your butt and just doing it.

Apparently, my belief in the old adage that “the only things in life you ever regret are the chances you didn’t take” draws me to other “adventurers” like a magnet. Waking up early and looking forward to “discovery” becomes a passion .. a way of life driven by the quest. There are so many people out there waiting to be discovered .. each with a story of their own and each with incredible knowledge I crave to absorb. But what I also understand and respect, is the fact that being “alone” allows one to contemplate massive amounts of knowledge .. and to enjoy the solitude that resides solely within ourselves.

When I ride .. there is never a radio or cd, iPod or tape player. Our existence here is pretty much a total mind trip .. and when you spend hours on end thinking about how far we’ve evolved in just the last 100 years .. it gives me such a greater appreciation of the pioneers who struck out on their own .. essentially alone .. to settle the vast wilderness of the American West.

For those of us who ride the “iron horses” .. and head to Sturgis the first week of August .. it gives us countless hours to imagine what it must have been like for the “real” cowboys who wandered alone on their trusty steed .. and how difficult life must have been for them just to survive. I, for one, have had a great affinity toward the Native American Indians my entire life. The innate “spirituality” they possessed toward life’s co-existence with nature was beyond reproach. And though I have openly and outwardly expressed opinions regarding their prolonged abuse .. today is not the day I’m going to pull the soap box on you.

As I travel through the Black Hills .. the Badlands .. Sturgis .. Spearfish .. Deadwood .. Rushmore .. this entire area consumes me with the history to which I am drawn so strongly. I once spent weeks holed up in a log cabin in Cody, Wyoming, just roaming the countryside for hundreds of miles each day as my mind and energy seemed to be transported back in time. This seems to be the era to which I’m drawn .. as I do believe many other “iron horse riders” are also drawn. The alone time in the saddle provides us the opportunity to allow our imaginations to run as free as the blowing winds .. and to bond with the ancestors who gave their lives for the land they loved.

On one particular stay in Sturgis .. I heard the rumor about “No Panties Wednesday” in a nearby town called Hulett. At that time, it was a little “town” of less than 400. Rumor had it that thousands of riders would descend upon town for an “unadvertised” event that should prove to be one of those unforgettable moments in time. This was one of those “choices” I could make .. to prove once again that the joy of living was in the “doing” .. and I struck out just before dawn.

As I rolled into town .. barely two city blocks long .. I noticed a half dozen bikes in front of the Ponderosa Café. It was time for breakfast as the sun was rising .. and this place looked like one that time forgot .. and I just knew I’d love it. Sure enough .. they had a great breakfast buffet that I couldn’t refuse .. so I loaded up the tray. As I said .. there were about 6-8 other bikers who’d already sit down for breakfast .. and I headed for an empty table next to the wall. Sure enough .. I tripped over my own foot just as I approached the table and headed straight for the floor. As

agile as a cat, I twisted my body and set the tray on the table as gentle as could be .. then crashed to the floor in a heap. Didn’t even spill the orange juice … I made a comment about “watching that last step” and the place broke out in a roar of laughter. Everyone commented on the fact that nothing spilled .. we were all amazed.

Over our chow .. we constantly heard the roar of bikes as the traffic picked up and the café began to fill. I made a lot of friends from all over the country in a short hour .. and now it was time to venture out. I could hardly believe my eyes when I hit the street! The town was nearly full .. both sides filled with bikes and more rolling in every second. Estimates were later made that day that about 80,000 bikes came to town. They were parked everywhere .. in fields around the town and lining the sides of the incoming roads. The little gas station had a perpetual line throughout the day .. and I couldn’t imagine how they didn’t run out of fuel. But some things are just meant to be.

The little fire station provided free barbeque to anyone who dared wait in the lengthy line (trust me, it was delicious!) .. there was a little church that set up an outdoor stage and provided great gospel rock with a smokin’ hot lead singer .. and they even had little ladies walking about town passing out cups of water .. as it was only 105 degrees that day! There were several vendors who’d set up along the street near the end of town .. and this just happened to be the place that I bought my White Mark Silver Fox helmet with buffalo horns attached. Best $365 bucks I could have ever spent .. as from the moment I put it on I became “the biker” everyone wanted a picture with .. even throughout Sturgis. I’d been known as “Indiana Joe” for a number of years .. but NOW I became the target of “memory seekers”. What a blast!

Of course .. there was this “no panties” thing .. and the nudity was a little more than the average Sturgis crowd. Obviously, there was no police to oversee anything .. yet the crowd remained as civil as the brotherhood of bikers could expect. The only real rowdiness was at the end of town where one of the richest ranchers had set up a little ring where any girl who would ride around topless on a small calf would be given $100. Cameras were clicking non-stop!

The most memorable moment for me, however .. was the minute I walked into “Rogues Gallery” at the end of the street. What used to be an old saddle shop was now the town’s museum .. and one of the world’s greatest “cowboy” artists just happened to be in his shop that day .. and I was lucky enough to meet him. Bob Coronato is his name .. and his story is more fascinating than I have space to share. But I want you to get to know him .. and share the gift he brings to the world.

The museum and gallery was absolutely incredible. I felt the “chicken skin” as his artistry brought goose bumps to my entire body. Just by being amongst the fascinating authentic Cowboy and Indian artifacts .. to see his incredible work .. put my energy on his same wavelength. The detail of is work is so life-like you want to touch it .. and somehow I felt a kinship to his appreciation of “days gone bye”. He had just hung a 10 foot painting of a cattle drive that took him a year to create .. and it’s titled “there’s nothing like the feel’n,… of a ride’n a fine horse through Wyoming country,… that’s still considered frontier!” Bob had been a part of that drive along the Belle Fourche River.

Bob’s mantra is “you have to live the life if you wanted to paint the life” .. and every one of his paintings and drawings is a personal experience. Of the cattle drive .. Bob said “I wanted to create a painting that summed up what it was to be a cowboy ¾ the freedom, the landscape, the teamwork of a bunch of hands, and the sheer vastness of the workplace. This was, and is, a little

piece of my American frontier. A great horse, a great rig, and a beautiful day like this is all you need to create a feeling you’ll never forget”.

I believe Bob’s talent will touch nerves you didn’t know existed .. and will transform your perception of “the old west”. Not only did he become what he dreamed of as a kid .. he found a way to transcend the legends who came before him. He preserves the visual images of our heritage to enlighten, educate, and enhance the fantasies of the very “cowboy” within each of us. I believe Bob is here to document history .. to preserve it forever in the minds of those lucky enough to “see” it through his eyes .. and as visually accurate as humanly possible.

And I find it kind of ironic that Bob’s thoughts are pretty much the same as what goes through my mind as I straddle my own “iron horse” .. and feel the spirits of those who have gone before me ¾ When you have the time .. visit https://www.bobcoronato.com/pages/Home/ and read Bob’s incredible story. Find one of the gallery’s that have his talent on display .. and take the time to visit one on a “destination ride”. Maybe if you’re lucky enough .. you’ll catch him and his wife, Lisa, hanging around the Rogues Gallery.

Until next time .. ride smart .. ride safe

“Indiana Joe”

and the Adventure continues …

The coffins started out as a joke between me and Tom waugh,…15 years later there is a line at “rally” waiting to get in them. they have been in every major publication about sturgis bike week.
this year the sign read: “Hulett wyoming,..its not Hell,…but you can see it from here!”

The donations go to buy rare items for the museum, and are clearly marked in the museum “purchased with donations during rally”

Whats the greatist nation in the world,….A Donation!