The 22nd opened with the traditional Red Carpet Reception, a get-together that is expected to raise about $1 million for the .
The sold-out event saw 900 people gather in the Expo Hall at the National Western Complex to meet featured artist Teresa Elliott and Mary Belle Grant Award recipient Kent Ullig while enjoying food, music and the chance to buy works by 65 artists from throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.
A former police sketch artist from Alpine, Texas, Elliott is a primarily self-taught artist who is in her seventh year with the show and sale curated by Rose Fredrick. For five of those seven years, Elliott’s works — her signature subject is longhorn cattle — have been voted People’s Choice winners by visitors to the show; her 2015 entry, “High Noon,” will become part of the National Western’s permanent collection.
Coors Banquet is the event’s title sponsor; additionally, Brad and Kathy Coors are the Best in Show sponsors. Other support comes from Anadarko Petroleum, the Dea Family Foundation and Henry and Lorie Gordon.
Guests at the Red Carpet Reception included advisory committee chair Cathy Carpenter Dea and her husband, Peter; Anadarko’s director of government affairs, Chris Castilian, and his wife, Patty Shaw; Best in Show winner , who specializes in contemporary Native American art and is a member of the Chickasaw and Ponca Indian nations; and Duke Beardsley, who is maintaining a pop-up art studio in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel Denver through Jan. 31.
The 2014 Coors Western Art Show & Sale generated $1.14 million in ticket and art sales, with the net proceeds going to scholarships supporting “the next generation of agribusiness and rural medical leaders.” The 2015 edition remains open to the public in the Expo Hall at the National Western Complex for the run of the 108th National Western Stock Show.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, jdavidson @denverpost.com or twitter.com/joannedavidson
Online: More pictures from this event denverpost.com/seengallery
