C&I talks with award-winning painter Scott Burdick about the prestigious Prix de West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Cowboys & Indians: You’ve got a pretty long history participating in this prestigious show.
Scott Burdick: This will be the eleventh year I’ve exhibited in the Prix de West Show, and the ninth year my wife, Susan Lyon, has been in the show as well. Susan and I have admired this show since attending art school in Chicago. In fact, my teacher at the American Academy, Bill Parks, used to show the class video tape demonstrations that the museum recorded of some of the artists in the show back then (Bettina Steinke, Harley Brown, William Whitaker, and many others).
Susan and I took several trips down to Oklahoma City to see the Prix de West, as well as special exhibits of Nicholai Fechin, Bettina Steinke, and others. At that time, there was very little contemporary realistic art being shown in Chicago, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum was a beacon of excellence and hope for us. To exhibit in the Prix de West alongside so many of our art heroes — like George Carlson, Harley Brown, and nearly a hundred others — is a dream come true.
Scott Burdick, Native Profile, oil, 16” x 12”
C&I: What’s so special about Prix de West?
Burdick: Every year I look forward to going to the show as much to see the artwork as to have this huge reunion with artists and art lovers who share my passion for art and the West. This year will be bittersweet because of the passing of Kang Cho from Covid-19 a few weeks ago. He’s one of the artists I admired so much when I was in art school. At last year’s show he was telling me all about his journey from South Korea as a teenager and attending the same school I had in Chicago. It’s hard to believe that was our last conversation, but I realize how lucky I am to have known and learned from someone as talented and kind as he was thanks to the show bringing us together.
C&I: What have you painted for Prix de West in the past?
Burdick: I tend to paint people, both in the landscape, interiors, or even with a bit of a magical realist feel. Last year, for example, I painted four portraits of women who live in the West. Each represented a different racial group, so I titled the four paintings, “The Many” “Colors” “Of Our” “Nation.” Only one of the paintings would be a recognizably “Western” painting, but the great thing about the Prix de West and the museum directors is that they take a broad view that includes the modern as well as the historical aspects of what the West is and what it might be in the future.
Scott Burdick, Pau Wau Dreamscape, oil, 36” x 36”
For example, one year I painted a couple of young Navajo children sitting in their minivan looking out the half-open window. The kids were dressed thoroughly modern and the only hint of the West was some mountains in the background. I titled the painting, “Traditional Navajo Minivan.” Susan Patterson, the museum’s Exhibition Curator, laughed in delight when she saw my odd submission and said that she was pretty certain she’d never seen a minivan in the show before.
C&I: How do you plan for what you’ll paint for the show?
Burdick: I don’t necessarily plan out which paintings to send to the show, but just do paintings I’m excited about and then select four that I feel work well together and fit in somewhat with the Western theme. I usually take a month-long trip out West to paint, and I’ve been doing a few paintings of some of the painters I’ve painted with, so I might send some of those for this year’s show, but I’m still not entirely certain at this point.
Scott Burdick, Equanimity, charcoal and acrylic, 30” x 27”
C&I: Tell us about some of the awards you’ve won at Prix de West.
Burdick: The 2021 Robert Lougheed Memorial Award, which is voted on by the artists in the show for best group of paintings; the 2020 Donald Teague Memorial Award for Best Work on Paper; 2015 Buyers Choice Award, which is voted on by the collectors at the show for favorite work in the show.
Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale: Art Sale Event June 17 – 18, 2022, on exhibit June 2 – August 7, 2022 in Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Visit Scott Burdick online here.