The Desert Caballeros Western Museum’s Cowgirl Up! exhibition showcases life through the lens of “the other half of the West.”
Contemporary ledger art, intricate graphite portraits, Western oil paintings, and large-scale sculptures all play starring roles at Cowgirl Up!, a dynamic exhibition and sale that shines a light on Western art’s most exciting female creators. The annual show opening in late March at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, is stronger than ever as it celebrates two decades of showcasing “Art From the Other Half of the West.”
More than 60 emerging and established Western artists have been selected from hundreds of applicants to display their paintings, sculptures, and drawings at this year’s exhibition. Many of the women will appear during opening weekend (March 28 – 30), a whirlwind of festivities including live auctions and an artist quick-draw contest. You can purchase your favorite works in person and online throughout the duration of the exhibition and vote for the People’s Choice Award — one of the many prizes presented.
Dyana Hesson, Sedona Windsock Soap Tree Yucca, Sedona Airport. Oil on canvas, 28 x 22 inches.
New artists often make a splash at Cowgirl Up!, heightening the competition’s excitement and drama with a fresh influx of talent. Last year, newcomer Georgia Roswell won Best in Show and People’s Choice for her stunning landscape of Utah’s Flaming Gorge made entirely of discarded textiles. She’s returning in 2025, along with Dolores Purdy of the Caddo Nation, another award winner, whose stunning ledger art reveals influences ranging from Asian textiles to art deco.
A new painter to watch for this year is Sara Bloodwolf, who has created works for the Smithsonian, Guns N’ Roses, and Microsoft founder Paul Allen. Descended from the Native American tribes that inspired Last of the Mohicans, Bloodwolf is the great-great-granddaughter of the Great Sequah, a cure-all salesman who performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Her robust and vibrant figurative oil paintings radiate a dreamlike quality and bold Western spirit reminiscent of Mark Maggiori and Logan Maxwell Hagege but through a female lens.
Sara Bloodwolf, She Calls to Them. Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches.
As it celebrates its 20th anniversary, Cowgirl Up! continues to give voice and visibility to the female artist’s perspective in a traditionally male-dominated genre, and this year’s show looks to be one of the most compelling exhibitions yet. Beyond the show, the museum’s Dita and John Daub Western Women’s Art Acquisition Fund is a unique initiative dedicated to preserving and showcasing the often-overlooked contributions of early Western women artists. The new purchases made possible by the fund significantly enrich the current collection and help bridge the contemporary Cowgirl Up! acquisitions to earlier women artists. The growing collection currently includes artwork by renowned artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Dorothy Brett, Nampeyo, Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin, historic artists whose names were once known, and many others, furthering the inclusion and awareness of both deceased and living women artists.
Dolores Purdy, Take It to the Limit One More Time. Colored pencil on antique paper, 18 x 22 inches.
Cowgirl Up! 20th anniversary sale and exhibition runs March 28 through May 25 at Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona. For more on the show, visit westernmuseum.org.
From our April 2025 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Desert Caballeros Western Museum. Sara Bloodwolf image courtesy of the artist.
