Howard Post Captures Desert Light in “Lavender Shadows”

Altamira Fine Art is honored to feature Howard Post in Western Art & Architecture’s June–July 2024 article “Lavender Shadows.” This thoughtful piece spotlights Post’s lifelong connection to Arizona’s landscapes and his evolving portrayal of rodeo life, cattle pens, and desert light effects.

Born and raised near Tucson, Howard Post brings a lifetime’s perspective to his art. “The bright sun and the landscape have always been part of my work,” he shares, capturing vivid desert skies and shifting shadows infused with lavender-blue hues.

Post’s intimate knowledge of Western life — grounded in rodeo competing and ranching — is translated into his paintings. In works like Rodeo Cattle, he draws the viewer into the pen, with agitated cattle shadows forming dynamic patterns that reveal both tension and rhythm.

Mark Sublette lauds Post’s signature use of shadow and hue, noting his departure from traditional palettes: “He throws out the color wheel and uses the ‘Post wheel’… if the light is just right, it actually does look purple”. This unique approach sets his work apart in the New West movement.

A 1980s visit to a cattle yard sparked Post’s aerial viewpoint — conveying animals and corrals as shapes and forms rather than literal depictions. His art balances abstraction and realism, emphasizing structure, shadow, and sunlight over cliché Western scenes.

This feature affirms Howard Post’s standing as an authentic voice of the contemporary Western tradition — one who paints lived experience with insight, color innovation, and painterly strength. His work offers a fresh, nuanced look at desert life and its boundless visual poetry.

Explore more of Howard Post’s desert-inspired masterpieces at Altamira Fine Art in Jackson Hole.