Colorado: Boulder: Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art

Aspen in May. Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder, Colorado. May 2016.

For May 2016, I visited my sister, "Murphy," at her place in Longmont, Colorado.


Between Longmont and Boulder is the Leanin' Tree production plant and store. It is also home to the Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art.


Although the overcast days of Guatemala followed me to Colorado, it was a spirit-lifting sunny day when I visited Leanin Tree.

I move through museums pretty quickly. If a work doesn't grab my attention, I zoom right by. Which reminds me of when Murphy and I went on a tumultuous road trip to Colorado, years ago, back when we both still lived in Missouri. Murphy and I stopped in Cripple Creek (before there was a casino). We entered the history museum together. About 20 minutes later, I exited the museum and sat outside on the steps to wait for Murphy to finish her walkabout. I smoked back then, so I had a cigarette while I waited, probably several. I waited and waited and waited for Murphy to come out. After what seemed an eternity, I re-entered the museum to see where the hell she was.

She was still in the first room! Reading each tiny card in front of each tiny exhibit. Holy fuckity-fuck.


Anyway. Back to the present.

There were a number of works at the Leanin' Tree museum that drew me.

Ed Mell's Sonoran Sunbreak. Unfortuately, I'm not able to find a good image of this painting, but here's a piece in a similar style, called Towering Clouds, Lake Powell:

Towering Clouds, Lake Powell, by Ed Mell. Credit: Ed Mell Gallery

Jackson Hensley's The Prayer. Again, didn't find a good image for this, but here is another of Mr. Hensley's with a similar style:

Painting by Jackson Hensley. Credit: Jackson Hensley Gallery.

Also, I liked works by:

• Gary Ernest Smith, Two Barns and Oregon Pioneers
• Oleg Stavrowsky, The Raid
• John Schoenherr, specifically, Fox Hunt II and Big Hunter
• Michael Coleman, After the Rain
• Fritz Scholder, Cow Kachina #2
• Gordon Snidow, Ramrod

Ramrod, by Gordon Snidow. Credit: Gordon Snidow.

Outdoors were some fine pieces, which included bears, deer, a snake, and other critters large and small. I felt very taken with The Beauty of the Harvest, by Martha Pettigrew. It is a sculpture of a Pueblo woman with a basket of corn. Couldn't seem to take a picture of her that in any way captured her presence. Here is another visitor's depiction, which I link you to, although I'm not in love with how much the photographer saturated the colors. The photo I have at the top of this post is the tree that is behind this sculpture.

There was also this horse, welded together from recycled metal and objects. The Leanin Tree patriarch commissioned the artist, Dixie Jewett, to create this piece. Therefore, she was able to ask her benefactor for pieces to include in the horse, pieces that might have special meaning to him.

Ironfire by Dixie Jewett, Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder. Colorado. May 2016.

Ironfire by Dixie Jewett, Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder. Colorado. May 2016.

Other Western (as in American West) art museums I've been to include:

• Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Leanin Tree Western Art Museum is free. It's a good day when you can surround yourself, at no charge, in beauty on a balmy, sunny afternoon in May.