The Artist of the Month for July is Celeste Havener
Celeste Havener won the high school statewide award and national Scholastic award for a wooden sculpture. While she continued to draw, she didn’t start oil painting until her 50’s. She is self-taught and influenced by artists such as Birger Sandzen and McEneny. Celeste’s paintings are her therapist. Centennial Valley, where she makes her house, is the inspiration for a lot of her work. The animals and the landscape provide constant sources of images daring to be captured. Celeste’s parents took her to see the work of Birger Sandzen, an artist who lived in Lindsborg, Kansas. The brilliant Rose Madder and Ultramarine Blues he saw in the wheat fields and rivers in the Midwest gave her new eyes with which to view the world. To see the threads of red in the sumac, the Prussian blue of the shadows, the way the river was rarely just blue but rather a mirror to the trees and vegetation around it. She didn’t follow through on putting those colors to canvas until forty years later. Celeste likes to think one can see Birger’s inspiration in her work.
Celeste Havener has many different art styles. Her work includes oil painting on canvas, alcohol ink, mixed media, and wire art. Please join my artist viewpoint of 12 pieces of Celeste’s artwork.
One of the oil paintings on a canvas is called, “Jacks Lake and Sheep Mountain”. This painting looks like a green and yellow color of grass surrounding a small lake. The green grass is surrounding the water and fades into a yellow color grass. There are a couple of trees surrounding the water as well. In the background there are some beautiful mountains. One of the mountains swoops down a little, and there are a couple more mountains in the background. Between the first mountain and the other mountain looks like a “V” shape but with the ends pointed outward more. There is also a beautiful blue sky with bright white clouds that fade out into the sky a little. The mountains are a green color on top that fades into a yellow color. The mountains look like a blue color that fades into a green color.
Another painting is an oil painting on Baltic Birch and it's called, “Lake Hattie”. This is a painting of some green grass surrounding a lake. The view looks like it was from the side, so the lake looks small, but if you got closer it would look bigger. There are also some mountains in the background on the right side of the painting. In the distance it turns into a snowy landscape. There is a blueish gray mountain on the left side of the painting. There is also a nice blue sky with a bit of white color here and there.
Another oil painting is called, “Horses at the Buffalo Jump”. This is a painting of a large yellow and green grassy landscape. The landscape has big mountains in the background. In front of the mountain there are five wild horses. The horses are almost in a row, but the horses have different distances in between the horses. The first horse is a reddish-brown color, the second horse is a darker brown color with a white spot on its head, the third horse is a light brown with white spots, the fourth horse is a light brown with black hair, and the last horse is a black color with a blue tint. The sky is a lovely blue color with white blended into it.
One of her mixed media is a moose looking up at two stars and a shooting star. The moose is standing on a green landscape that drops a little lower on the left side. The moose is on the right side, and the stars are on the top left.
Another one of Celeste’s mixed media art pieces is a pronghorn on the left side of a green grass landscape, looking at three stars and one shooting star.
Another mixed media art piece is two pronghorns looking at each other. One is female, the other is male, and there is a pinkish red heart between them.
One of Celeste's oil ink art pieces is called “Blue Mountain”. The grass is a yellow color, but there are some green spots of grass as well. There are a couple mountains. The mountains up close are green on top but fade into yellow. There are more mountains in the background, but they look a little different. For example, one is a white yellowish color that fades into a more colorful yellow. There is also a nice blue sky with no clouds.
Another one of her oil ink art pieces is called “Ponies by Sheep Mountain”. It shows a green grass plain with a herd of dark brown horses in front of big grassy mountains. The mountains have dark green grass on top that fades into a lighter shade of green grass. The sky looks like it's going to storm, but it's still a nice blue color with white shades mixed into the sky for clouds. The herd of horses are all in front of the mountains except for two horses that are farther and more close up than the rest of the herd.
Another one of her oil ink art pieces is called “Winter Sunrise”. The bigger mountains on the right are going more down on the left. The top of the mountain is dark green and the rest is a whitish gray color. There’s some grass that is a dark green color. The sky has a blue and purple color on top. The pink, yellow, orange, and red color is more on the bottom half of the sky.
Celeste’s two mustangs are opportunistic feeders. Her two Arabs are princesses. She was a cafeteria monitor in the mornings, to make sure the mustangs don’t chow everyone’s food. While she waited, she began twisting the baling wire into balls for easy disposal. Then the balls became animals. The barn filled with pronghorn and horses and probably would have stayed had not a friend, an art instructor no less, asked where she was selling the figures. It really hadn’t occurred to Celeste that someone was interested in them, but the world can surprise you. Now her repertoire has expanded to include bison and moose, and various types of wire.
One of Celeste's wire art is called, “Woody”. This is a sculpture of a horse made of wire with pieces of wood placed inside of the wire. This sculpture also has a wooden board underneath for it to stand on. This sculpture is one of the bigger pieces she made. There are some smaller pieces that can fit on a desk.
Another one of her wire art is called, “Stoney Boy”. This is another sculpture made of wire but this sculpture has rocks inside of the wire. This is another sculpture of a horse. There is another wooden piece underneath it. There are some sculptures without a wooden piece underneath. This is one of the bigger sculptures.
Another wire art of Celeste's is called, “Prairie Amber”. This is a sculpture of a pronghorn made of wire with glass inside of the wire. This sculpture also has a wooden board underneath as well. This sculpture is also one of the bigger ones.
Each month an artist will be chosen to be the Artist of the Month at Works of Wyoming. An Artist Reception is hosted for the artist on the last Friday of each month.
Celeste Havener's Artist Reception is on July 29, a Friday, from 4 to 6pm and is open to the public. The address is 300 S St, Laramie WY 82070. We will have homemade cookies and wine for refreshments.
Please follow us for more information on Facebook. Our Facebook is, “Works of Wyoming (WOW)”.
The store will be open 10am-6pm and the gathering will be open from 4pm-6pm. At the gathering, you can meet the Artist of the Month, ask questions about the art works and how they made it, meet new people, eat some snacks, and have a good time.
Submitted by Ivy D.High School Art Intern
July 2022