PHOENIX — A Peoria resident is bringing a woman's eye to the male-dominated field of Western art.
Growing up, the idea of entering the Western art field didn't even cross Sharon Brening's mind. In her early 20s, she asked a male artist at a local museum why no women were represented in the Western art exhibition. He told her, "There are no women good enough to be here," she recalled.
"Well, they can't stop us anymore," said Brening with a broad smile as she stepped into her in-house studio.
Now 58, the self-described "girlie girl" gets a kick out of knowing she helped further crack open the field to women. Brening last year became the first female to win gold in the oil-painting category of a prominent Western artist group's competition.
Her work, which focuses largely on Native American children and families, is on exhibit in art galleries across the country and in private homes worldwide.
The lifelong Arizonan said she feels lucky to make a living at something she enjoys and that she feels blessed to be able to share through her paintings the culture and tradition of an ancient civilization whose way of living she tries to live by.
"They're carrying on their deep traditions in this modern, crazy world; that needs to be memorialized for all to see and learn from," Brening said.
"I Saw an Eagle Fly," captures a striking 5-year-old Aaron in full Native American regalia, with arm bands, a necklace and a hair roach.
The oil painting that earned the gold at last year's Western Artists of America competition depicts the theme Brening incorporates most on canvas, native American children.
Western Artists of America, formed in 2000, includes women.
Cowboy Artists of America, a members-only group, hasn't inducted a woman since its inception nearly 50 years ago.
Experts say the art world in general has tended to be male-dominated, and even more so in the Western art genre. Until about 20 years ago, not much was heard about women and minorities in the history of the American West and that spilled over into the art world, said James Burns, executive director of Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg.
It's a key factor in why museum officials launched the Cowgirl Up! exhibition in 2006.
That show has become extremely competitive, with hundreds of unsolicited portfolios for 58 slots.
Burns said Brening's gold at the Western Artists of America show was "quite a big deal for a woman in a field that's opening up."
Jerry Smith, curator of American and Western American art at Phoenix Art Museum, praised Brening for the level of detail in her compositions, from beadwork in clothing to detail on pottery.
Smith said the stereotype that women were not as capable as men applied to many areas in society, and the arts were just an extension of that.
But for the connoisseur, "a good work of art is a good work of art, regardless of gender or race," Smith said.
A brother and sister stand on the edge of the San Juan river. In "Skye Blue and Wild at the River," Skye smiles shyly down at her little brother, who is hunting minnows with his grandfather's spear. The boy wears a cream-and-brown breastplate made by his grandfather and buckskin pants.
Brening was 8 when her mother enrolled her in a watercolor class. It wasn't long after that she painted her first picture of a Native American girl, a pot on her head. The seeds of the budding artist were sown.
But it took years of experimenting in different mediums for the artist to return to the subjects that had fascinated her as a child.
More than a decade ago, Brening found herself at a crossroads, not sure what exactly she wanted to do. One sunny late spring morning she went on a walk, vowing to return only when she had an answer. After a couple of hours she came across half a metate, a Native American grinding stone.
"I didn't know if I was supposed to make tortilla chips out of it or what, but I felt it was some sort of a sign," Brening said.
Two weeks later, she went with a friend to deliver a parcel to a Cave Creek home. She described it as one of the most unusually attractive homes she had ever seen, with a large rectangular crystal in front of the house and astrological signs on the floor.
Brening began to talk with the deeply spiritual owner, sharing the story of her recent discovery of the artifact on her walk.
"All it means is you keep grinding away at what you're doing — don't overthink things," she said.
Brening went back to her first love: painting Native Americans in oil.
"I was finding the grindstone," Brening said.
She embraced her fascination with Native American culture that had been nurtured since childhood. Her father, a photographer, traveled to the reservations to take pictures. Her mother collected Native American artifacts.
Her custom Pueblo-style home in north Peoria, with a brown-stained concrete floor in her studio "just the way it was growing up at home," is a mini-museum. Cradleboards, kachinas and baskets dot the formal sitting area.
Each piece has a story Brening cherishes.
Brening spends days on Indian reservations throughout the Southwest, soaking in the culture and the traditions, meeting Indian families and taking pictures. She has interacted with people from the Hopi, Navajo and Apache tribes and several Pueblo tribes out of New Mexico.
She returns with the photos to capture on a canvas.
At times, the families visit her Peoria home. She buys trinkets and booties from the families when they need gas money. Sometimes they stay over. She likes to support the younger budding artists. Her studio has a table full of trinkets made by native artists, such as a pendant of a baby wrapped up in a blanket.
Her own artwork reflects the relationships she forms with the families, the joy she gets from seeing her "models" mature. They're her babies and she stays in touch with them as they grow. She writes a biography to go with each piece of her artwork.
"It's important to me to document everything because it won't be around forever."
Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com