Western Wear,Southwestern Wear,Cowgirl Clothing,Cowboy Clothing,Leather Jackets, Fashion Accessories, Home Decor, Native American Art, Jewelry, Americana merchandise inspired by the American West

WELCOME TO ART OUTWEST
Happenin' Now, Happenin' Next, Happened!

Happenin' Now includes images of the current Featured Artist and details about the monthly exhibition. Check here for up-to-date info on Old Town Newhall's First Thursday Art Walk and other art events!
Happenin' Next highlights upcoming artists and events
Happened features images from past events

Art Canvas by {>}Evie Cook

HAPPENIN' NOW
FEATURED ARTIST

Now through February 29
Artist & Jewelry Designer
Jaylene Armstrong

Meet Jewelry Designer and Artist
Jaylene Armstrong
FEBRUARY 16, 5:00-8:00 PM

{>}Jaylene Armstrong has a passion for beads and creates special, unique, one-of-a-kind Heart Collages and Necklaces. Come meet her, Thursday February 16 from 5-8pm. Stay for the SENSES third Thursday MARDI GRAS Block Party from 7:00-11:00 p.m.

Every month OutWest brings you the work of local artists on our changing Art Wall. This month and continuing through February, we are pleased to present the work of artist, jewelry

designer, art educator, and Santa Clarita resident {>} Jaylene Armstrong. An active participant in the Santa Clarita Artists Association and contributing columnist to The Magazine of Santa Clarita, Jaylene has a Heart for Art. Just in time for Valentine's Day, her Heart Collages and unique one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces are the ideal way to say, "I love you."

This year, make a conscious decision to choose things "made in the USA."

OutWest features many items hand made by local artisans. Choose a unique coaster set, art glass plate, or nightlight by fused glass artist {>}Laila Asgari. Or choose from a wide assort of framed pieces by fine art photographer {>}Ken Lubas.

Local Native American artist, {>}Nadiya Littlewarrior's, gourd art is in demand nationwide. Even our note cards are created and printed in the USA.

Shop OutWest's collection of Western inspired clothing, accessories, home decor, books, CDs, and more for unique gifts. Gift Wrapping is always complimentary!

First Thursday Art Walk: Returns March 2012
First Thursday Art Walk is a free self guided art walk down Main Street in the Arts District of Old Town Newhall anchored by The Canyon Theatre Guild and the El Trocadero Restuarant. This once monthly Art Walk is both reactive and interactive. One can look and appreciate art, purchase art or participate in art. The ARTree Community Arts Center presents a fun, interactive hands-on art activity for the whole family to enjoy. This event is free for all from spectator to participant. Join us in promoting and strengthening the arts community in Santa Clarita.

Meet monthly Featured Artists during First Thursday Art Walk, 4:00-8:00 p.m. (March through November). Dine from a variety of Gourmet Food Trucks, stroll the Farmers Market, enjoy live music at El Trocadero Restaurant, and wine tasting at Pulchella Winery.

February Featured Artist: Jaylene Armstrong
March Featured Artist: Trae Mundt
April Featured Artist: TBA
May Featured Artist: Bob Hernandez
June Featured Artist: Cecily Willis

“The Inspirational Canvas” is {>}EVIE COOK'S collection of canvas and

archival paper prints with messages relevant to our present day lives, problems, hopes and desires. Always thinking in a positive light, she has taken popular subject matter and created phrases to help maintain a positive idea, or inspiration, in the forefront of one’s mind to help overcome the barriers in life….or at least put them back into perspective alongside of all the good things that we have. "The Inspirational Canvas" exhibition continued through July 31.

June Featured Artist
Fine Art by Donna Weil

Anyone who has seen {>}Donna Weil's paintings knows her love of the "West" and vibrant color. This is attributed to her Great-Grandfather, Buffalo Bill Runcorn, who helped settle the

Badlands of North Dakota and her childhood neighbor, Nudie, the Rodeo Tailor. Nudie would invite the neighbor-hood kids over to his shop to meet and visit with the "movie cowboys" and Donna would love to jump into his trash and collect colorful leather to make collages and doll furniture, the true start of her art career.

April Featured Artist
A Bit of the West:
The Life and Work of
Artist Walt La Rue

The life and work of {>}Walt La Rue was honored with a special exhibition of his sketches, cartoons, and fine art. Along with many of his art works, we'll also featured special pieces of Walt La Rue's, including his saddle, chaps, selected wardrobe, rodeo programs, photographs and more.

The exhibition of his life's work included paintings, cartoons, and woodblocks used in Levi Strauss' advertising campaign, and continued throughout the month of April and was the featured art during First Thursday Art Walk, April 7 and continued through April 30.

About our April Featured Artist
Walt La Rue

Walt La Rue, a rodeo cowboy during the 1940s and 1950s, belonged to the Cowboy's Turtle Association and the Rodeo Cowboy's Association. He was a Gold Card member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy's Association.

He followed the shows from Salinas, California to Madison Square Garden, rode bulls and bareback broncs, was a good hand and could make his living going down the road.

While rodeo'n, Walt had the opportunity to work in the movies and became a stuntman

working at both for a long time. When he wasn't robbing trains, chasing buffalo, or fighting the rustlers in the movies, he was going to the rodeos. In the mid 1950s, after riding the wild ones for a long time, he hung up his gear and bid the rodeos goodbye. He stayed with his movie career, although his stunts became tamer.

For many years, as an avocation, Walt was a free lance artist. He started drawing as a kid and continued doing it all his life. He drew cartoons for newspapers, magazines, and advertising agencies, for

eight years he drew all the covers for the Rodeo Cowboy's Magazine, "The Buckboard." Weber's Bread and Levi Strauss were among his advertising accounts. He also illustrated books and for the last twenty years of his life he created fine art.

His paintings, all Westerns, are now in private collections, galleries, and museums all

over the world. Successful as this was, he still called the art work a "side line" and shared it with his many other interests.

Walt always said he was a "lucky man" --and he did the things he wanted to do.

Carrie hails from New York but has been living in Southern California for over 30 years and has been creating for over 2 years. During that time she has galvanized media attention such as being featured in the Santa Clarita Signal, Ventura County Star as well as guest appearances on radio shows KHTS 1220 AM, Santa Clarita's Hometown Station,and KVTA in Ventura, California. She has exhibited in Marina Del Rey, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita and is currently showing at the Gallery at the Crowne (Crowne Plaza Hotel, Ventura CA) and at OutWest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Old Town, Newhall, CA. She will be exhibiting at Gardens of the World (Ventura, CA) in the future.

January and February 2011
Featured Artists

Fine Watercolor Artist Cecily Willis
OutWest presented the watercolors of local resident and professional artist, {>}Cecily Willis. She grew up in the Fairfax/Hollywood area of Los Angeles and later lived in South Pasadena before moving to the Santa Clarita Valley. She received her MFA in Painting from the Otis Art Institute and was a professional artist for over 40 years. Now retired and living in Newhall, CA she devotes all her free time to painting and grandparenting.

Watercolor is her preferred medium and she considers it a partnership with a Higher Power- she takes care of the layout, the details and the drawing while the H.P. handles "the washes, the drips and the drabs, and the running colors."

Other Featured Artists included Glass Artist Laila Asgari, Ken Lubas, and the lighted spirit bottles of Serendipity Lights.

Happenin' Everyday
Art OutWest's Artists
OutWest's Purveyors seek exceptional work by local artisans and craftspeople inspired by the West. Currently, we represent the work of these artists:

Featured Artists Everyday:
Artist Cecily Willis
Painter Artist Al Shelton
Glass Artist Laila Asgari
Gourd Artist Nadiya Littlewarrior
Leather Artist Biskit Hatch
Silversmiths and Leather Artists Silver King
Weavers Rick and Julie Ayers
Artist and Designer Evie Cook

From Our Purveyor of Fine Goods, Bobbi Jean Bell:
I attended the William S. Hart Pow Wow in September and came upon Ken’s booth. His images immediately captivated me, transporting me to a magic place and time. His stunning images honor Native American dancers and take you along. Can you hear the drums, the tingling of bells, the slap of fringe, and the pounding of feet? I can. I knew instantly, that OutWest’s audience would appreciate his work. We are honored to represent Ken.

For years Ken Lubas’ (a.k.a. “True Eyes”) photographs could be found on pages The Los Angeles Times accompanying stories of breaking news, in-depth investigations and standalone features. His resume includes two Pulitzer Prizes for team projects dealing with the Northridge earthquake and the city’s riots. Lubas retired in 2001 to pursue a career in fine art photography and photo illustration.

Today Lubas focuses on the resurgence of the bald eagle and Native Americans, both threatened with extinction, but re-emerging with strength and dignity. His work has been recognized with showings at Los Angeles City Hall, public libraries and galleries in Southern California, Washington state, Chicago, Ill. and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As a result of his work with the Native American community he was honored by a Chumash spiritual leader in a sacred naming ceremony with the name “True Eyes” during a William S. Hart Pow Wow in Newhall where he sits on the board of directors and his work is shown each year. Presidents, Vice Presidents and Hollywood celebrities are among those who have acquired his work.

WARMED AND KILN FIRED GLASS ART
ARTIST LAILA ASGARI OF
SERENDIPITY IN BLUE

From Our Purveyor of Fine Goods, Jim Bell:
“I met Laila Asgari several years ago at the annual Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. She had a booth there, (and returns every year), and I knew immediately that her work was special. OutWest was only a dream then, but I took her card and knew she was an artist we would want to represent. At the time my wife, Bobbi Jean, was on staff at the Autry National Center and asked me to keep my “eagle eye”out for extraordinary artists. I passed Laila’s card on to her and the rest is history! Bobbi Jean and Laila have worked together now for several years and the Autry Museum Store continues to represent her. In fact, Congratulations are in order! They submitted a piece of Laila’s art to the national magazine, Cowboys and Indians, and it was just highlighted in the December 2009 Gift Guide! We are honored to count Laila as one of OutWest’s earliest fans…and a great friend.”

OutWest congratulates featured glass artist Laila Asgari on the selection of one of her pieces, by Cowboys & Indians Magazine, for their Holiday 2009 Gift Guide!Her work is imaginative and unique and can be found in galleries and museum stores including the Autry National Center.

Laila Asgari, a local artist raised in southern California, took an interest in the western lifestyle at an early age, learning how to ride at the age of five years. As a youngster, Laila coupled her interest in art with her love for horses, experimenting with oil, pencil, and charcoal. As an adult she discovered glass as an art medium, and using the glass fusing technique and crushed glass, she has been able to transfer her passion for the West into functional art, creating pictures with glass. Each glass piece is handmade and kiln-fired creating unique one-of-a-kind pieces. Her collection includes wall hangings, wall tiles, plates, picture frames, and coasters. Many of the pieces are created from personal experiences, which led Laila to market her fused glass art under “Serendipity Blue - designs in glass”.

Wade Hatch, also known as "Biskit," creates roses in leather as well as handsomely tooled leather and wood frames. Biskit is your "go-to-leather-artist" for anything you need in leather.

Artist Peggy Wyly brings us the Southwestern landscape in glass. She also works in stained glass, and her glass feathers are not to be missed.
PEGGY WYLY OF WYLY’S CREATIVE ENDEAVORS – STAINED AND FUSED GLASS DESIGNS

From Bobbi Jean:
“OutWest wasn’t open too long when Peggy Wyly’s husband came in to check us out. Before I knew it, we were chatting about the West, Old Town Newhall, and art. I shared one of our goals – to offer high quality handmade work by local craftspeople and artisans inspired by the West. He told me about his wife, Peggy’s, stained glass art and the many homes she has designed special pieces for including front doors, kitchen cabinets, and windows. Peggy’s stained glass pieces and her “glass feathers” are wonderful. She creates window and wall hangings, vases, jewelry, bowl, and plates. She offers custom designs and enjoys creating special pieces to celebrate weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, or other memorable events. Many of our customers may be familiar with Peggy’s work as she shows annually at the holiday boutique held at Saugus High School, this year called the ‘SHS Fantastique Boutique.’ OutWest welcomes glass artist Peggy Wyly!”