Town Draws Artists Sandpoint Area Home To ‘An Astonishing Number Of Major Artists’

Like a magnet in a pile of paper clips, Bonner County’s mountains, lakes and remoteness have a powerful attraction to a unique pocket of people.

People like Steve Lyman, Nelson Boren, Nancy Kienholz and the married duo of Rome Stuckart and Stephen Schultz.

All are nationally known artists who call this place home.

“When you start adding up the names, you will find an unusual and incredible amount of major artists up there,” said Jacquelyn Crist.

She’s the former curator for the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Arts, and now owns a gallery in Boise. Crist regularly brings other gallery and museum owners - some from as far away as Spain - to visit the artists here.

“It’s slowly evolving into an artists’ mecca,” Crist said. “I guess you could say art is in the air in Sandpoint.”

These aren’t the typical starving artist types, scrimping along in a logging and tourist town.

Sculptor Nancy Kienholz and her deceased husband, Edward, have works in major museums around the world.

Stuckart’s painting earned her a Guggenheim award, a coveted prize given by a jury of the nation’s top artists.

Boren’s original watercolor cowboy art, which sells for from $5,000 to $14,000, was commissioned by both the president of Coca-Cola and the owners of the Dallas Cowboys.

Last year, Lyman ranked third in the nation for sales of limited edition fine art prints, just behind Bev Doolittle.

The list goes on.

There are resident painters “Boots” Reynolds, Bonnie Shields, Ward Tollbom, Janene Grende, Eileen Klatt and Amy Tessier. Mixed media artist Evelyn Sooter, and humor novelist Patrick McManus.

Mix in the Festival at Sandpoint’s three weeks of symphony and pop concerts; the Panida, a restored mission-style theater that hosts the San Francisco Opera, and Sandpoint becomes one of the best small arts towns in America.

So says author John Villani, who included Sandpoint in his book of art towns.

Yet, few people here know this mother lode of artistic talent exists.

The artists, many of whom covet their privacy and don’t even know each other, say they are better known nationally than in their hometown.

“I guess we are the silent kooks,” said Tennessee mule artist Bonnie Shields.

She works in a studio on 20 acres northeast of Sandpoint. Her horse and mule paintings landed her in several museums and a contract with a national greeting card company.

“We don’t get a lot of attention up here, but that’s mainly because we don’t show or market here,” Shields said. “It’s not a great art-buying destination yet like Sante Fe, New York, Jackson Hole or even Scottsdale.”

People go to those cities with wallets full of money just to buy art, she said.

“Some have an inkling of what goes on here, that there’s an astonishing number of major artists. But I didn’t even know that until I moved here,” said Stephen Schultz.

His massive paintings, some 8 feet square, hang in New York and Atlanta. One is owned by Elton John.

Schultz and his wife, Rome Stuckart, just had their first show in Sandpoint to let the community see their work. One of Schultz’s paintings, which range from $8,000 to $28,000, sold to a local resident.

After a stint as a rodeo clown and cartoonist, “Boots” Reynolds launched his career as a western humor artist from his hilltop home near Hope, Idaho.

He’s in galleries across the country, but most of his work is sold before it’s ever finished.

“I went to Hawaii to teach and they knew me as an artist there,” said the ponytailed, jeans- and suspender-wearing 60-year-old. “But most people associate Sandpoint with Mark Fuhrman, not as an art or artist capital of the Northwest.”

Reynolds built a string of western storefronts around his remote studio, which is guarded by a pet raven and potbellied pig. It’s where he shows art buyers and gallery owners his work and runs a mail-order print business.

Many of the artists said it was risky to leave mainstream art-buying cities for a rural Idaho life. They end up traveling a lot, and rely on faxes, computers and the U.S. Postal Service to keep their names and work before the buying public.

“Take all the foo-foo away from it and art just becomes a product you have to market to survive,” Reynolds said. “And the market isn’t in Sandpoint yet.”

Most of the artists moved here to escape crime, crowds and pollution in exchange for clean air and open spaces. Forests, mountains and lakes full of inspiration didn’t hurt.

“Artists have always been inspired by wilderness and landscapes and that’s part of the reason I moved here,” said wilderness painter Steve Lyman.

Ditto for Janene Grende, 42.

“You can’t get inspired to paint birds, wildlife and all that other beautiful stuff unless you live around it,” she said. “Sandpoint feeds your soul. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

Grende moved 12 years ago from Lewiston, Idaho. Her original bird paintings, some selling for $10,000, are in galleries in the United States and Canada. She also contracts with Bradford International to put her work on collector plates.

Nelson Boren, 43, gave up his career as an architect to turn painter. He moved from Mesa, Ariz., to Sandpoint five years ago to raise his seven kids in the country and concentrate on his art.

“I put away the three-piece suit, picked up a brush and turned into a hippie to raise chickens, cows, kids and paint. It was risky, but it’s a wonderful lifestyle and environment.”

Boren now shows in about nine galleries. He can hardly keep up with private orders for original pieces that depict parts of cowboys or just cowboy boots.

As the artists here gain more and more national recognition, so will Sandpoint, said Crist.

She used to teach an art course at the University of Idaho, and started class with a test. She asked students to name the most internationally known contemporary artists that live in Idaho.

The answer was Edward and Nancy Kienholz. No one ever got it right.

“It’s a testament to how isolated the area is up there, but that’s changing,” she said.

“The secret is out. If you like the arts and a rural setting, Sandpoint is the place to go.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color)