I’m not a big fan of cowboy artist Charles M. Russell, whose Old West landscapes and bronze sculptures are a little too clean, poised, and heroic. But that’s precisely why so many people love them. Two Fort Worth institutions just opened shows that celebrate Russell’s work in watercolor. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art exhibits Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell, and the downtown Sid Richardson Museum is showing Charles M. Russell: Watercolorist. (Both close May 13). In some ways, Russell’s style and subject matter are beside the point: If you’ve ever worked with the maddening medium of watercolor, then you’ll realize his technique is what makes these paintings pretty amazing.
