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Pencil Drawings, Oil Paintings,
and Bronze Sculptures are what I spend
most of my day doing. My name is Virgil C. Stephens
& I have been drawing, (doodling) since I was a
wet-behind-the-ears
kid, being raised on ranches in and
around the mountains of Globe, Arizona.  As
time went on, I got more and more interested in this
thing called “art”, and started dabbling in oils and
watercolors. Raising a family at that time did
not afford me the possibility of taking classes, so
I started reading books and studying paintings by
famous artists and well known teachers in my spare
time, in an effort to teach myself how to create a
piece of artwork. After the ump-teenth time of
ruining a perfectly good canvas, I eventually wound
up with a pencil in my hand producing
black & white art. I just
couldn’t find any earthly reason to bother with all
of those confusing colors, until January of 2004, 20
years after being a professional pencil artist. (I
think being born colored-blind had something to do
with that!)
Growing up right along side, on top of, and
sometimes under calves, ponies, mules, pups,
kittens, a bucking barrel, an occasional chicken,
and a plethora of other non-descript mammals &
unidentifiable insects, has given me a hands-on
approach to anatomy.
We processed our own meat & poultry, and I was
weaned on cows milk straight from the utter and
strained through a part of the screen left over from
the back porch door.
Deer and
Elk were
plentiful and there was never a shortage of venison
in the freezer.
There were many times when we would saddle up to
gather
cattle and I would stuff my camera in my
saddle bags along with a can of Vienna sausages and
a roll of T.P. and would attempt to capture a Kodak
moment whenever the chance afforded itself.
Because of those times I now have an extensive
photographic library of cows,
,
wildlife,
women
& children
(having two daughters & two sons),
rodeo cowboys of questionable
character and other unique situations etc.
categorized in order of subject matter to draw upon
when creating a piece of artwork.
Painstaking efforts are also taken when producing
prints & giclee prints from
the
original artwork. The process used
to create my limited edition prints
is called, offset lithograph, and the process
used to create my limited edition giclee prints is
processed on the Epson 9800 giclee fine-art printing
machine, which is the finest machine in the country
at this time. I am involved in every facet of
the process from start to finish. Just recently I
have introduced geclee's of my
original oil paintings on my other website,
www.notevena.com,
that is my original website that has been in
existence since 1992. The giclee
prints, which is a fairly new process of printing,
has exploded into the print market all over the
world.
In 1992, I started sculpting in clay, and have now
added a line of limited-edition bronze
sculptures, ranging in concept from
ultra-realism to stylized.
Being a pencil artist my whole life, I have learned
how to draw and compose, and as of January 2004, I
“morphed” into the world of music, and have created
a website strictly for my music artwork at
www.musicalpainter.com. From
western
to contemporary
jazz &
blues paintings, the oil paintings
are done on textured “wrap-around” Canvas & Masonite
panels. Em & I both make the panels from start
to finish so that the customer is assured of quality
craftsmanship all the way to the actual painting
itself. The panels are built in a way that
excludes them from having to be framed. I also
have done numerous life-size paintings which are
hanging in galleries and homes
throughout the United States. A list of my
accomplishments, awards and
invitational art shows are also
available for you to view here.
My wife Emily and I now reside high in the mountains
of southern New Mexico, in the Loma Grande mountain
range, surrounded by wildlife, clean air and most
importantly my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We call our little piece of Heaven, the
“Notevena Ranch and Art Gallery”.
Lincoln County New Mexico is home to the world’s
richest quarter horse race at Ruidoso Downs, Smoky
Bear, Billy The Kid, and not a whole lot of other
people. My kids were involved in
4-H
and FFA,
bred and showed animals in the county and state
fairs, plodded through miles of manure, and as a
result, they are better off for it.
If you have enjoyed this verbal voyage of my
ramblings and want to mount up and ride through my
website, click on
artwork that will give you an index
page, where you can choose what you would like to
see. If you are interested in something personal..
which I call
commissioned artwork, please contact me.
To find out what's currently going on with my family
and I, please go to my
news page.
If you enjoy your visit here, you may also want to
visit these other great
sites.
In the meantime, take my advise and
keep your powder dry, and your chin to the wind &
don't forget to salute our brave solders all over
the world.
God Bless America!
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