Northup Fine Art

 
The renowned, legacy art of Bronze Sculptor George Northup and Oil Painter En Plein Air Kay Northup 
Jackson Hole, Wyoming   Fredericksburg, Texas

Northup Fine Art

While painting is the story of play between color and light.  
Sculpture is the story of play between movement and form.  
Each the story of art and the stretch to express the otherwise inexpressible
-George Northup

George Northup

Mastering the play of light, movement, character and tradition. American Master George Northup Bronze sculptures, contemporary wildlife sculpture and international sporting art.
1940-2017  
Visit George Northup Collection

Kay Northup

The Art of Plein Air.  A study of color and light
Visit Kay Northup Fine Art

Legacy Edition Release

For the duration of his career, George has reserved the most valuable numbers in each sculpture edition.  For a limited time, he will be releasing his numbers One, Two and Three of select closed edition sculptures.  This remarkable opportunity to acquire the last of his most beloved and collected sculptures will not be available through galleries. Each piece will be released with first notice only given to collectors and those on our email list
Legacy Editions

American Masters
George Northup & Clint Orms

Two American masters converge to create a legendary, limited offering. Limited edition Signature silver belt buckles featuring icons of the American West and it's traditions.   
Visit the Northup Orms Collection

  • American Embassy

    Belize

  • Masters of American Art

    "This is when you know it worked. This is when it begins to breathe..."

  • Ritz Carlton

    Aspen

  • National Museum of Wildlife Art

    Collection

  • American Women Artists

    Signature Member

  • Pepsi Corporation

    Corporate collection

  • High Desert Museum

    Bend, Oregon

The opening paragraph of Ernest Thompson Seton’s book, Two Little Savages begins,
“Yan was much like other twelve year old boys, in having a keen interest in Indians and wild life; but, he differed from most in that he never got over it.”

Bronze Sculptor George Northup never got over it either. Today he is an emerging, intensely dynamic wild life sculptor. Thirty years ago in the north central Minnesota woodlands, he was running with Chippewa friends, a twenty-two in his arms and a bird dog at his side. The dog is still a field companion; but, these days George is more typically holding a sketch pad or working with clay, molding it quickly to catch the various attitudes of a bugling elk.

Northup measures success with personal happiness. “Being where you want to be, doing what you want to do.” With this he is content. In his art, Northup reaches toward perfection with a determination that shatters one’s notion of the artist’s temperament.

When asked what is number one in his life, the reply is unabashedly, “My family.” George is more comfortable talking of his son Scotty, daughter Leslie and his wife, Plein Air oil painter Kay Northup. When speaking of them or in their presence, George shines. He boasts of their achievements with touching devotion. George is the first to exclaim that Kay is an accomplished and highly collected plein air painter..

They started in a modest studio adjacent to their home, north of Jackson, Wyoming. From every window there are views of the mountains that they love. And now, part of their year is spent as Texas Artists in their studios atop a rare hill overlooking Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg Texas. George and Kay have shared the toughest and finest of times. They confess they are each other’s best critic. Neither would have pursued a career in fine art without the other’s encouragement.  Kays award winning Texas paintings and international oil paintings and fine art place her in the perfect position as a well footed critic. 

About ten years ago, George owned a Snake River float trip guide service. It was one of many prosperous business enterprises; nevertheless, he often grew discontented with the absence of challenge. “Our adventures would read like something out of The Egg and I,” Kay says, “but, if it were any other way… I’d be bored to death. When George came home and said we were going to start a float trip business. I never doubted him for a second. George has always had a tremendous belief in himself. He will accomplish what he says he can 99.9 percent of the time.” George added, “When you start doubting yourself, that’s when you run into trouble.” 

There was never one day that they decided George should devote his energies to sculpting, it just evolved. “We did what we had to do to survive,” Kay remembers. “I took a job in town and, sometimes George had to work part time selling sporting goods or pumping gas… whatever he could get. I’m not a Prima donna and I never have been. When sales were slow or the kids needed braces, I wasn’t too proud to get an outside job.” 

 As a youngster, George’s family stressed art appreciation. He was introduced to the works of Bruno Liljefors, Ernest Seton and Carl Rungius. Later, his work grading pelts for a raw fur buyer gave him an understanding of complex animal anatomy. Combined, the elements of his past instilled an interest in art and wild life and fostered the creative capability with which to express them. He has always had a way of seeing nature that is peculiar to the artist. But, it wasn’t until he took several artists and patrons from a local gallery on a fishing expedition, that the desire to be an artist stirred in him. As the artists talked, George listened. It was as if his life had been a series of learning experiences preparing him for a career as a wild life artist. All at once, he was able to connect the pieces and see that which would inspire and challenge him. 

Over the past decade, George Northup has developed a continually growing sense of himself and his bronze sculpture art. He considers living in Jackson Hole his greatest advantage. Jackson is the winter range for 12,000 elk, deer and buffalo. Moose often frequent quieter neighborhoods, while otter and migratory fowl thrive along the waters of the Snake. It is a wild life sculptor’s heaven. Because of Jackson’s proximity to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, there is year round opportunity to study game in its natural habitat. “Too many artists have to rely on zoos or game farms for their research. It is fine if you only need to study hair patterns or coloration; but, physically the animals are different, their muscles have atrophied, they’re nonathletic and nonmigratory… the difference is unreal.” George observes. 

When researching a new subject, Northup may spend several days in the field. He uses film to complement his studies but is adamantly opposed to realism by way of projected photo. Because of the three dimensional nature of sculpture, an artist cannot use a photographer as a crutch. A sculptor has to know his subject from the inside out. 

To facilitate this, his fine art studio houses various skeletons, skins and taxidermy. In what must seem a gruesome interest to passers-by, George often pulls over to examine road kills. If they are needed, he brings them home and stores them in his freezer, to dissect and study later. He jokingly tells me that they’ve run out of freezer space and come spring they’ll be in trouble. “A Painter plays with motion and light. A sculptor plays with motion and mass.” 

World renowned research scientists like Frank Craighead and Joe Shellenberger and well-known artists like Conrad Schwiering and John Clymer also lived in Jackson. All have encouraged George. “I’ve had incredible reinforcement Everywhere I go, people are willing to help me.” He emphasizes the word me as if a little awed by it all. “The willingness to help is indigenous to the west,” George notes. 

Kay gives me a look that says, it just isn’t that easy. But, George is an optimist. “Every time a piece is complete and you know it works and you can see you’re getting better… there is an incredible high.” Clearly the family pragmatist, Kay, a signature member of such organizations as Oil Painters of America interjects, “Yes, but people don’t realize all the work that has gone into it.” George is still on a roll…” I’ll never forget the first bronze I sold. Someone loved it as much as I did and wanted to have it in their home.” The bronze, entitled Decoys depicted a mallard descending into a marsh and a flock of benign looking decoys. In an aside, Kay whispers that they had a live duck in their living room for weeks. Renowned partnerships are also a cornerstone of George's method, as he is known to work with pieces with Bob Kuhn, and create series together with such as Master Silversmith, Clint Orms silver belt buckles.

George’s creative energies are kindled by frequent trips to his foundry. Art Castings of Colorado, in Loveland. “Time I spend at the foundry feeds me.” Northup’s friend Hollis Williford lives relatively near the foundry. His home is often a welcome respite from the noise and intensity of the foundry. Some times in the evenings, several artists working nearby gather around Williford’s kitchen table. On these nights George listens, testing each new insight with questions and observations of his own. George is considered confident with uncanny and totally oblivious to the odds. But, he respects his fellow artists and speaks freely of his admiration for them. He studies them. Rivalry is not a factor in his relationships with other artists. “If you’re jealous of another artist’s ability… you’re belittling your own, George says. “Just learn from them.” 

When asked what he considers his greatest personal asset, he replies, “It’s my willingness to learn from other artists. I seek them out.” George praises Bob Kuhn, Ned Jacob, Hollis Williford and Jon Zahourek for their workshops and the technical skills he has learned from them. “Ideally, we would throw out the four year college art programs and get back to the five year apprenticeship. I don’t mean to denigrate formal education. It is just so much more valuable to study with a working artist whom you respect. Today workshops are where it’s at.” 

I visited the foundry with George. As he showed me the intricate casting process, he talked about his art and why he prefers the sculptural medium. “I guess there’s a tactical satisfaction to sculpture. A painter plays with motion and light. A sculptor plays with motion and mass. Both have to be able to see and then visualize what you know to be true about an animal. I study and develop a knowledge and feeling for my subject, I always work on the form and motion first. The knowledge of it is the thing though… adding little doo-daas as an afterthought, will never make it correct. Who cares about minute details. If it isn’t right when you’re working on the mass, in the beginning. It won’t be right no matter how much you fiddle with it. I was criticized by another artist once, for not having enough primaries on a duck’s wing. Wow, when you get down to counting primaries. you’re really missing the point” George shakes his head and we move into the casting room where two foundry employees are ready to pour a commissioned work George has developed for the Wyoming 0il and Gas Producers Association. This is considered the most crucial stage in the making of a bronze. The men pour the twenty-two hundred degree liquid quickly and smoothly into molds that have been nestled in heated sand. As it begins to cool, the molten bronze is a radiant pulsating orange. 

The molds are removed from the sand and the same two men break them with long handled pliers. Bit by bit the bronze Roughnecks is freed. “This is when you know if it has worked. “This is when it begins to breathe,” George says. 

A few days later, the patina is applied and the sculpture is mounted on a base. Roughnecks, as a finished work, depicts two sweaty men, stripped to their tee-shirts, straining to connect heavy piping. There is a timeless quality to it, as men have done it this way since the beginning of the oil industry. But, it is more than muscle against steel. I step back and realize I can feel the heat of the high Wyoming deserts in summer and I can almost smell the oil. It breathes. 

George is a member of the Society of Animal Artists. Although his work recently appeared in Sports Afield, and is sought after as corporate art, he first gained national media attention when he donated the entire edition proceeds of a bronze to the U.S. Ski Team. The bronze depicted a downhill racer just coming out of a turn and shifting his weight for the next gate. He was asked to present The High Line in Vail, Colorado among such dignitaries as former president Gerald Ford. For a rowdy kid from the back woods of Minnesota, George has come a long way. 

 Ambitious plans for the future have been made. George and Oil Painter Kay Northup are drafting plans for an enlarged studio. When the children are settled in college, there will be more travel; but, foremost there will be the continued growth of an artist. “You have to be willing to work at it… work really hard for it, in spite of the odds or imperfect circumstances.” What would be perfect? “Oh, say a seventy-year-old person with unlimited funds and a desire to create. Then when someone came into the studio and fell in love with a piece, I could say… here, I want you to have it. Money would never enter into it. In the real world I have to sell if I want to perpetuate the art.” George cocks an eyebrow and muses, “You know, I’ve developed friendships with most of my collectors and I’d go the distance for them. But if I ever stop doing it to satisfy myself. I’ll get out. I’ll be a patron.” “This is when you know if it has worked. 

This is when it begins to breathe.” 
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