Donna Howell-Sickles
Donna Howell-Sickles Saint Jo, Texas My love of figure drawing, the American West, and mythology have walked me to this platform – where I can stand and create art that tells the stories of women, animals, and this rich land with dignity and joy. My artwork reflects my admiration for the strong western women of past and present, and connects them to women's stories from around the world. Stories that show the beauty, depth, and joy of a life formed by an appreciation of the visions and struggles we all share. I use the cowgirl to tell very current stories for, and about, women using images and ideas from the past. The figures in my work are living in their ‘now’, and we are allowed a glimpse into their lives. Lives that are filled and complicated by partnerships, friendships, beliefs, and companions. These Cowgirls know who they are, and they know that there are no dead-ends – just detours filled with opportunity. The vision of self they hold burns like a flame and keeps them company in the dark; it reminds them they are not alone, and never have been. Because, subject and viewer alike, we are all on an interconnected journey. When reality is messy, or complicated even, I find solace in these reflections of life that I am privileged to draw. I strive to communicate the value found in seeing the beauty that continuously surrounds us, and the importance of choosing joy when the opportunity arrises.
Donna
Saint Jo, Texas
Donna Howell-Sickles
Born and raised on a 900-acre farming and ranching operation in Sivells Bend, Donna Howell-Sickles has always been close to nature and the land around her. In 1972, she earned her BFA at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas and embarked on a career in Western art.
Donna Howell-Sickles has taken the image and idea of the Cowgirl beyond charcoal lines and into reality. In the Western art genre, she has been exploring the layers beneath the Cowgirl’s engaging exterior for more than 40 years. Donna, herself, identifies with the self-reliant and hard-working spirit of the Cowgirl. In 2007, she was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame by the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Donna’s work is a part of the art collections of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Fine Art, Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, the C.M. Russell Museum, Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.
In 2011, Donna Howell-Sickles was voted one of the “40 Most Prominent People in the Western Art World” by Southwest Art Magazine. She was President of American Women Artists from 2000 to 2003, and an honored guest artist at both the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana.
Donna’s work has been in numerous exhibitions, both solo and group, and featured in multiple publications over the span of her forty-year career. In 2019, she was chosen as the singular artist to create the artwork featured as the collectible poster for the Pendleton Roundup in Pendleton, Oregon. The Pendleton Roundup is the most iconic rodeo in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association. The Rodeo began in 1916 with a featured artist each year, chosen for their proven history of authentically embodying the spirit of the western heritage in their work. Donna is the first woman artist to be selected for the honor of creating the poster artwork, and 2019’s poster was the first that prominently showcased all the glory a Cowgirl brings with her.
Donna Howell Sickles’ work is represented by Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, CO, Big Horn Galleries in Cody, WY and Tubac, AZ, McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe, NM, Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, CO, and at home in Davis & Blevins Gallery, Saint Jo, TX.
Artwork
Howell-Sickles work is in more than 16 museums including the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. In 2023 the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis selected her painting for the Harrison Eiteljorg Purchase Award. Donna’s work is represented by Ann Korologos Gallery, Basalt, Colorado, McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and at home in Davis & Blevins Gallery, Saint Jo, Texas.
