By Kerri Rempp, Discover Northwest Nebraska
The legacy of Mari Sandoz’s creative talent is alive and well in her ancestors, and for one descendant that talent manifests itself in drawings in the realism style reflected in the author’s work.
Before Mari Sandoz’s “Old Jules” was published in 1935, the author fought those who would have standardized her language, keeping the Western idioms she used intact. Her writing style and straightforward portrayal of her father’s life on the frontier shocked readers who had romanticized the West but was the beginning of a successful writing career.
“She believed that universal truths could be learned from careful study of one’s one neighborhood, and she diligently studied and wrote about her own neighborhood, the Great Plains, to our great good fortune,” wrote Helen Winter Stauffer in the Afterword to “Old Jules” in the 1985 and later editions.
Sandoz’s realistic approach to her writing is mirrored today, more than eight decades later, in the drawings of her great-great-niece, Rachel Brownlee. From graphite to charcoal, Brownlee uses several mediums to create drawings in the realism style of her ancestor.
Old Jules didn’t approve of Sandoz learning to read and write, but she persevered on her own to achieve her career as a published author. Likewise, Brownlee had no formal education to guide her career in art. She and her six siblings were raised and homeschooled on Celia Sandoz Ostrander Barth’s (her grandmother) ranch.
“There was no art education of any kind,” she recalled.
However, when she was five or six, her sister gifted her a “How to Draw Horses” book, and it inspired her to explore her budding artistic talent.
“By the time I was nine, I had sold my first piece for $1,” she said. Her works currently on display at the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center in Chadron cost more than $1, all of them the product of a more recent effort to prioritize her artwork.
Brownlee completed some art in high school, but put it aside completely in college while she studied to become a software engineer. When her family returned to Ashby, it gave her the opportunity to dedicate her time and talents to artwork full-time.
“Almost everything you see is from the last five years.”
Brownlee had her first art show six months ago, and now has seven scheduled in the next year. Her work will be on display at the Sandoz Center on the Chadron State College campus through May 21, and Brownlee has two more artist-in-residence dates scheduled during that run – April 6 and May 11.
While she still operates her software engineering company – a cattle management program with 60,000 cattle in the database – she believes her artwork fits well within her wheelhouse.
“In my mind all of my artwork is technical,” she said.
Whether it’s a sepia-toned drawing of a horse, a graphite study of spur straps, a Gothic church in ink or a charcoal production, she’s using rulers to sketch it out on graph paper and math to scale it up to the finished size.
“It’s all bits and bytes. It’s black and white,” Brownlee explained.
With no formal art education, she began by copying the leg motions and body language of horses from the encyclopedia and from her own experiences on the ranch. As she’s explored other subject matters, she’s been determined to push herself to the next level.
“Most of my technical skill has come from trying things,” she said. “I’ll just put all the effort into it I can and see how far it goes. Some of those (pieces) have turned out to be my best pieces.”
She’s started to accumulate awards along the way as well, earning a certificate of excellence and Best of Show at the 2021 Box Butte Art Society Art Show for her charcoal pieces “By The Sweat of Your Brow” and “An Uncomfortable Amount of Detail.” She’s booked for custom commissioned work for the next one to two months, too.
The bulk of Brownlee’s artwork is inspired by, according to her website, “the harsh realism of agriculture and western life, and she seeks to show highly realistic details of that life.” She’s learned through experimentation that different mediums serve different purposes. Brownlee said graphite is economical and easy to work with because it’s forgiving, while ink requires the artist to be very purposeful.
Much of her work, however, is in charcoal. It’s perfect for realism, she said, but is dirty and unforgiving.
“I’m washing my hands constantly and vacuuming up the small pieces to control the white space.”
She’s dabbled in acrylic as well and wants to explore that medium more, and is considering trying her hand at black and white oil painting as well. Aside from experimentation in mediums, Brownlee also said she wants to take the next step and move from realism to artwork that viewers will be “more intimately attracted to.”
While many of the pieces on display at the Sandoz Center reflect the western lifestyle, visitors might be surprised by one display – a collection of charcoal works inspired by Star Wars and video game work.
“I am not an adherent to straight up western artwork,” Brownlee said. “I enjoy all subject types.”
The Star Wars-themed works were done for her husband, Ethan, and she made the leather steampunk costume, featuring a neck corset, hatband, sword belt and pleated skirt, for a trip to Omaha Comicon for her video game artwork. She’s explored anime and supernatural dream art, too, and during her recent artist-in-residence appearance was working on a calligraphy design.
It’s one more way she feels connected to her great-great-aunt Mari Sandoz. She wrote about frontier life, but she had other interests and lived in Denver and New York City.
“She’s always been very important. She was a huge part of our family history.”
Brownlee said her grandmother Celia greatly respected Sandoz’s accomplishments and wanted family members to be good representatives of her legacy.
“I think there is truly a genetic trail of talent because there are several artists in the family,” Brownlee said, adding that showing her work at the Mari Sandoz Center holds special meaning.
“It’s neat to be here next to her work.”
Inviting Brownlee to have a showing at the Sandoz Center was an easy decision given her family connection to Mari Sandoz, said Holly Counts. Her work is a great representation of Sandoz, she added.
“You’re seeing a younger generation, but the same type of storyline continues.”
For more about Brownlee, visit rachelbrownlee.com.