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REVIEWS
Review
from The Seattle Times Entertainment & The Arts
Section, July 23, 2003
Snohomish
County Entertainment, Times Snohomish County Bureau
An
Art-World Star by Diane Wright
MONROE
- A funny thing happened to painter Hulan Fleming on his
way to American realism.
Astronomy.
A
look at Fleming's work is mostly a stroll through
landscapes: Native American idylls in teepees, lake
scenes with maidens in canoes, seascapes with breaking
waves, cowboy pack trips, desert sand dunes, African lions
and tumbleweeds.
But
his hobby, astronomy, has begun to creep into his art.
 The
Monroe-area oil painter has created vivid images of
asteroids, comets, supernovas and galaxies. Some of
his paintings fuse realism with astronomy: Cowboys
on the range tucking into bed around a campfire are doused
with a starry explosion of a meteor shower. And
Fleming has chronicled the scientific revels of a
"star party" -- an amateur astronomical viewing
-- at places such as Table Mountain, near Ellensburg.
A
member of the Seattle Astronomical Society, Fleming is so
committed to astronomy that he and wife Jean hope to buy
four acres where an astronomical community called Arizona
Sky Village is in development near Tucson. The
location, unpolluted by light, has some of the darkest
skies in the United States and is attracting astronomers
to build there.
Fleming's
aptitude for art was apparent by the time he was 15, when
his parents paid for a correspondence program, for which
he regularly aced the "draw me" exercises.
Born in 1933 in Iowa, Fleming moved continually as his
father, a Free Methodist pastor, took different postings.
"Two
years is about all we stayed at one time in one
place," Fleming recalled.
Drafted
into the army at the age of 19, he ended up in France for
two years as a company painter, painting signs and
barracks. He was stationed in Captieux, and that's
where he made his first real oil painting.
In
the land of Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet and Renoir, he copied
a pinup photo of titian-haired 1950's star Rhonda
Fleming. He placed her in a forest setting -- and
made her nude.
"I
took this painting, and I put it out on the log outside of
our barracks to dry in the sun," he said.
The
most flattering first response to Hulan Fleming's art was
theft: It was stolen off the log.
He
has made his living as a painter since 1968, raising a
family of three children on his earnings. He's had
two shows at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, and he's also
been among the top 100 artists five times in the National
Arts for the Parks competition in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
At the National Western Art Show and Auction in
Ellensburg, Fleming was the 2002 poster artist, and that
city's Clymer Museum of Art featured him in a group show
last year.
Fleming
is a longtime supporter of the Fred Oldfield Western
Heritage Center in Puyallup and has shown at the center's
annual Celebration of Western Art Show.
"He's
an excellent artist with a wonderful command of
color," said Joella Oldfield, the center's executive
director.
"I
think people are always drawn to his bold color. He
is one of the more sought-after and respected artists in
the Western art world."
Though
Fleming has joined the Monroe-based Sky Valley Artists'
Guild, he has no gallery representation in the state now.
He
exhibits mostly at invitational art shows, though his work
is currently on display in galleries in Colorado and
Wyoming.
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