“Theodore Waddell’s vast (and intimate) canvases represent the pinnacle of contemporary western painting and the telling of his life and work lends rich texture and depth to the evolving narrative of the development of modern and contemporary western art,” said author Rick Newby.

Ultimately, Theodore Waddell’s works are important, not simply because they bring together disparate traditions but because they stand as emotionally and sensuously resonant works of art that speak of landscapes and animals, life and death, austerity and abundance. They possess, in the words of Seattle Times critic Robin Updike, an “immense, poetic dignity.”

This volume also includes a gathering of essays celebrating the life and art of Theodore Waddell by the Montana curators, critics, scholars, poets, and fiction writers who have known him best. Contributors include the Honorable Pat Williams, Robyn Peterson, Bob Durden, Gordon McConnell, Mark Browning, Donna Forbes, Greg Keeler, Patrick Zentz, Scott McMillion, William Hjortsberg, Paul Zarzyski, and Brian Petersen.

Rick Newby has contributed major essays to the exhibition catalogs A Ceramic Continuum: Fifty Years of the Archie Bray Influence and The Most Difficult Journey: The Poindexter Collections of American Modernist Painting. He is the editor of In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph Henry Sharp, by Thomas Minckler.