Portraiture Workshops with Ron Tarver and Robert Peterson

Join featured artists Ron Tarver (at 1:30pm) and Robert Peterson (at 2:45pm) for presentations and conversations exploring the relationship between humans and horses through portraiture. Learn how each artist captures presence, identity, and connection, while reflecting on the emotional and cultural significance of portraiture across history, and experiment with both photography and painting techniques. Inspired by works in Journeys and Black Cowboys in America, as well as paintings by Edward Hicks, on view in Ever Becoming: Our Stories, Our America and Frederic Remington in Everything Has a Story: Reflections on the Collection.

About Ron Tarver
Ron Tarver is an artist and educator from Oklahoma. A Pulitzer Prize–winning former photojournalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he is now Associate Professor of Art at Swarthmore College. His work, including The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America, has been widely exhibited and is held in major museum collections. Learn more about his exhibition here.

About Robert Peterson
Robert Peterson is a contemporary painter based in Lawton, Oklahoma, known for expressive portraits centered on African American life. His work emphasizes dignity and individuality through a distinctive use of color and tone. Peterson’s paintings are held in major museum collections, and his portrait of Ernest J. Gaines was featured in the U.S. Postal Service Black Heritage stamp series. Learn more about his exhibition here.

Support provided by Art Bridges.