What do Billy the Kid, Hoss Cartwright, Jack Sorenson, Wyatt Earp and Charles M. Russell all have in common? The answer, “They’re all beloved figures that, in one way or another, represent the Wild West. Two of them, Jack Sorenson and Charles M. Russell, are Wild West artists that have managed to touch people’s inner cowboy or cowgirl with their creative visions. 

Born in the 1950s, Jack Sorenson’s wild west art was clearly influenced by his early years, which he spent part of working at his family’s dude ranch and frontier town. It was a popular tourist stop and Sorenson learned early on how to play to the crowd. As such, his Wild West artwork has a great mix of touching and humorous ranch family scenes. It also contains western landscapes, high intensity action shots and wildlife paintings that are sure to stir one’s inner adventurer.

Charles M. Russell, on the other hand, had a much different upbringing than Sorenson. Born in the late 1800s, he spent his teenage years employed by a working sheep rancher and living among the Blood Indians, with nary a tourist in sight. So his Wild West art tends to portray a very realistic view of ranch life in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It shows cowboys working and interacting with Indians, early explorers and animals. That said, art patrons who view his paintings often remark that they are like having a window into our country’s past.

Of course Jack Sorenson and Charles M. Russell are not the only men associated with Wild West art. There are many more and each understandably brings his or her own unique perspective on western life to the table. That’s part of what makes decorating with Wild West art so interesting. Depending on the artist and the subject matter, a wide variety of moods, interests or messages may be conveyed.

Take Jack Sorenson’s horse paintings, like The Bay and A Sound in the Timber for example. They would look lovely hanging in a room filled with saddle furniture, leather flooring and a working fireplace. On the flip side, Charles M. Russell’s Wild West artwork would look amazing hanging in a study filled with history books, antiques from the 1800s, animal hide throw rugs and saddle blankets.

To learn more about Jack Sorenson, Charles M. Russell and other wild west artists’ notable pieces, please visit  Fulcrum Gallery today.

Frederick Remington is one of the most famous practitioners of western art of the past century and a half. Before motion pictures began to color our perceptions of the American West, his paintings, illustrations, and sculptures captured images of the western frontier, of cowboys, Indians, and cavalry troopers who populated the era he was born into and worked as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly.

His focus was on people and animals, especially horses, of the American west, with the landscapes of secondary importance. Many of his oil pieces depict men on horseback moving at various speeds across the canvass, creating a sense of motion and energy that catches the eye and holds the attention.

Remington was just as adroit in executing bronze sculptures, the most famous of which was “The Bronco Buster,” which depicts a cowboy breaking a horse that is busily trying to unseat him.

Remington was born in 1861 in New York where he spent most of his childhood. After some failures at business and a rocky marriage he found his true calling working for Harper’s Weekly, a job that frequently took him to the American west in the 1880's and 1890's, executing some of his subjects from life. Unlike many artists, he was a shrewd businessman and a self promoter, something that redounded greatly to his success. He was an early champion of photoengraving process over wood engraving to reproduce visual art into magazine illustrations. He had an informal agreement with Harper’s Weekly for a first look at his art, but was free to sell it elsewhere.

Unfortunately Remington struggled with obesity all of his life. It eventually killed him in 1909 when he underwent an emergency appendectomy during which his girth complicated the procedure, resulting in peritonitis.

Over a century after his death, Remington remains an iconic artist/chronicler of the American west, capturing in his paintings and sculptures an era and a way of life, perhaps in some ways idealized, that is now long past.