Each era in the history of the West has produced a small group of artists who have served to define the Western art genre and whose works have struck a particular chord with the public. Today, the market for Western art continues to boom and the Cowboy Artists of America have made the biggest contribution to this phenomenon. The most prestigious and widely recognized group of Western artists in the country, the CAA has defined the parameters of Western art, dictating style, subject matter, and market value. This large-format book features the artwork of more than fifty current and past members of this elite organization of painters and sculptors. Their subjects range from mountain men, early settlers, and Native Americans, to cowboy life of both the old West and the contemporary ranch. The Western landscape's defining character provides an underlying force throughout.

Cowboy Artists of America

Arts & Photography

Duty, Michael

Painting

The Greenwich Workshop Press

Bob Pummill’s paintings capture the grand adventure of the American West—cattle drives, stagecoaches, wagon trains traveling over long stretches of the Western prairies–images that most people associate with the “Old West.” He has spent four decades refining his craft and today is counted among the nation’s finest Western artists. He is a member of the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America and his paintings can be found in major collections throughout the country.  Under Western Skies chronicles Pummill’s entire career and offers a perspective on both Western history and the creative process of painting. The stories found in the book are the individual stories of the American West. Contemplating the paintings in this book gives one the sense of what it would have been like to have been there, to feel the chill in the early morning air, to smell the food cooking on the fire, and maybe even to feel the soreness after a long day in the saddle or on the wagon seat. Under Western Skies presents both the grand panorama of the West and the quieter moments of individuals wrestling a living from a hard, but beautiful land.

Under Western Skies: The Art of Bob Pummill

Individual Artists

National Center American Western Art

Western Traditions is a new book on the art of the American West, an art that attracts not only great artists but passionate collectors, not only nostalgia buffs who revel in the history of the frontier but pragmatists who know that the life of the working cowboy is a solid reality in today's ranching industry. Featuring more than fifty celebrated painters and sculptors, Western Traditions paints a broad picture of this fine art category, showing where it has been, where it is now, and where it is going. Featuring such prominent artists as Glenna Goodacre, Gordon Snidow, Dave McGary, William Acheff, and Gary Niblett, this book belongs in every private and public art library, for it is an important reference as well as a rip-roaring good read.

Western Traditions: Contemporary Artists of the American West

Deats, Suzanne

History & Criticism

SF Design, llc / FrescoBooks

Come to where the Old West meets the New South! Photographer Elan Penn (From Sea to Shining Sea, Washington D.C.) and Michael W. Duty, the Executive Director of the Dallas Historical Society, present a visually enticing tour of the fascinating Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, a growing urban center that still proudly maintains its traditional cowboy roots. Here, frontier history mingles with contemporary art, and a farmer’s market thrives alongside awe-inspiring skyscrapers. Begin in historic Dallas, with its Old Red Museum and Dealey Plaza’s JFK Memorial. Visit museums, music halls, the Texas State Fair, and the Cotton Bowl, as well as the business district, cultural institutions, and the heart of higher learning. Vintage images of the cities as they were enhance Penn’s splendid photos.

Dallas & Fort Worth: A Pictorial Celebration

Photography & Video

Union Square & Co.

The state of Texas is a vast land of tremendous variety. From the lush piney woods of East Texas to the semiarid deserts of West Texas, from the Gulf Coast to the High Plains of the Panhandle, the land, people, and legends of the Lone Star State have inspired an equally diverse group of painters and sculptors.
Texas Traditions brings together both historic and contemporary artists, showcasing their work in more than 200 images as colorful as the men and women who created them. Michael Duty, who selected the artists appearing in the volume, authors a lead essay on historic Texas artists from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries. Susan Hallsten McGarry interviews 36 contemporary artists whose paintings and sculptures pay homage today to the Texas ethos and reveal artistic influences that compel each artist toward his or her unique style and voice.
Texas Traditions is a library addition that refuses to stay on the shelf. Readers will enjoy endless hours of vibrant, moving imagery, Texas geography, and the kind of artistic personalities that reveal why Texas stands out as not only a place but also a persona.

Texas Traditions: Contemporary Artists of the Lone Star State

McGarry, Susan Hallsten

Fresco Fine Arts Pubns

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Books by Duty, Michael