There’s a truer vision of the American cowboy taking shape in the likes of novels by Larry McMurtry and in movies such as Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. James Reynolds’ artistic talent and sensitivity to the cowboys, Indians, horses, cattle, and their landscape present a West that is timeless. His paintings are a vivid exploration based on the enduring American symbol of the cowboy.

Considered a “painter’s painter,” Reynolds’ vibrant use of color, composition, and brushstroke are the reason he is regarded as one of the finest artists of the Western experience.

Reynolds’ start is the kind of story found in fiction. He was born in a Standard Oil lease house in 1926 and spent his summers at his grandmother’s Nevada City hotel on the Yuba River, just beyond the infamous Donner Pass, where he heard first-hand tales of adventure. Then he experienced some of his own in World War II service. It was on the long trip home from his station in China that Reynolds accidently fell in love with painting. Following an art degree and years of commercial work in the film industry, he eventually moved to Arizona where he pursued his passion for fine art full time.

In 1992, he became the first artist in the history of the National Academy of Western Art (NAWA) to sweep the awards by winning not only the prestigious Prix de West, but the Gold Medal for Oil Painting and the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers’ Choice Award. Reynolds is also a member of NAWA and an emeritus member of the Cowboy Artists of America. A book of his art, Traildust: Cowboys, Cattle, and Country, was published in 1997.

Southern Arizona

Published by
The Greenwich Workshop
since 1997

Preferred medium: oil

Arizona Cowboys

“I am a realist in every sense of the word, but in painting I lean heavily toward impressionism. As for my goals? I just want to be a good painter and, naturally, leave something worthwhile behind.”

Western