Oil painter Bradley Settles was born in San Antonio and raised on a 300-acre cattle ranch where his family raised prize-winning longhorns. Settles’ work reflects the Western landscape he grew up around.
“I am the land,” he explains. “I am tied to its energy and compelled by its beauty. The depth and scale of my work reminds us that we are but tenants and temporary stewards of a land where ownership can never be possible, as it belongs to the creator.”
West Texas Rains, oil on panel, 42 x 72"
Settles’ paintings earned him the Rising Texas Artist award from a Kerrville art festival. In addition, he had works published in the Baylor University’s Book of Anthropology in 2007, was twice accepted into the Bosque Art Classic, and designed the label artwork and logo for internationally acclaimed Balcones Distilling.
She Stands Alone, oil on panel, 36 x 48”
Collectors can see the extent of Settles’ abilities in pieces like West Texas Rain, depicting heavy rain clouds cascading onto a desert landscape. “We can all see the sky move but only the good steward sees the land move, sees it inhale and exhale with the seasons,” he says. “This is a testament to the promise of the land, with attention and care, all scars will heal. I intend to capture the spirit of the land through the light that dances across its raw and unbridled truth.”
Tornillo, oil on panel, 67 x 42”
Another remarkable piece, She Stands Alone, features both the gorgeous sky Settles is known for, along with a stand-alone longhorn in a grassy field. “I see cattle as old spirits, an embodiment of the West and a memory that will never fade,” he adds. “I am trying to tell a story with my work, one that speaks of the grandeur of this land and the people strong enough to work its soil. This is the West.”
Selected works have been acquired by Stone Oak Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. Current works have been acquired in private collections alongside Porfirio Salinas, Robert Wood, Jose Vives-Atsara, Santa Duran, R.D. Enright and Julian Onderdonk.
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