Wyoming-based cowboy painter Grant Redden will be unveiling new work at a solo show opening February 11 at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles. The painter and member of the Cowboy Artists of America will be focusing on nostalgic views of cowboy culture.
In The Piebald Mustang Mare, Redden paints a horse and rider from around the 1920s, a great time for cowboys and Western wear that spoke to a certain look and style.
The Piebald Mustang Mare, oil on panel, 14 x 16”
“It’s a throwback to the cowboys in the early teens and 1920s. Those batwing chaps happen to be my dad’s that I inherited. I have them in a lot of my paintings because I can get a lot out of the texture and reflections,” the artist says.
“I like that era of cowboy with their tall 10-gallon hats and that the Tom Mix-looking style. Even the horses were different back then. They were smaller. For this horse, I really enjoyed that piebald marking on his face.”
Hot Pursuit, oil on panel, 18 x 14”In Trail Through the Ledges, a large work measuring 48-inches wide, Redden paints a horse and rider making their way over rocks at the top of a ridge lined with trees. This work also has a nostalgic feel, but is rooted more in the artist’s own history. “We would do this when I was a kid. We would pack salt and groceries into the Uinta Mountains where herds of sheep would stay for a couple of months. With cattle, you could leave them all season long, but sheep had to be watched by a sheepherder who would put out salt for the sheep every evening,” he says. “The Uintas are south of me in Utah and the whole range runs from east to west there in northern Utah. The photo reference is actually just 30 miles from my house. My model had this beautiful black horse. I don’t typically paint black horses, but if you can pull it off it, can be quite dramatic, as well as a fun challenge.”
Trail Through the Ledges, oil on panel, 32 x 48”Redden’s work has a loose quality to the paint, with occasionally wide brushstrokes loaded with color and emotion. His brush can express quite a bit, with very little paint. “It’s never easy. I just layer and layer everything until I get it right. I wish I could do what John Singer Sargent does and just paint it in a few strokes, but instead, I bat away at it to build up those layers,” he says. “I do like texture, which I get when I drag some colors over others to get those vibrations I’m looking for.”
In Hot Pursuit, the artist was inspired in part by William R. Leigh, who was fond of action scenes and chases. These images also make him think of Hollywood, when out-of-work cowboys would give their days on the range to go to work in the movie business playing cowboys in early silent films. “A lot of those guys were real cowboys, and good ones, too,” Redden says. “Of course, what they were showing wasn’t real life, but it was some cool stuff.” —
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